Loading AI tools
Danish footballer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eigil Louis Marius Ferdinand Nielsen,[1] known simply as Eigil Nielsen (15 September 1918 – 7 September 2000) was a Danish amateur football goalkeeper, who played 28 games for the Denmark national football team and won a bronze medal with Denmark at the 1948 Summer Olympics.[2] He played his club football with KB.[3]
Olympic medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Men's Football | ||
1948 London | Team Competition |
Originally from Esbjerg, Eigil Nielsen was not selected for the Danish national team, until he moved to Copenhagen club Kjøbenhavns Boldklub (KB).[4] At KB, Eigil impressed with his quickness, judgement of ball-flight, and long-range goal kicks.[4] He made his debut for the Danish national team in October 1940, but did enjoy a prolonged run in the team until 1947.[3] He was the starting goalkeeper at the 1948 Summer Olympics, where his long-range goal kick served as an in-direct assist for one of John Hansen's goals in the 5-3 defeat of the Italy national football team.[4] Denmark won bronze medals at the tournament, and Eigil Nielsen was considered on par with legendary goalkeeper Svend Jensen;[4] a status not equalled until Peter Schmeichel in the 1990s.[5] Eigil Nielsen played his 28th and last international game in October 1951.[3]
While playing, Nielsen worked in the shoe and leather industry for additional financial support. This gave him the opportunity to explore and develop his own football designs. As a result, he founded the Select Sport company in 1947, which continues today as one of the world's largest companies producing footballs.[6]
Eigil Nielsen is credited with creating the common 32-panel football design in 1962 using 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal patches.[7][8][9] It quickly became popular when the Adidas Telstar in 1970 became the first football in the World Cup to use the design.
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.