Harald Hansen

Harald Hansen joined the junior team of B.93 København in 1896 at the age of 11 and played his entire career – until 1917 – as a defender for the club from København (Copenhagen). He was on the club’s first team from 1899-1916 and won the national championship in 1916. During this time he played 117 matches and scored 43 goals.

Hansen had already been nominated for the 1906 Intercalated Games but did not play in any of the matches. His international début came at the 1908 Olympics. After two hands-down victories against the two French teams, Denmark was defeated in the final by Great Britain (England) by 2-0 winning silver. Hansen played in all three matches. He won his second silver at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Here, Denmark had a bye in round one and defeated Norway and the Netherlands convincingly to reach the final, which they lost 4-2 to Great Britain (England) winning Olympic silver. Hansen again played in all three matches of the Danish team. Except at the Olympics, he played just one more international match, when Denmark beat England 2-1, the team’s first international match on home soil in 1910.

In cricket, Hansen was regarded as one of Denmark’s best batsmen in the years around 1910. After his active career, Hansen became a gymnastics teacher in 1922 at a private school in Aarhus, where his older brother Axel Hansen was head coach. Harald Hansen worked as a coach for clubs in Horsens, Randers and Tranbjerg on Denmark’s mainland. From 1925-27, he was also coach of Aarhus Gymnastikforening (AGF), which lost the final of the Danish national football championship in 1925.

Hansen died at the age of just 43 from a heart attack. A memorial match was then played between B.93 and a selected KBU team, the 8,000 spectators created a profit of 4,500 kroner for his widow.