Casper Ankergren
Personal information
Full name	Casper Ankergren
Date of birth	9 November 1979 (1979-11-09) (age 30)
Place of birth	Køge, Denmark
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Leeds United
Number	1
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998–2001 2001–2007 2007–	Køge BK Brøndby IF Leeds United	044 00(0) 086 00(0) 101 00(0)
National team2
1995 2000 2006	Denmark U17 Denmark U21 Denmark	02 (0) 03 (0) 00 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 08:24, 10 February 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 14:06, 15 October 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Casper Ankergren (born 9 November 1979 in Køge, Region Sjælland) is a Danish professional football player. He plays as a goalkeeper for English club Leeds United. He has played three matches for the Danish under-21 national team. Ankergren has also had one call up to the Danish national team in 2006 but this has been his only involvement in the national side and he remains uncapped.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Leeds United 2 Honours 2.1 Club 2.1.1 Brondby 2.2 Personal 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

Ankergren started his career with Køge BK in the secondary Danish 1st Division, and represented Denmark at various youth levels. In January 2001, he moved to Brøndby IF in the top-flight Danish Superliga championship. He made his debut in October 2001, and thus played a single match as Brøndby won the 2001-02 Superliga title. Ankergren got his breakthrough with Brøndby following the retirement of club legend Mogens Krogh in December 2002. He played the second half of the 2002-03 season, and helped the club win the 2003 Danish Cup.

For the 2003-04 season, Brøndby bought merited goalkeeper Karim Zaza who became their first choice keeper and Ankergren spent the season as backup keeper. At the start of the 2004-05 season, Zaza suffered an injury and Ankergren went on to play the entire season as Brøndby's starting goalkeeper, even after Zaza had recovered. Ankergren finished the season setting a league record 18 clean sheets in 32 games, and helped Brøndby win the Double of both the 2004-05 Superliga and 2005 Danish Cup titles.

He started the 2005-06 season in the Brøndby goal, but at the winter interval, Zaza was once again promoted to first choice keeper. However, Zaza left the club in the summer of 2006, and Ankergren signed a new three-year contract with the club. Brøndby had a disappointing start to the 2006-07 season, sitting in seventh place at the winter break. However, Ankergren was called up to the Danish national team by national manager Morten Olsen in October 2006, where he served as a backup goalkeeper for Jesper Christiansen. When Brøndby bought former Danish international goalkeeper Stephan Andersen in the January 2007 transfer window, Ankergren announced his decision to leave the club.

[edit] Leeds United

In January 2007, he signed a loan deal with English club Leeds United^[1], who were battling relegation in the Football League Championship. He signed for the remainder of the 2006-07 Football League season, with an option for Leeds to buy him at a fixed transfer fee at the end of the season. Ankergren established himself as a firm favourite with the Leeds fans, putting in a number of match saving saves and performances. His popularity was further increased during the 1-0 victory over Luton Town when he made his second penalty save since joining Leeds. An injury temporarily forced him out of the side with another Leeds loanee goalkeeper Graham Stack taking his place, although Casper retook his place in the side once he regained match fitness. Ankergren soon made it publicly known that he would like to continue his stay at Leeds past his loan spell^[2]; whilst Leeds' manager Dennis Wise stated he would like to keep Casper at the club.

Ankergren transferred to Leeds for an undisclosed fee from Brondby, signing a three year contract on 6 August 2007^[3]. Ankergen has been first choice goalkeeper in the 2007-08 season. On October 8 2007 he won his first award for Leeds, being named Coca Cola League One Player of the Month for September due to his great goalkeeping displays. In the first 18 games of the season, he kept 10 league clean sheets, and went on to keep the Number 1 jersey for another 23 games. Over this short period of time, the Dane has proven to be popular with Leeds fans, keeping a string of clean sheets under then current manager, Gary McAllister.

Casper played in Leeds' first match at the new Wembley Stadium, the 1-0 playoff-final defeat to Doncaster Rovers. He pulled off a string of impressive one-handed saves to keep his side in the match.

Casper took part in Leeds' Pre Season tour of Ireland for the 2008–09 season but had to give way on occasions to give both David Lucas and Alan Martin experience. He started the first four games of the full season but failed to keep a clean sheet as his team conceded 6 goals. He was dropped for the Carling Cup tie against Crystal Palace in favour of Lucas, which Leeds went on to win 4–0. Ankergren also missed out in the following 2–2 draw with Bristol Rovers. He was also dropped for the 5–2 win over Crewe Alexandra again in favour of Lucas, but has since played every minute under new manager Simon Grayson, playing well in the process.

At the start of the 2009-10 season Ankergren started the season as Leeds Uniteds number two goalkeeper behind Shane Higgs. Ankergren made his first appearance of the 2009-10 season coming on as a substitute for Leeds number one goalkeeper Shane Higgs who suffered an injury during the game. Ankergren is set to play a few games after Shane Higgs was ruled out with a thigh injury. Leeds signed goalkeeper Frank Fielding who will act as backup to Ankergren whilst Higgs is injured. Ankergen made his first start of the season against Carlisle United. Ankergren started a second successive game with Higgs still out and he kept a clean sheet in the game against Charlton Athletic. Ankeregren has continued to deputise for the injured Higgs and has played 11 games in all competitions with 6 clean sheets so far.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Club

[edit] Brondby

• Danish Superliga Champions: 2001-2002, 2004-2005

• Danish Cup Winners: 2002-2003, 2004-2005

[edit] Personal

• Four Four Two Best 50 Football League Players 2008: 46th^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Casper Ankergren career stats at Soccerbase
• Danish national team profile
• (Danish) Brøndby IF profile
• Career stats by Danmarks Radio

v • d • e Leeds United A.F.C. – current squad 1 Ankergren · 2 Crowe · 3 Kisnorbo · 4 Doyle · 5 Rui Marques · 6 Naylor (c) · 7 Prutton · 8 Kilkenny · 9 Beckford · 10 Becchio · 12 Higgs · 13 Grella · 14 Howson · 15 Vokes · 16 Johnson · 17 Michalík · 18 Robinson · 19 Parker · 20 Kandol · 21 Showunmi · 22 Hughes · 23 Snodgrass · 24 Huntington · 25 A. Martin · 26 Bromby · 28 Gradel · 30 Capaldi · 31 Webb · 32 White · 33 Falkingham · 34 Jones · 36 D. Martin · — Ephraim · Manager: Grayson