Rasmus Würtz
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Rasmus Østergaard Würtz | ||
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Aalborg Boldspilklub | ||
| Number | 22 | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 28 March 2007 | |||
Rasmus Østergaard Würtz (born 18 September 1983) is a Danish professional football player, who plays as a midfielder for Aalborg Boldspilklub in the Danish Superliga. Würtz has played five matches for the Denmark national football team, as well as 52 matches for various youth national teams.
Biography
Born in Skive, Würtz played his youth years at hometown club Skive IK. He made his senior debut for the club in the secondary Danish 1st Division league. He represented Denmark in various youth national teams, and competed at the 2000 Under-17 European Championship. Würtz was a part of the Danish squad for the 2001 Under-19 European Championship, where he was one of Denmark's best players.[1] In November 2001, he signed a 3½ year contract with Aalborg Boldspilklub (AaB) in the top-flight Danish Superliga championship.[2]
Würtz was subsequently loaned out to Skive for six months, where he finished the 2001-02 season. In the spring 2002, he was named 2001 Danish Under-19 Player of the Year. He joined AaB in July 2002, and instantly became a mainstay in the first team starting line-up. In his debut season in the Danish Superliga 2002-03 season, he missed only one match, as he played 32 of 33 league games. Würtz made his debut for the Denmark under-21 national team in August 2002. He played 17 under-21 national team matches until February 2005, taking over for Jan Kristiansen as team captain in September 2004.
In his first three seasons at AaB, Würtz only missed four of 99 Superliga games. He debuted for the senior Danish national team on 2 June 2005, in a 1-0 friendly match win against Finland. He came on the pitch as a substitute for Danish team captain Jon Dahl Tomasson, and was supposed to hand over the captain's armband to Thomas Gravesen. When he approached Gravesen, he was told to take the armband himself and thus he captained the Danish national team for the final nine minutes of his debut game.
Having received his senior debut for Denmark, Würtz captained the Danish under-21 national team, as it qualified for the 2006 European Under-21 Championship in May 2006. Following Denmark's exit from the tournament, he ended his under-21 national team career due to age restrictions, having played 29 under-21 national team matches in all. He was nominated for the Danish league national team squad to tour USA, El Salvador and Honduras in January 2007, where he was named team captain, and started in all three games of the tour.
Honours
References
- ^ Flemming Linnebjerg, "Flemming Serritslev: Unge spillere skal matches hårdere", Vejle Amts Folkeblad, 6 October 2001
- ^ Henrik Niss, "Fra Skive til AaB til Skive", Politiken, 20 November 2001