Jump to content

Jan Mølby

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jan Mølby
Mølby in 2012
Personal information
Full name Jan Mølby[1]
Date of birth (1963-07-04) 4 July 1963 (age 61)[1]
Place of birth Kolding, Denmark
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1982 Kolding 40 (0)
1982–1984 Ajax 57 (11)
1984–1996 Liverpool 218 (44)
1995 → Barnsley (loan) 5 (0)
1995 → Norwich City (loan) 3 (0)
1996–1998 Swansea City 41 (8)
Total 364 (63)
International career
1979 Denmark U-17 6 (2)
1980–1981 Denmark U-19 9 (0)
1981–1983 Denmark U-21 7 (0)
1982–1990 Denmark 33 (2)
Managerial career
1996–1997 Swansea City
1999–2002 Kidderminster Harriers
2002 Hull City
2003–2004 Kidderminster Harriers
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Jan Mølby (Danish pronunciation: [ˈmølpy]; born 4 July 1963) is a Danish former professional footballer and manager. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1982 to 1998. After starting his career with Kolding, he moved on to Ajax before spending twelve years playing in England with Liverpool. He was capped 33 times by Denmark, scoring twice.

After leaving Liverpool he became player-manager of Swansea City, where he spent two years, and then managed Kidderminster Harriers, guiding them to promotion to the Football League in 2000. He later had a brief spell as manager of Hull City and then a brief spell back in charge of Kidderminster Harriers.

Club career

[edit]

Born in Kolding,[1] Mølby started his senior playing career at Kolding, before joining Ajax and then Liverpool.

Mølby began to establish himself as a regular and successful penalty taker, starting with two penalties converted at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the league on 28 September 1985. Other fine performances included a brace in open play in a 3–0 home win over Aston Villa in the league on 7 December, and two goals (one a penalty) as they eliminated Manchester United from the Football League Cup in a 2–1 win at Anfield in late November.[2][3]

In 1988–89, Mølby returned to regular first team football, playing in central defence in the absence of the injured Alan Hansen, and scoring the winning goal against Manchester United at Anfield in the second league game of the season. However, in October 1988 he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for reckless driving following an incident earlier in the year.[4]

Over the first three Premier League seasons (Mølby's last), he started just over 30 games in total and all his goals came from penalties, including one in Liverpool's first game of the 1994–95 season when Mølby opened the scoring with a penalty in a 6–1 away win against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.[5]

Early in the 1995–96 season, manager Roy Evans loaned him out to Barnsley and Norwich (where he scored once in the League Cup against Birmingham City),[6] and in February 1996, he finally called time on more than a decade at Liverpool to take over as player-manager of Swansea City. Just before taking the job at the Vetch Field, Ron Atkinson unsuccessfully tried to sign him for Coventry City.[7]

While at Liverpool, he scored a total of 62 goals, 42 of which were from penalties. During Mølby's time with Liverpool, he only failed to score three times from the penalty spot (penalties against Sheffield Wednesday and QPR in 1985–86 and Chelsea in 1989–90 were saved). His record as a penalty-taker in the top flight is thought to be second only to Matthew Le Tissier. He held the club record of most penalties scored by a Liverpool player until Steven Gerrard surpassed his record in August 2014.[8]

Managerial career

[edit]

Mølby became manager of Swansea City in February 1996 but was sacked in October 1997 along with his assistant, Billy Ayre. He had taken Swansea to the Division Three playoff final five months earlier, but they lost to a last-minute goal by Northampton Town's John Frain. A dismal start to the 1997–98 season had seen Swansea struggling near the foot of the Football League, and the board decided that it was time for a new manager to be appointed, asserting that the team's good performances the previous season were more down to Mølby's qualities as a top class player, rather than as a manager.[9]

Following Kenny Jackett's resignation as Swansea manager in early 2007, Mølby was linked with a return to the club. However, Mølby has responded by saying that he is unlikely to ever return to football management.[10]

Recent years

[edit]

In April 2009, Mølby was made an 'Honorary Scouser' by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.[11]

Mølby appears on a podcast called "Mølby on the Spot" presented by Trevor Downey from a field in rural Ireland.[12]

A running gag of comedian Troy Hawke (Milo McCabe) as he performs as a street greeter is that he was sent by Mølby, the "non-consensual CEO of the Greeter's Guild." The two men met at the public unveiling of a Mølby mural in Liverpool in March 2023.[13]

International career

[edit]
Appearances and goals by national team and year[14]
National team Year Apps Goals
Denmark 1982 3 0
1983 2 0
1984 7 0
1985 5 0
1986 9 0
1987 2 2
1988 2 0
1989 1 0
1990 2 0
Total 33 2

Honours

[edit]

Player

[edit]
Mølby (centre) playing for Ajax against rivals Feyenoord in 1982

[15] Ajax

Liverpool

Swansea City

Individual

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "Jan Mølby". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  2. ^ "LIVERWEB - Liverpool Results 1985-86". Archived from the original on 20 January 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  3. ^ "Golden goal: Jan Molby for Liverpool v Manchester United (1985)". Guardian. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  4. ^ "Football's Hall of Shame". BBC. 14 December 2001. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  5. ^ Benammar, Emily (17 August 2009). "Premier League's worst defeats on season-opening weekend". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  6. ^ Shaw, Phil (24 January 1996). "Daish in at the death". The Independent. London. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  7. ^ "YOU'RE THE JAN TO CHEER UP RON; Coventry bid for Molby. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  8. ^ "Stats: Reds close in on magic 100". Liverpool FC. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  9. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 October 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ^ "Molby rules out return to Swansea". BBC News. 16 February 2007. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  11. ^ "Liverpool's footballing legends among first round of Honorary Scousers". Liverpool Echo. 3 April 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  12. ^ "Molby on the Spot". August 2017.
  13. ^ "We ask Troy Hawke "why Jan Molby?" as new mural unveiled for "Scousest Dane"". 18 March 2023.
  14. ^ "Jan Mølby". National Football Teams. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  15. ^ "Liverpool career stats for Jan Mølby - LFChistory - Stats galore for Liverpool FC!". www.lfchistory.net. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  16. ^ Fox, Norman (25 May 1997). "Football: Swansea run over by Frain". The Independent. Independent Digital News & Media. Archived from the original on 27 October 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  17. ^ Hugman, Barry J., ed. (1997). The 1997–98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile. Harpenden: Queen Anne Press. p. 317. ISBN 978-1-85291-581-0.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jan Mølby.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jan_Mølby&oldid=1283296398"