Jørn Bjerregaard

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Johnny Bjerregaard
Personnel
Surname Jørn Bjerregaard
birthday January 19, 1943
place of birth Vejle ,  Denmark
position attack
Juniors
Years station
1954-1952 Aarhus GF
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1962-1966 Aarhus GF
1966-1972 SK Rapid Vienna 151 (96)
1972-1975 SC Eisenstadt 84 (25)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1961 Denmark U-19 3 0(0)
1962-1966 Denmark U-21 5 0(2)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1976-1977 Aarhus GF
1 Only league games are given.

Jørn "Johnny" Bjerregaard (born January 19, 1943 in Vejle ) is a former Danish football player and coach .

In Austria he is known almost exclusively by his nickname "Johnny". Along with Josef Uridil , Franz "Bimbo" Binder and Hans Krankl, he is one of the greatest goal getters in Rapid history.

Player career

Career start in Denmark

Growing up in the suburbs of Aarhus , he joined the great Aarhus GF at the age of 12, which were considered Denmark's best team in the 1950s. In addition to football, he began studying economics , which he prematurely finished in the mid-1960s in favor of sport. In 1962 he made his debut for Aarhus in the first Danish league. With 13 goals in his first year he was the club's second top scorer straight away. This was followed by 16 goals this season in the 1963/64 season. Aarhus had a top striker again, but the “golden days” were over. If you were still a series champion until the end of the 1950s, you had to admit defeat to the new top team Esbjerg fB . In 1964 they completed their last strong season, in which they only narrowly had to admit defeat to the surprise champion Boldklubben 1909 in the end. In 1965 Bjerregaard celebrated his first title win by winning the cup. In the league he was again the offensive star of the team with 17 goals this season. This was not hidden from the Austrian trainers Rudolf Strittich (Esbjerg fB) and Walter Pfeifer, who were engaged in Denmark and recommended him as a reinforcement to SK Rapid Vienna .

Change to Rapid

After observing the Rapid officials, he was then presented with a contract offer, which he only accepted after making improvements. With that he had signed his first professional contract, since a professional league was only introduced in Denmark in 1978. In general, such a move was a big step, as the Austrian league was clearly superior to the Danish at the time. This quickly raised doubts about the player's abilities, which he knew how to eliminate immediately.

In his first game for Rapid he scored three goals against Kapfenberger SV and three more in the first round of the European Cup against Galatasaray Istanbul . Rapid then played in a 3-2-5 offensive network, in which Bjerregaard was able to line up fabulously right from the start. With his storm partners August Starek , Rudolf Flögel , Toni Fritsch and Walter Seitl , he then formed the "Hütteldorfer Traumsturm", which was to dominate the league for years.

Goal against Real Madrid

In the following 6 years he won two championship titles with the club, was three times cup winner and 1968 top scorer of the league and twice reached the round of 16 in the European Cup .

However, his greatest moment of glory followed in the 1968/69 European Cup season. After a 1-0 win against Real Madrid in Vienna , the “White Ballet” was already 1-0 in the second leg before Bjerre (as he was often called for short) was able to equalize with a long shot in the 50th minute of the game. Real only managed to make it 2-1 in the 82nd minute of the game, Rapid was through the away goal rule through. After this goal he received various contract offers from Spain and also wanted to change. Shortly before the signing of the contract, however, the restrictions on foreigners in the Spanish league were tightened, which meant that any transfer failed. Bjerregaard then stayed with Rapid. In the 1970/71 season, 19-year-old Hans Krankl made his first appearance in the Rapid jersey due to an injury to Toni Fritsch. As a result, Bjerregaard and Krankl, two of the greatest rapid goal-getters of all time, were on the same team this season. Krankl was awarded to the WAC the following season, which meant that there was no further interaction.

When Ernst Hlozek was introduced as the new coach at Grün-Weiß in the 1971/72 season , his time at the record champions slowly came to an end. After Bjerregaard announced to Hlozek after an injury that he might not be fit for the next away game against the GAK , the latter accused him of “lapping” and only let him train with the juniors, which amounted to a humiliation. The next dispute followed in May 1972. Bjerregaard had just shot the eternal rival FK Austria Wien with four goals from the Austrian Cup competition, but still had to sit on the bench in the following league game, which finally severed the bond between player and coach. When the club also graced with the extension of his contract, Bjerregaard took the scepter into his own hands and offered himself by telephone to league competitor SC Eisenstadt , who had made him a contract offer six months earlier.

Career finale in Eisenstadt

Amid protests by Rapid fans, he then moved to the capital of Burgenland. After 23 goals this season in his first season for Eisenstadt, he retired to midfield the following year before ending his successful career as a sweeper at the age of only 32. The reason for the end of his career were physical problems that Bjerregaard claims to have deprived him of the desire to play football.

In his great career he was able to book 96 league, 23 cup and eight European cup goals for Rapid. In 1968 he was the top scorer and in 1968 and 1970 Kronen Zeitung - footballer of the year.

National team

During his time at Aarhus Bjerregaard also received national team honors, albeit only at youth level. On January 15, 1961 he made his debut for the Danish U-19 national team in the bitter 5-1 defeat against Norway. Less than a month later, the team including Bjerregaard made up for the defeat with a 5-0 shooting match against Finland.

Between 1962 and 1966 he then ran a total of five times for the Danish U-21 national team. On September 14, 1963, he took revenge against Norway when he scored twice for Denmark in a 5-2 win.

Bjerregaard never played in an official game for the Danish national football team . The simple reason: By moving to Rapid, he became a professional player. However, since “pure profit” only found its way into Denmark in 1978, the strict amateur idea prevailed beforehand, which included not nominating professional players for the national team.

Coaching career

In 1976 Bjerregaard was persuaded to work as a coach with his old love Aarhus GF . Despite a successful year in the second division, in which he was able to celebrate promotion to the 1st division with Aarhus as runner-up, he resigned from his position after only one year and returned to Austria. It should be his only coaching station.

Others

  • With the exception of his brief interlude as Aarhus coach, he stayed in Austria after his playing career. The reason for this was his wife Aase, who liked Austria better than Denmark.
  • Until his retirement he worked as a consultant for the Lower Austrian regional travel agency.
  • He refuses to go to stadiums because the atmosphere in the Austrian stadiums, especially at Rapid, has become too rough for him. Above all, discriminatory choirs would have spoiled his pleasure in the live games.
  • His best friend in Rapid's times was the then Viennese sports club legionnaire Finn Laudrup , with whose son Michael , who later became a Danish superstar, he said he often played soccer in his living room.
  • Bjerregaard's son, Carsten Bjerregaard , was also a professional footballer who played a total of 40 times for Vienna and Admira Wacker in the Austrian Bundesliga between 1990 and 1995 . Born in Austria, he made his debut on September 3, 1991 in the 3-2 defeat against Portugal for the Austrian Olympic team. As a result, however, the big breakthrough was denied and he spent most of his career in the 2nd and 3rd leagues in Austria. Most recently he was the trainer of 1. SC Sollenau.

successes

As a player

In the club

National

International

As a trainer

  • 2nd division
    • 1 × promotion to the 1st division with Aarhus GF

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Segment: toilet in the corridor, goal against Real
  2. ↑ Jørn Bjerregaard U-21 / U-19 landskampe ( Memento from March 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Living room kick with Michael Laudrup
  4. ↑ rapidarchiv.at: Interview with Johnny Bjerregaard
personal data
SURNAME Bjerregaard, Jørn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bjerregaard, Johnny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish football player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Vejle , Denmark