Personal Information

Biography

Casper 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. Casper 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 Casper spent the season as backup keeper. At the start of the 2004-05 season, Zaza suffered an injury and Casper went on to play the entire season as Brøndby's starting goalkeeper, even after Zaza had recovered.

He 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.

Casper 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.

In January 2007, he signed a loan deal with English club Leeds United who were battling relegation in the Football League Championship. Casper 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.

Casper 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. Casper made it known that he wanted to continue his stay at Leeds past his loan spell; whilst then Leeds' manager Dennis Wise stated he would like to keep him at the club.

Casper Ankergren transferred to Leeds for an undisclosed fee from Brondby, signing a three year contract on 6 August 2007. Casper went on to be first choice goalkeeper in the 2007-08 season.

On October 8th 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.

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.

Honours

• Danish Superliga: 2002, 2005
• Danish Cup: 2003, 2005
• English Coca Cola League One Play-off finalist: 2008

History