Karl Aage Hansen

Danish footballer (1921 1990)

Bronze medal – 1948 Summer Olympics 1948 London]]

Karl Aage Hansen (4 July 1921 – 23 November 1990) was a Danish football player, who played as a forward. He won a bronze medal with the Denmark national football team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. He scored 17 goals in 22 games for the Danish national team, and was Danish team captain on 17 occasions. He got his breakthrough as an amateur player in Danish club Akademisk Boldklub, but moved abroad in 1948 to play professionally for a number of European clubs, including Juventus FC and UC Sampdoria in Italy and Huddersfield Town in England.

Karl Aage Hansen had a strong physique, and was a good dribbler with excellent technique, who played in the inside forward position. When he moved from KFUM Boldklub to play football for Akademisk Boldklub (AB), he moved from KFUM Handball to HG Handball, where most of his AB teammates played. Hansen won the Danish handball championship with HG and represented the Denmark men's national handball team. Hansen's preferred sport was football, as well as the 1946–47 Danish 1st Division. He was called up to the first Danish national team assembled after the Second World War in June 1945, and only missed a single of Denmark's next 15 games until June 1947. In these 14 games, Hansen scored 13 goals and was likewise named team captain in 13 games. In the run up to the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, Hansen missed a few international games due to injury. He returned to the final warm up game, scoring two goals as Denmark beat the Poland national football team 8–0. Hansen was considered the most important player of the Olympic team, with his leadership skills, great work rate, creative passing, and ability to score goals. Karl Aage Hansen only played two additional international games for Denmark, before he signed a professional contract, and was banned from the amateur only national team selection.

Hansen's first year abroad was spent at Huddersfield Town, which narrowly avoided relegation from the top flight 1948–49 Football League First Division. In 1949, Hansen moved to Italy to play for Atalanta Bergamo, and received a transfer fee of approximately DKK150,000. as Atalanta finished in eight place of the 1949–50 Serie A season. For the next season, Hansen moved on to defending Serie A champions Juventus FC, where he was to play alongside fellow Danish Olympians John Hansen and Carl Aage Præst. As a part of his contract, Karl Aage demanded a clause to let him change clubs on a free transfer.