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Martin Laursen

He is a Danish football player. He plays as a defender. He is also playing for the Denmark national team.

Martin Laursen (born July 26, 1977 in Fårvang, Denmark) is a Danish professional football player who plays as a defender for Aston Villa. Laursen has been capped 41 times and scored one goal for the Denmark national football team, whom he has represented in the 2002 FIFA World Cup and two European Championship tournaments.
Laursen started his senior career with Danish club Silkeborg IF, whom he helped steer to second place in the 1997-98 Superliga season. After three seasons at Silkeborg, he moved to Italy to play for then Serie B outfit Hellas Verona in August 1998. The contact with Verona was mediated by former Verona player and Silkeborg manager Preben Elkjær. Laursen was plagued by a knee injury for the majority of his first season at Verona, where the club won promotion to the top-flight Serie A. Laursen conquered a place in the starting line-up during his second season in Italy, and he made his debut for the Denmark national team in a friendly match against Portugal in March 2000. He was a part of the Denmark squad at the 2000 European Championship (Euro 2000), though he did not play a single game due to injury.
Seeking a high profile move, Parma, who already jointly owned Laursen with Verona, made a successful bid for his services. Following only three weeks of training at the club, Laursen was eventually picked up by A.C. Milan in a £8.7 million bid, who needed depth in their squad due to injuries. Laursen started out strong for his new club, scoring two goals in his first four league matches, but as Milan's regular defenders came back from injury, he saw his playing time diminishing.
Laursen's breakthrough with the national team came at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, when he played full time in all four Denmark games before elimination. Laursen scored his first goal for his country in September 2003, in the Euro 2004 qualifying tournament, an all-important goal in injury time of the penultimate qualification match. His goal levelled the game with Romania to 2-2, and kept Denmark in the race for a place at the final competition. Laursen and the Denmark team secured qualification when they drew the last game, thus winning their qualification group.
Though winning silverware with A.C. Milan in 2003, Laursen failed to appear in the 2002-03 UEFA Champions League final. Due to the presence of Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta, Laursen failed to establish himself in Milan's first team in the long run.
On May 21, 2004, he was bought by English Premiership side Aston Villa F.C. for three million pounds, on a four-year contract. He played a solid Euro 2004 for Denmark, again playing full time in all Denmark's games, before he moved to play for Aston Villa. His debut with Villa came against Southampton F.C. on August 14, 2004, a match which ended 2-0 in Villa's favour.
Laursen's time at Villa however has proven frustrating. He made a few encouraging performances on and off, during the 2004-05 season, but the knee injury that has plagued him earlier in his career returned and kept Laursen at playing a single match for Aston Villa during the 2005-06 season. After a re-occurrence of the knee injury during the summer 2006 off-season, his playing future at club and international level was seen to be in doubt. He underwent a full rehabilitation in Bologna, where he spent most of the 2005-06 season, and returned to the Aston Villa side in August 2006.
After his absence from the Danish national team for more than one and a half years, he was called up in November 2006, but had to withdraw due to yet another knee injury.

Aston Villa
26 July 1977
Source: Wikipedia