Jesper Ringsborg Christiansen (born 24 April 1978) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

He has previously played for Danish Superliga clubs OB, Vejle, Viborg and Copenhagen, winning four Superliga championships and two Danish Cup trophies with Copenhagen. He has also played for Scottish Premier League club Rangers and Swedish club Elfsborg.

Christiansen was named the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Danish Goalkeeper of the Year. He has played 11 games for the Denmark national team, and represented Denmark at the 2002 and 2010 FIFA World Cup tournaments as an unused understudy of Thomas Sørensen.

Club career

Danish breakthrough Born in Roskilde, Christiansen competed with later national team player Peter Madsen to be the best forward on Zealand in his teenage years. At 17, he did not want the life of a professional footballer, and chose to play amateur football in Serie 3, the fourth lowest level of Danish football. For fun, he tried playing the position of goalkeeper, in which position he caught the attention of higher ranking clubs. Roskilde B 1906 offered him a contract in 1997, and he was Roskilde's goalkeeper for one season, before he followed his coach to Ølstykke.

In 1998, he moved to OB in the second tier of Danish football, the Danish 1st Division. He helped OB win promotion to the top-flight Danish Superliga, where he got his national breakthrough. When OB legend Lars Høgh retired in January 2000, a string of strong displays by Christiansen showed a strong temper and good reflexes. He looked the long term replacement of Lars Høgh, though Christiansen never got the chance to make a decent bid for Høgh's record 817 games for OB. As Scottish club Rangers suffered injuries in their goalkeeping staff, the search for replacements turned to Christiansen, who was eager to move abroad at 22 years of age.

On the bench in Glasgow In Glasgow, he played alongside fellow Dane Peter Løvenkrands, with whom he became good friends,FCK Balls #3, Advice A/S, Jesper Traunberg, 23 May 2006, pp. 100–108 and he played a handful of games in his first time at Rangers, including a few outings in the UEFA Champions League. His league debut was a 3–0 home defeat to Kilmarnock. When first choice goalkeeper Stefan Klos returned from his injury, he once again took control of the goalkeeper spot. Christiansen could not force his way into the starting line-up, and he was put on loan.

His first loan deal with Danish Superliga club Vejle in 2001 was a personal success for Christiansen. Though Vejle was relegated to the 1st Division, he was called up to the Danish national team. After the period in Vejle, Christiansen was loaned out to VfL Wolfsburg."Dane leaves Ibrox on loan" BBC Sport website (23 July 2002) This period was one of the worst in his career, the result being that he was dropped from the national team. He did not play a single first team game for Wolfsburg, and did not make many friends in Germany. Christiansen later said he would rather warm the bench at Rangers, than in Wolfsburg.

Danish success In the winter transfer window of the 2003–04 Superliga season, Christiansen returned to Denmark once more to play for Viborg, following a string of goalkeeper switches; former Viborg goalkeeper Arek Onyszko moving to Odense, replacing Karim Zaza, who had transferred to Brøndby. At Viborg, Christiansen showed the impressive form that he had displayed for Odense and Vejle once more.

Following one and a half years at Viborg, Christiansen moved to Copenhagen (FCK) in the summer of 2005. At FCK, he was assigned the no. 1 jersey as the club's first choice for the goalkeeping position. His debut in the FCK-jersey came on 20 July 2005, keeping a clean sheet as AaB were defeated 1–0 at Aalborg Stadion in Aalborg. In the autumn 2006, he was an important part of FCK's participation in the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League, producing many great saves. This brought renewed interest from foreign clubs, as he and teammate Michael Silberbauer were both rumoured on their way to English club Everton in the 2006 winter transfer window. , Bold.dk, 6 November 2006 The transfer never materialized, and in January 2007, Christiansen expressed his desire to further his career by moving to a club in a bigger league, Jesper Christiansen vil videre – fra FCK , B.T., 16 January 2007 but a new five-year contract cancelled every rumour.

In the opening match of the 2007–08 season, against Nordsjælland at Farum Park, Christiansen was close to score on a header, as it hit the inside of the post, and was parried by Nordsjælland keeper Kim Christensen, after a corner kick deep into extra time. In May 2008 he was linked with a £1 million move to West Bromwich Albion. For the 2009–10 season, FCK bought Johan Wiland as a backup. When Christiansen was injured against Brøndby IF in the seventh Superliga game of the season, Wiland replaced him with such success that Christiansen was permanently demoted to the bench. Media reports suggested he wanted a transfer, and when FCK bought Kim Christensen as a new backup keeper in the Summer 2010, Christiansen was expected to leave the club.

He signed for Elfsborg of the Allsvenskan championship in June 2010.

International career During his time with Vejle, Christiansen was called up for the senior national team by national team manager Morten Olsen. He was chosen for the Danish squad at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan as a backup for starting national team goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen, and was an unused substitute throughout the tournament.

In his time at Viborg, Christiansen was recalled to the Danish national team, and made his national team debut on 2 June 2005, in a 1–0 friendly match win against Finland. He played his second game in October 2005, when he came on as a substitute in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification 2–1 win against Kazakhstan. He quickly established himself as an understudy for Thomas Sørensen, and made a number of appearances at times when Sørensen was injured.

Before the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Christiansen lacked playing time at FCK, and found himself in contention with Kim Christensen for the spot as third goalkeeper in the squad for the finals. Eventually Morten Olsen chose Christiansen for his team, and he spent his time at the tournament as an unused substitute.

Coaching career After Christiansen left Vendsyssel in the summer 2017, he was officially announced as the new assistant manager of Danish 1st Division club AB.Jesper Christiansen ny assistent i AB‚ bold.dk, 8 July 2017 In January 2018, he left AB to become goalkeeper coach at Fremad Amager.Jesper C. ny målmandstræner i Fremad A., bold.dk, 4 January 2018 In 2019, he also functioned as assistant manager for a short period. ”NY” ASSISTENTTRÆNER TIL FREMAD , fremadamagerelite.dk, 4 July 2019

On 15 July 2019, it was announced, that Christiansen had left Fremad Amager because he wanted to stay closer to his family and then became the new goalkeeper coach of Viborg.Christiansen erstatter Lowe som målmandstræner, vff.dk, 15 July 2019 In November 2019, Christiansen was on the bench for Viborg in three games, after first keeper, Ellery Balcombe, was banned with a red card and the third and fourth choices was out with injuries, which left Viborg with only Ingvar Jónsson who was able to play.Jesper Christiansen kan få comeback i Viborg, bold.dk, 5 November 2019 On 13 July 2020, Fremad Amager announced that Christiansen had returned to the club.FREMAD OG JESPER C GENFORENES , fremadamagerelite.dk, 13 July 2020 He left Fremad Amager again in April 2022 as a protest against the club's new owners.Jesper C. stopper pga. nyt Fremad A-ejerskab, bold.dk, 12 April 2022

On 21 July 2022, Christiansen joined Nykøbing as a goalkeeper coach.Jesper Christiansen er ny målmandstræner i Nykøbing, bold.dk, 21 July 2022 In June 2023, Christiansn was appointed manager of Danish amateur club Vejby/Tisvilde Fodbold.Jesper Christiansen om nyt job: Fået smag for trænergerningen, bold.dk, 16 August 2023Jeg har takket ja til at være ny cheftræner for Vejby- .., instagram.com, 14 June 2023 It was the same club that Christiansen also played for a year earlier.Jesper Christiansen gør comeback i Serie 3, bold.dk, 8 April 2022 He left his head coach position in October 2025.

In January 2026, Christiansen returned for his third spell at Fremad Amager, this time as an assistant coach under newly appointed manager John Bredal.Ny trænerstab i Fremad Amager, fremadamagerelite.dk, 6 January 2026

Career statistics + Appearances and goals by club, season and competitionClubSeasonLeagueNational cupLeague cupContinentalTotalDivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsRB 19061997–98Danish 1st Division0000Ølstykke1998–99Danish 2nd Division4000OB1998–99Danish 1st Division00001999–00Danish Superliga00002000–0112000Total12000Rangers2000–01Scottish Premier League30001020602001–0200000000002003–040000000000Total3000102060Vejle B2001–02Danish Superliga140000000140VfL Wolfsburg2002–03Bundesliga0000000000Viborg2003–04Danish Superliga1301000001402004–05330100000340Total460200000480Copenhagen2005–06Danish Superliga33010101404902006–0733050001805602007–0832030001004502008–0931030001104502009–10110000050160Total1400120105802110Career total215020

Honours OB Viasat Divisionen: 1998–99

Copenhagen Danish Superliga: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10 Danish Cup: 2008–09

Individual Danish Goalkeeper of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007 Danish Team of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007

References

External links

Jesper Christiansen official Danish Superliga statistics at danskfodbold.com