Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard

Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard
Ellegaard in 2014
Personal information
Full name Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard
Date of birth (1983-05-23) 23 May 1983 (age 41)
Place of birth Copenhagen, Denmark
Height 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
Brøndby[1]
Hvidovre[1]
BSV[1]
KB[1]
Nordsjælland[1]
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2002–2005 Manchester City[2] 4 (0)
2005 → Blackpool (loan)[2] 2 (0)
2005–2007 Hertha BSC[4] 2 (0)
2005–2007 → Hertha BSC II 31 (0)
2007–2010 Randers[5] 95 (0)
2010–2011 Heerenveen 28 (0)
2012–2019 IF Elfsborg 216 (0)
2020–2021 Helsingør 52 (0)
2022 AaB 0 (0)
Total 405 (0)
International career
1998–1999 Denmark U16[3] 6 (0)
1999–2000 Denmark U17[3] 17 (0)
2000–2002 Denmark U19[3] 7 (0)
2003–2004 Denmark U20[3] 6 (0)
2004–2006 Denmark U21[3] 20 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard (né Larsen[6] born 23 May 1983) is a retired Danish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

He has played for Manchester City and Blackpool in England, as well as German club Hertha BSC and Dutch club SC Heerenveen.

Ellegaard played 56 games for various Danish youth selections, including 20 games for the Denmark U21 national team. He was named in several squads for the Denmark national team but never made an appearance at senior level.

Club career

Born in Copenhagen, Ellegaard spent his youth years in various Zealand clubs. In July 2002 he moved from Farum BK to Manchester City.[2] In the 2003–04 season, he made two full appearances and two substitute appearances for the club in the league, replacing David Seaman both times when coming on as a substitute.[2] He was loaned out to Blackpool for a month in January 2005, where he played two league matches in League One.[2] Stuhr-Ellegaard moved to Germany to play for Hertha BSC in summer 2005. He had a hard time forcing his way into the starting line-up, and only played two Bundesliga games for the team.[4] He moved to Danish club Randers FC as a free agent in the summer 2007.

In his first half season with Randers, Ellegaard conceded only 15 goals in 18 matches. He went on to play all Randers games in his first two seasons with the club, helping Randers finish sixth in the 2007–08 and fifth in the 2008–09 Superliga season.[5] In the 2009–10 Superliga season, Ellegaard conceded 15 goals in the first seven games, and was dropped from the starting lineup by coach John Jensen in August.[5] As Randers' results did not improve with new goalkeeper Nathan Coe, Ellegaard was reinstated in October 2009,[5] and conceded only eight goals in the 16-game unbeaten run that secured Randers another season in the top flight. Ellegaard left Randers in June 2010 as they could not agree on a new contract.

In season 2010–11, Dutch club SC Heerenveen had big problems with their goalkeepers, so they decided that they needed to contract a new goalkeeper for a short period. First choice keeper Brian Vandenbussche got injured during a training session, which left Heerenveen with only one other keeper, Kenny Steppe. Heerenveen gave Ellegaard a trial at the club, which led to him signing a one-year contract. In the beginning, Heerenveen saw him as a backup keeper behind Steppe, but Ellegard impressed so much in training that the trainer Ron Jans made him first choice. Despite Ellegard playing 28 matches and impressing both the fans and coaching staff with his play, they decided not to renew his contract because Vandenbussche was coming back from his injury.

On 23 January 2012, Ellegaard signed a three-year contract with Swedish club IF Elfsborg as a free agent.

On 24 January 2020, Ellegaard returned to Denmark and signed with Danish 2nd Division club FC Helsingør.[7] He reached promotion to the Danish 1st Division in his first six months with the club.[8] On 22 December 2021, 38-year old Ellegaard announced his retirement from football.[9] However, on 2 May 2022, Ellegaard came out of retirement when he signed a short-term contract with Danish Superliga club AaB for the rest of the season.[10]

International career

Ellegaard made his debut for the Danish under-16 youth national team in September 1998, and went on to represent various youth national teams for a combined total of 56 games.[3] He made his debut for the Denmark U21 national team in September 2004,[3] and represented the team at the 2006 Under-21 European Championship tournament in May 2006.

While at Manchester City, Ellegaard served as a stand-in for Thomas Sørensen in the initial Denmark national team training sessions ahead of the 2004 European Championship.[11] He was not a part of the Danish squad at the tournament. In the fall of 2007, while playing for Randers, Ellegaard was called up as the Danish third choice goalkeeper due to the injury of Jesper Christiansen.[12] In August 2008, Ellegaard was called up for the national team again, due to a new Jesper Christiansen injury.[13]

Career statistics

[14]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Continental Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Manchester City 2003–04 Premier League 4 0 2 0 1 0 – 7 0
2004–05 Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 0
Total 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 7 0
Blackpool (loan) 2004–05 League One 2 0 1 0 0 0 – 3 0
Hertha BSC II 2005–06 Regionalliga Nord 22 0 0 0 – – 22 0
2006–07 Regionalliga Nord 9 0 0 0 – – 9 0
Total 31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 31 0
Hertha BSC 2005–06 Bundesliga 2 0 0 0 0 0 – 2 0
Randers FC 2007–08 Danish Superliga 33 0 – – 33 0
2008–09 Danish Superliga 33 0 – – 33 0
2009–10 Danish Superliga 29 0 – 6 0 35 0
Total 95 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 101 0
SC Heerenveen 2010–11 Eredivisie 28 0 2 0 – – 30 0
IF Elfsborg 2012 Allsvenskan 19 0 – 5 0 24 0
2013 Allsvenskan 29 0 – 11 0 40 0
2014 Allsvenskan 28 0 – 5 0 33 0
2015 Allsvenskan 29 0 2 0 – 6 0 37 0
2016 Allsvenskan 30 0 4 0 – 0 0 34 0
2017 Allsvenskan 29 0 5 0 – 0 0 34 0
2018 Allsvenskan 30 0 2 0 – 0 0 32 0
2019 Allsvenskan 22 0 3 0 – 0 0 25 0
Total 216 0 16 0 0 0 27 0 259 0
FC Helsingør 2020–21 Danish 2nd Division 27 0 0 0 – – 27 0
2021–22 Danish 1st Division 0 0 0 0 – – 0 0
Total 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 27 0
Career total 405 0 21 0 1 0 33 0 460 0

Honours

IF Elfsborg

Individual

  • Randers FC Player of the year: 2007–08
  • Eredivisie ING Fair Play-reward
  • Denmark's best penalty keeper – Recent statistics showed that out of 29 Danish keepers, Ellegaard is the best one in saving penalties, making him a penalty specialist. He is known for his "double save" in a penalty against AFC Ajax. He had a fantastic 45% rate in penalty saves, which made him the best Danish penalty keeper.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Randers FC profile". Archived from the original on 23 November 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d e Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard at Soccerbase
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard - Alle hold (Alle kampe)" (in Danish). Danish Football Association. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard" (in German). fussballdaten.de. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d "Danmarksturneringen, Superligaen, spillerstatistik - Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard" (in Danish). Danish Football Association. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  6. ^ "Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard" (in Danish). dbu.dk. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  7. ^ Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard vender hjem til dansk klub, bt.dk, 24 January 2020
  8. ^ Schmidt, Martin (4 July 2020). "Helsingør rykker op efter gyser i Jammerbugt". www.bold.dk. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  9. ^ Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard stopper karrieren, bold.dk, 20 December 2021
  10. ^ Stuhr-Ellegaard på kontrakt i AaB resten af sæsonen, aabsport.dk, 2 May 2022
  11. ^ Berendt, Lars (24 May 2004). "Gæstespil i Vedbæk" (in Danish). Danish Football Association. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  12. ^ Berendt, Lars (8 September 2007). "Thomas Sørensen på mål mod Sverige" (in Danish). Danish Football Association. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  13. ^ Berendt, Lars (31 August 2008). "Resterende otte spillere klar til landsholdet" (in Danish). Danish Football Association. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  14. ^ "Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard » Club matches". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 1 August 2021.