Steen Blicher (footballer)

Steen Blicher (22 November 1923 – 24 October 2018) was a Danish amateur footballer who played in the left half-back position. Blicher played eight games for the Denmark national football team,[2] and was the captain of the Danish team at the 1952 Summer Olympics.[3]

Blicher was a technically limited player, who more than compensated through an immense fighting spirit.[4] He played his club football in Copenhagen with KFUM's Boldklub and later Akademisk Boldklub (AB). In AB, his favorite half-back position was occupied by Danish international Ivan Jensen, and Blicher played some matches as a left winger. When Ivan Jensen turned professional following the 1948 Summer Olympics, Blicher replaced him as the AB left half-back.[4] Blicher was a part of the AB team which won the Danish Championship in 1947,[5] as well as 1951 and 1952.[6]

Blicher made his debut for the Danish national team on May 12, 1951, in a 1-3 defeat to the Scotland national football team.[2] In the last warm-up game before the 1952 Summer Olympics, the Danish team captain, Knud Lundberg, was removed from the position, and Blicher was assigned the position.[7] As Lundberg was Blicher's captain at AB, it was an awkward appointment, but Blicher led the team well through example.[4] Denmark was eliminated by the Yugoslavia national football team in the quarter-finals by 3-5, which was Blicher's last international game.