02/07/2024 06:01hs. Updated on 02/07/2024 09:02hs.
Euro 1992 final. Denmark, the absolute surprise of the tournament, with players who were on holiday and had to travel in a hurry to the event in Sweden, breaks all predictions: they beat Germany 2-0 in Gothenburg. It is the greatest moment in Danish sporting history (a country where a large part of the population plays handball). It is, in fact, the moment that every footballer is waiting for. Every footballer except Lars Elstrup. On the bench, throughout the final, the only thing he has hoped for is that coach Richard Nielsen does not call him to come on. He is not injured. Feel something else: fear.
He scored a key goal against Cantona’s France in a historic 2-1 victory.
“It all started maybe two days before the final. Up until that point I was really looking forward to playing, even to being in the starting line-up. But something changed and I didn’t want to play that final in any way.”he told the Tribal Football website. This striker, who played for Feyenoord and before that Euro had been the hero of the English Luton Town by saving them from relegation, also He told his story in an autobiography whose title says it all: “The Unhappy Hero.”
“There was no way I wanted to play in that final,” Elstrup said.
“I was afraid, very afraid of failing. What if I missed a great opportunity and we didn’t win?” Elstrup said. He revealed that he was not even able to enjoy the celebrations that followed that conquest for days. So while his colleagues were getting drunk or parading around Danish TV shows telling of their feat, a dark cloud settled over Lars Elstrup.
He published his autobiography: “The Unhappy Hero.”
The impossible champion…
It was only ten days before the start of the 1992 European Championship that UEFA, due to the Balkan War, withdrew Yugoslavia from the competition (it had a very good crop of players, who had just been eliminated by the Argentine national team in the quarter-finals of Italy 90). It was all so last minute that, in fact, the Yugoslav team was already in Sweden to play in the tournament. Denmark, who had finished second behind the Yugoslavia in Group 4 of the qualifiers, then took their place.. Of course, that European summer, the entire squad was already on vacation. Coach Nielsen, who had been appointed because ten other coaches had refused to take charge of the national team, had to make an emergency call-up. Goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, defender Lars Olsen, midfielder John Jensen and striker Flemming Poulsen found out while they were on the beach, left-back Henrik Andersen was out for a walk in Italy and Brian Laudrup had already booked his tickets to go with his family to the USA when his wife told him that he had been called by phone to report to the national team because he had been called up to play in the European Championship.
The celebration after being champions in Sweden.
Brian’s brother, Michael Laudrup, the great figure of the national team and probably the best player in Danish history, refused to go. The Danish star, who had just won the Champions Cup (now the Champions League) with Barcelona, was at odds with the national team’s coach. But he also said that he did not believe in improvisation.
The coach called up the players who accepted the call-up at the Danish Football Union training camp on the outskirts of Copenhagen. “We are going to Sweden to win the Euro Cup,” he told them. The players laughed in his face. “It was hard not to laugh,” Brian Laudrup would say. But it was impossible: the group included England (semi-finalist at Italia 90), the host Sweden and France (winner of Euro 84). “We weren’t prepared,” Lars Elstrup himself said. “They called us up at the last minute and we hadn’t prepared ourselves mentally or physically for a tournament of that magnitude.”
The line-up of that 1992 team. The stars were goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and Brian Laudrup.
So a team without great aspirations and without its star player travelled to Sweden amid total disbelief. And they travelled with some concessions: At that tournament, players shared the training camps with their wives and families, were allowed to drink beer from time to time, and agreed not to be overwhelmed by long tactical talks.. This is how they jumped onto the field.
The debut was a surprising 0-0 draw against England, then a 1-0 defeat to Sweden and then a miraculous 2-1 win against the France of Deschamps, Jean Pierre Papin and Cantona (directed by Platini), with a goal, about ten minutes from the end, from… Lars Elstrup. Yes. Without Elstrup’s goal, Denmark would never have won that title. “When you win a football match, whether you are 12 or 29, and you score a decisive goal, it is a great feeling. This goal turned out to be important and we had the attention of an entire nation.”
Denmark finished second in the group behind Sweden and thus qualified for the semi-finals. (At the time, the Euros were contested by just eight teams.) On 22 June, they pulled off another major upset: they beat the Netherlands, led by Gullit, Van Basten, Ronald Koeman, Rijkaard and Bergkamp, on penalties. The Netherlands had finished first in the other group, and Lars Elstrup took a penalty in that tie. He scored.
Denmark surprised the world by beating Germany 2-0 in the final, after winning Italy 90.
In the final, held on June 26 at the Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg, the feat was accomplished: Denmark surprised the world and was crowned champion with that 2-0 against Germany Jürgen Klinsmann and Andreas Brehme, who – Codesal included – had just won the World Cup in Italy just two years earlier. The scorer of the final 2-0 was Kim Vilfort, a Brøndby IF attacking midfielder, who had left the training camp a few days earlier due to the death of his seven-year-old daughter, who was ill with leukaemia. He decided to return to Sweden to play in the final and led Denmark to the title.
“There was no way I wanted to play in that final”
Contrary to what one might think, it was from that moment of glory and consecration that Lars Elstrup’s career – his life – went downhill. So much so that just a year after that unforgettable title, in 1993, he decided to retire, at the age of 30. He joined the community of a supposed Indian guru, where he changed his name. He was expelled from that community for several incidents, including urinating in public and threatening to “gouge out” a bus driver’s eyes.
After retiring, he lived on a boat for several years.
“There was a time when I saw grass coming out of the shower drain.”
He had a failed attempt to return to football and even tried to form his own spiritual and therapeutic community. He lived for several years on a boat and hit the headlines when he was arrested in Odense and Trafalgar Square, in the heart of the United Kingdom, for walking around naked doing juggling. However, his most resounding scandal was in the middle of a match: in August 2016, during a match between Randers – the club where he had come up – and VF Silkeborg. He jumped onto the field completely naked. To everyone’s amazement, he ran across the grass and tried out several yoga poses, the most notable of which was the handstand – a vertical one, performed in the middle of a central circle – until he was arrested by security agents without resistance. The episode cost him 60 days of probation. He fell into depression. He spent years lying in bed, barely able to get up, barely even taking a bath. “There was a time when I saw grass coming out of the shower drain.”
When he entered a match naked in Denmark in 2016.
A few days ago, at 61 years old, in an interview with Tribal Football, he said: “I have divided my life into phases and this last one has already lasted more than two years. Today I am stronger than ever. My coach, Richard Nielsen, who led Denmark to the title in 1992, once said: ‘The only bad thing about Lars is that he doesn’t know how good he is’. I guess he was right.
“I’ve lived my life in phases,” says Lars Elstrup.
2024-07-02 09:01:34
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