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An interesting little project for a Danish speaker would be a translation of these books by Carl Hansen into English. The Danish international joined Rangers in 1921 and spent three years in Scotland, one of the earliest foreigners to play here. He was widely known in Denmark as Carl Skomager (or Skoma'r), ie shoemaker.
I've picked up enough Danish watching the likes of Borgen and The Bridge to work out some anecdotes in his life, and he goes into great detail about his time in Scotland. He arrived at Leith on the boat without speaking any English other than 'Yes' or 'No', to be met by Rangers manager Bill Struth who drove him to Glasgow. He made his debut in some style against Queen's Park at Hampden, scoring a hat trick in a 3-2 win on 22 November 1921 (it was a match in the Lord Provost's Rent Relief Cup). However, he never really established himself as first choice, playing just 23 league matches over three seasons, with a broken leg effectively ending his career.
His time at Rangers was influential enough for him to choose an aerial photo of Ibrox on his autobiography Et liv i fodbold (A life in football) which came out in 1954. The stadium is packed, but there is nobody on the pitch, and the picture seems to have been taken during a sports meeting.
More poignantly, in 1945 he had published a much darker volume Carl Skomager i tysk Faengsel (in a German prison) which details his wartime experiences, including four months imprisonment by the Nazis. When arrested he was taken to Kastellet, the old fortress in Copenhagen, having already been beaten up. Putting his bleeding hand into his trouser pocket he felt a small badge which he knew he had to get rid of, and surreptitiously threw it into the fireplace: 'Det var Scottish Football-Associations Maerke, og havde Tyskerne funded det paa mig, var det sikkert blevet mig en dyr Historie'. (It was a Scottish Football Association badge, and if the Germans had found it on me, there would certainly have been more blood in this story). So, perhaps somewhere in this Danish castle, a little SFA badge or medal lies waiting to be discovered!
I've picked up enough Danish watching the likes of Borgen and The Bridge to work out some anecdotes in his life, and he goes into great detail about his time in Scotland. He arrived at Leith on the boat without speaking any English other than 'Yes' or 'No', to be met by Rangers manager Bill Struth who drove him to Glasgow. He made his debut in some style against Queen's Park at Hampden, scoring a hat trick in a 3-2 win on 22 November 1921 (it was a match in the Lord Provost's Rent Relief Cup). However, he never really established himself as first choice, playing just 23 league matches over three seasons, with a broken leg effectively ending his career.
His time at Rangers was influential enough for him to choose an aerial photo of Ibrox on his autobiography Et liv i fodbold (A life in football) which came out in 1954. The stadium is packed, but there is nobody on the pitch, and the picture seems to have been taken during a sports meeting.
More poignantly, in 1945 he had published a much darker volume Carl Skomager i tysk Faengsel (in a German prison) which details his wartime experiences, including four months imprisonment by the Nazis. When arrested he was taken to Kastellet, the old fortress in Copenhagen, having already been beaten up. Putting his bleeding hand into his trouser pocket he felt a small badge which he knew he had to get rid of, and surreptitiously threw it into the fireplace: 'Det var Scottish Football-Associations Maerke, og havde Tyskerne funded det paa mig, var det sikkert blevet mig en dyr Historie'. (It was a Scottish Football Association badge, and if the Germans had found it on me, there would certainly have been more blood in this story). So, perhaps somewhere in this Danish castle, a little SFA badge or medal lies waiting to be discovered!
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