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'Daniel Munthe Agger' (born 12 December 1984 in Hvidovre) is a Danish professional footballer who currently plays as a central defender for English club Liverpool. He started his senior career at Danish club Brøndby IF in July 2004, with whom he won the 2005 Danish Superliga championship. Since his debut in June 2005, he has been capped fourteen times and scored two goals for the Denmark national football team. He is renowned for his powerful long-range shots, and is regarded as one of the best young defenders in the world.

Contents

Club Career

Brøndby IF

Liverpool F.C.

Personal Life

Tattoos

Statistics

Club performance

International goals

Honours

References

External links

Club Career

Brøndby IF

Daniel Agger joined Brøndby IF from childhood club Rosenhøj BK at 12 years of age,^[1] to play for the youth team of Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF. He also plays for the Denmark national side
In July 2004 he was moved from the youth squad to the first team, following the departure of Swedish international defender Andreas Jakobsson.
Daniel Agger quickly established himself not only as a first team regular, but as one of the bearing elements of the team that won the Danish Superliga 2004-05 championship.
Despite his young age, he played with great authority and class under the guidance of Brøndby team captain Per Nielsen, and after the first half of the season Agger was named 2004 "talent of the year" by Spillerforeningen (the Danish equivalent of the English PFA).
After the successful Superliga 2004-05 season, Agger was called up to the senior Danish national football team for the 1-0 friendly win against Finland on 2 June 2005, playing the full match.
Agger would see the next national team match from the bench before playing the full 4-1 friendly win on 17 August 2005 over England alongside Per Nielsen, where he caused problems for the English forwards, most notably Wayne Rooney.He played the full length in the next two national team matches, before an injury sustained in the Danish Superliga 2005-06 season in September forced him out for the remainder of the year 2005. Only 20 years of age, Daniel Agger was awarded the Danish "talent of the year" of all sports on 6 December 2005.

Liverpool F.C.

Agger was long linked to a transfer to a bigger club, and in the January 2006 transfer window, Agger was looking to join English Premier League team Liverpool, the defending UEFA Champions League champions.^[2] Daniel Agger did not travel with his Brøndby teammates for their winter training camp in January and on January 12, 2006 he signed a 4½ year contract with Liverpool. The £5.8m transfer deal made him the most expensive footballer sold by a Danish club to a foreign club,^[3] as well as the most expensive defender Liverpool had ever bought.
His first half season at Liverpool was no success, as injuries kept him at four first-team appearances during spring 2006. He played ten games and scored three goals for the Danish under-21 national team, for which he was selected to play in the 2006 European Under-21 Championship tournament in May 2006.
At the start of the 2006-07 season, Agger played the full game as Liverpool won the 2006 FA Community Shield. Still adapting to the English game, he established himself in Liverpool's first team squad, competing with Liverpool vice-captain Jamie Carragher and former Finnish team captain Sami Hyypiä for the two starting places in the central defence. Agger scored his first goal for Liverpool on 26 August 2006 in a 2-1 win against West Ham United. Agger was allowed to run unchallenged toward the Kop-end goal and scored a stinging curler from 35 yards out.^[4] Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez commented he was not surprised and that Agger has frequently scored such goals in training.^[5] The goal was named Goal of the Month for August by the BBC's Match of the Day^[6], and later Liverpool's Premiership Goal of the Season.^[7] On 4 October 2006 he was given PFA's fan award for impressive and solid displays in September.^[8]
Agger scored his second goal for the club in a Football League Cup away game against Birmingham City with a volley from close range in the seven minutes of first-half stoppage time. His third was against Arsenal scoring a header in a 4-1 victory played on 31 March 2007. In the first semi-final of the 2006-07 Champions League, Agger received some criticism as Liverpool lost to Chelsea 1-0, after Chelsea striker Didier Drogba managed to dribble past him before making the assist to win the game.^[9] In the second leg of the semi-finals, Agger answered his critics by scoring another curler from a smartly-taken Steven Gerrard free-kick from just outside the penalty area, and helping Liverpool holding a clean sheet as the team beat Chelsea 1-0 on 1 May 2007. His highly impressive performance in that important match cemented an excellent debut season, in which his clear talent had impressed Liverpool fans, leading to some comparing him to club legend Alan Hansen.
He went on to participate in the 2007 Champions League final which Liverpool lost 2-1 to AC Milan
The very talented 22 year old has started the new pre season very well, by scoring 2 goals in 4 games, one of which was a sweet left footed finish against South China AA.

Personal Life

Tattoos

Daniel is known for his numerous tattoos. Among others, he has a viking on his upper right arm, an intricate band around his left elbow as well as some tribal symbols and the quote "mors certa hora incerta" on his back. Daniel is also a tattoo artist ^[10].

Statistics

Club performance

:''Up to date, as of May 2, 2007.''

Club	Season	Superliga		Danish Clupper clup		-		Europe		Others		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Brøndby IF	2004-05	26	5	5	0	-	-	1	0	4	0	36	5
	2005-06	8	0	0	0	-	-	5	0	0	0	13	0
	Club total	34	5	5	0	-	-	6	0	4	0	49	5
Club	Season	Premiership		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Others		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Liverpool FC	2005-06	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
	2006-07	27	2	1	0	2	1	11	1	1	0	42	4
	Club total	31	2	1	0	2	1	11	1	1	0	46	4
Career total		65	7	6	0	2	1	17	1	5	0	95	9

International goals

:''Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first.''

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	2005-09-07	Copenhagen, Denmark		3-1	6-1	2006 World Cup qualification
2	2007-06-02	Copenhagen, Denmark		1-3	0-3¹	UEFA EURO 2008 qualification

¹ Match abandoned, Sweden awarded 0-3 victory by UEFA, but Daniel Agger's goal still counts in statistics.

Honours

; Brøndby

★ 2005 Danish Cup

★ 2004-05 Danish Superliga
; Liverpool

★ 2006 FA Cup

★ 2006 Community Shield

★ 2007 UEFA Champions League Runner-up

References

1. Christian Bové, Agger forgyldes og forgylder, TV 2 (Denmark), January 12, 2006
2. Chris Bascombe, Anfield bound Agger jets in, Liverpool Echo, January 11, 2006
3. Jens Gjesse Hansen, Daniel Agger skifter til Liverpool, Danmarks Radio, January 11, 2006
4. Daniel Agger goal on YouTube
5. Steve Hunter, Rafa full of praise for Agger, ''LiverpoolFC.tv'', August 26, 2006
6. Goal of the month: August, ''BBC Sport'', 11 September 2006
7. Agger Scoops LFC Goal Of The Season, ''liverpoolFC.tv'', 15 June 2007
8. Dave Smith, PFA fans' player of the month, ''GiveMeFootball.com'', October 4, 2006
9. Alan Smith, Agger shows bottle to leave Drogba thirsty, ''The Telegraph'', May 2, 2007
10. Daniel Agger er vores faste 12 mand, September 6, 2007

External links

★ Danish national team profile

★ Liverpool FC profile

★ The unofficial Daniel Agger website

★ Brøndby IF profile

★ Career stats at Danmarks Radio

★

★ Daniel Agger's fans website

★ LFChistory.net player profile