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Denmark used to be a very modest football nation. The national federation of this country of just five million people was founded in 1889, but football has for a long time been considered a secondary sport in this northern European country.
At international level, the national side really came of age in the 1980s, when, having reached the semi-finals of the European championships in France in 1984 (defeat against Spain on penalties), they qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico (beaten by Spain 5-1 in the second round).
Denmark had its moment of glory in 1992 when it won, to general surprise, the European championships in Sweden (2-0 against Germany in the final) having only been a last-minute entrant following the exclusion of Yugoslavia because of the civil war.
Most of their players are in foreign clubs, like star player Michael Laudrup, who plays at Ajax and has a list of prestigious former clubs in Lazio, Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Laudrup's brother Brian, now at Glasgow Rangers, used to be at Fiorentina and AC Milan, and Peter Schmeichel, undisputed keeper of Denmark (97 caps), has won numerous medals with Manchester United.
In 1998, Denmark are competing in their second finals having qualified first in their group which contained, among others, Croatia and Greece.
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Second World Cup appearance (1986,1998)