| A gangly centre-forward from Denmark, Erik Bo Andersen arrived at
Ibrox in the closing months of season 1995/96. He arrived for a fee of
£1.5 million, and appeared to be a good investment given his fine
goal-scoring return in Denmark. Andersen was the top marksman in the
Danish league in 1994/95 with twenty-four goals, and his contribution
helped Aalborg claim the Superliga Championship and earned him the first
of six international caps for Denmark against Macedonia in April 1995.
Initially,
Erik lived up to his reputation. He made his debut in a league match
against Hibernian at Easter Road, and netted his first goal in Light
Blue a fortnight later when he scored twice in a 3-2 win over Falkirk.
Andersen's impressive start to his career in Scotland continued, and he
netted a further four goals before the end of the season, including a
hat-trick in a 5-1 victory over Partick Thistle at Ibrox. He was in the
starting eleven when Rangers clinched the Premier Division title
following a 3-1 victory over Aberdeen, and although he was an unused
substitute, he picked up a Scottish Cup winners medal at the end of the
campaign when Rangers defeated Hearts by five goals to one in a Final
that was lit up by a scintillating performance from his fellow
countryman, Brian Laudrup.
However, despite his decent
goal-scoring record, Erik was never really a regular in the Rangers
first-team. This was perhaps due to his ungainly and awkward style of
play that earned him the moniker 'Bambi', and also the form of the other
strikers at the club at that time. Nevertheless when called upon in the
1996/97 season, Andersen performed well, and he reached the pinnacle of
his Rangers career in January 1997 when he came off the bench to clinch
victory in an Old Firm match against Celtic. With the scores tied at
1-1, Andersen replaced a flu-stricken Ally McCoist in the sixty-seventh
minute, and his introduction swung the match in Rangers' favour. The
Dane scored twice in the final ten minutes to secure a 3-1 victory and
ensure a long-lasting place in the hearts of the Rangers supporters.
The
arrival of Italian forward Marco Negri in the summer of 1997 saw Erik
fall further down the striking pecking order, and he was eventually
transferred back to Denmark, joining Odense in October 1997 for a fee of
£800, 000. He made just thirty-four appearances for Rangers and scored
eighteen goals, an impressive return for someone who attracted a great
deal of criticism for his lumbering style of play.
At the end of
his first season with Odense, the club were relegated from the Danish
top flight, and Erik moved on to play for Duisburg in Germany. His time
in Germany was ravaged by injury, as was his two-year stay in Norway
with Odd Grenland, and Andersen returned to his first club, Aalborg, in
the summer of 2002 where he played for one season before announcing his
retirement. (Alistair Aird, Author of Ally McCoist - Portrait of a Hero)
Years Team Games Goals
1992–1996 AaB 98 (50)
1996–1997 Rangers 23 (15)
1997–1998 OB 16 (6)
1998–2000 MSV Duisburg 25 (2)
2000 Vejle (loan) 14 (7)
2000–2001 Odd Grenland 13 (0)
2002–2003 AaB 11 (0)
Total 200 (80)
At his retirement, Andersen moved back to coach his childhood club Dronningborg Boldklub in the lower leagues of Danish football.
In the 2005 Danish municipality elections, Andersen was a candidate for the Danish Liberal Party in the Randers municipality. He received 217 personal votes and was elected for the Randers municipality council by a margin of 13 votes.
He started the developing company EBA Invest and invested in a real estate development project near Dronningborg. In 2004, Andersen staked all his football earnings in buying a field outside Randers, which he developed into a fully working residential area, before selling it off in 65 building plots.
|