Poul Nielsen

Poul Nielsen played his entire career as a striker for Københavns Boldklub (KB) in 210 matches and helped winning the Danish championship in 1913, 1914, 1917, 1918, 1922 and 1925. He was a member of the first team from age 16 in 1907 and to age 36 in 1927.

Nielsen made his début for the national team in 1910, when Denmark beat England 2-1, the team’s first international match on home soil, as the youngest national team player to date at 18. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Denmark had a bye in round one and defeated Norway and the Netherlands convincingly to reach the final. Here they lost 4-2 to Great Britain (England) winning Olympic silver. Nielsen only played in the match against the Netherlands, scoring his first goal for the Danish national team. He played his last international match in 1925 against Finland winning a then record number of 38 caps and scoring 52 goals. As of 2025, he still led Denmark’s scorer list, together with non-Olympian Jon Dahl Tomasson (112 caps from 1997-2010). Nielsen’s scoring tally as an international included eight hat-tricks. Between 1922 and 1925 he also captained the national team eleven times.

In 1927, Nielsen moved to Montréal where he continued to play football for some time. He returned to Denmark in 1936, where he worked as an innkeeper. In 1916, he married Julie Marie Bothilde Amalie Levin (née Wilding). Nielsen earned his nickname “Tist” because as a child he managed to watch all of KB’s games for “free” (Danish: gra”tis’t”).