Ivar Lykke

Ivar Lykke played his entire career as a defender and later centre-half for Københavns Boldklub (KB) and helped win Danish championships in 1913, 1914, 1917, and 1918. He played for the club on senior level from 1906-25 and won a spot in the first team in 1910 and later become its long-time captain.

Lykke made his début for the national team in a friendly against England in 1911 in London. 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. Lykke only played against Norway.

He was one of the greatest players of the 1910s in Denmark and was the second player to win 25 caps. His last international appearance came at the 1920 Olympics at Antwerpen when he played in Denmark’s only game in a 1-0 defeat against Spain. In total, Lykke played 27 international matches, without scoring however, including the historic victory over England in 1914 and captained the team in 12 matches. After his playing career, he coached the youth teams in KB, called “Lykke’s drenge” (English: Lucky Boys), for many years. Lykke was also a long-time member of the board of the Danish Football Association, on the selection committee since 1930 and its chairman from 1951.

Ivar Lykke’s parents were actor Hans Georg Nielsen and Nicoline Seidelin, the daughter of a priest. He dropped his surname (Seidelin-Nielsen) and was widely known as Ivar Lykke. He was trained as a technical draughtsman and worked for Copenhagen Tramways for many years.