Thomas Sørensen

Thomas Løvendahl Sørensen (born 12 June 1976) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Sørensen started his career with his local side Odense BK.

He played in training matches against FC St. Pauli and Werder Bremen in February 1993, and signed a trainee contract with the club.

He was soon a professional with Odense BK's first team squad in the Danish Superliga championship.

Sørensen served as an understudy to club legend goalkeeper Lars Høgh, and did not play any league games for the club.

During the 1995–96 season, he was loaned out to league rivals Vejle BK in December 1995.

Initially an understudy to Erik Boye, he made his Superliga debut in March 1996.

Sørensen played three thoroughly impressive games in a row, and the press dubbed him the new Peter Schmeichel.

He played six league matches in all for Vejle, including a 6–0 defeat to Brøndby IF, before being dropped by coach Ole Fritsen following a 1–0 defeat to Viborg FF, in which Viborg's Ralf Pedersen headed the ball from Sørensen's hands to score the goal.

Sørensen broke his arm in the summer 1996, but continued his loan deal with Vejle until the summer 1997, without playing any more games for the club.

Odense then loaned him out again, this time to FC Svendborg in the second-tier Danish 1st Division league, where he played the full 1997–98 season.

After impressing on loan at Vejle Boldklub and Svendborg he was signed by English side Sunderland in 1998.

After five years as first-choice goalkeeper on Wearside, he joined Aston Villa for £2 million.

In the summer 1998, Sørensen moved abroad to play for English club Sunderland in the Football League First Division, the then second level league of English football.

Hardly anyone outside of Denmark had even heard of the tall and athletic keeper, when English manager Peter Reid bought the 22-year-old from Odense for about £510,000 in July 1998.

He was recommended to the club by Peter Schmeichel.

Sørensen was bought to replace fan favourite Lionel Pérez who left on a free transfer.

This move helped Sunderland to promotion for the top flight English Premiership, when Sørensen and his team grabbed the League Championship title in 1999.

Sørensen smashed the club's clean sheet record with 29 clean sheets in the process.

Sørensen established himself as Sunderland's starting goalkeeper in the Premiership, and helped the club finish 7th in both of their two first Premiership seasons.

Between 2000 and 2012, Sørensen was the starting goalkeeper for the Denmark national football team, the successor to the legendary Peter Schmeichel, and he played 101 matches for his country, making him their eighth-most capped player of all time.

He was part of Denmark's UEFA Euro 2000, 2002 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2004, and 2010 FIFA World Cup squads.

Born in Fredericia, Sørensen started playing youth football with local clubs in Erritsø and Assens.

He then moved to the youth team of local top-flight club Odense Boldklub.

He gained legendary status with Sunderland fans in 2001, when he saved a penalty kick from Alan Shearer in the dying moments of a November 2000 game, to preserve a valuable win over archrivals and neighbouring club Newcastle United.

In the 2002–03 season, Sørensen was injured from October 2002 to January 2003, and only played 21 of 38 games.

Sunderland were struggling both on and off the pitch and Sørensen could not save the club from relegation at the end of the season.

Reid had already been sacked, and as a result of the club's mounting financial worries, Sunderland sold Sørensen for £2 million to Aston Villa, who had held off interest from a handful of other clubs, including Manchester United and Arsenal.

He played nearly 200 games on Wearside for Sunderland and remains a fan favourite.

At Aston Villa, Sørensen developed his reputation as a good goalkeeper.

Sørensen's ability as a shot stopper allowed him to retain his place as Villa's number one under both managers David O'Leary and Martin O'Neill, ahead of the likes of Stefan Postma and Stuart Taylor.

In his first three seasons at Aston Villa, he only missed four games.

In a November 2003 game against Newcastle, he once again saved an Alan Shearer penalty kick.

He suffered a knee injury during the 2006–07 season, but still played 29 games that term.

During the 2007–08 season he fell out of favour at Villa.

Sørensen had suffered an injury during the pre-season, and Villa decided to loan in goalkeeper Scott Carson from Liverpool.

He remained a regular for his time at Villa Park until a fall-out with manager Martin O'Neill saw him dropped and then released in May 2008.

He then went to Stoke City, where he was first-choice goalkeeper for three seasons, helping the club consolidate in the Premier League.

He then finished his playing career with a two-year spell at Australian club Melbourne City.

He remains to date the Danish player with the most Premier league appearances (364 in total).