Per Krøldrup

Per Billeskov Krøldrup (born July 31, 1979 in Farsø) is a Denmark professional Association football player who plays as a Defender (football) for Italy club ACF Fiorentina in the Serie A championship. Krøldrup has represented the Denmark national football team, and he was part of the Danish roster for the 2004 European Football Championship.

Biography

Born in Farsø, Krøldrup started his footballing career at Danish lower league club Aalborg Chang. He went on to play for Boldklubben af 1893 in the secondary Danish 1st Division before transferring to Udinese Calcio in the Italian top-flight Serie A championship in 2001. At Udinese, he played alongside Danish national team player Martin Jørgensen, who, since March 2002, claimed that Krøldrup was ready for the Danish national team. In February 2004, Krøldrup was called up for his national team debut against Turkey national football team. He was a part of the Danish squad for the 2004 European Championship, though he did not play any games at the tournament

Following the 2006 Serie A scandal, where several clubs were on trial for match fixing, Fiorentina were initially relegated to Serie B in July 2006. Krøldrup was amongst the players wanting to leave. However, as Fiorentina made an appeal to the Italian Football Federation, the club remained in Serie A and most of their players, including Krøldrup, remained with the Florence club.

His transfer from Udinese to Everton in June 2005, was listed top on the list of "Top 50 worst transfers" according to The Times.
"Everton paid a fortune for the Denmark central defender but then showed no interest in actually playing him amid suggestions they had suddenly discovered he couldn’t head the ball. Made one league appearance before returning to Italy."