A vastly experienced holding midfielder, Christian Poulsen has played club football in all of Europe's big five leagues – the German Bundesliga, the Spanish Liga, Italy's Serie A, the English Premier League and, since August 2011, France's Ligue 1. A Danish international for over a decade, he won his 90th cap in February 2012.

• A Danish youth international while at his first club, amateur side Holbæk B&I, he joined FC København in 2000 and won the Superligaen title in his first season under English coach Roy Hodgson, scoring in a decisive 3-1 win against rivals Brøndby IF in the penultimate round; found the net nine times the following season as FCK finished runners-up.

• Capped for the first time at senior level in November 2001 – against the Netherlands in a Copenhagen friendly – he travelled to the Far East for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, making three appearances but incurring a suspension for the last-16 defeat by England; featured also at UEFA EURO 2004, helping Denmark into the quarter-finals.

• Joined FC Schalke 04 after the 2002 World Cup and remained with the Gelsenkirchen club for four seasons, all of which brought European football; reinforced his international credentials in the process, scoring his first two goals for Denmark in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Georgia and being named as his country's player of the year in both 2005 and 2006.

• Moved to Sevilla FC in 2006 and helped the Andalusians beat FC Barcelona 3-0 in the UEFA Super Cup before adding the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Cup, in which he appeared in all 15 matches, at the end of his debut season; made seven starts in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League as Sevilla reached the round of 16.

• Made Turin his next port of call when he joined Juventus in 2008 but remained there for just two of the four years on his contract, rejoining his former boss Hodgson at Liverpool FC in August 2010; although he appeared in UEFA club competition for the tenth successive season during his time at Anfield, he barely figured after Hodgson was replaced mid-campaign by Kenny Dalgish and was sold to Ligue 1 newcomers Évian Thonon Gaillard FC a year after his arrival.

• An ever-present for Denmark in the 2010 World Cup – qualifiers and finals combined – he lost his place in the side en route to UEFA EURO 2012 and ended the campaign on the bench.

UEFA honours
UEFA Cup: winner 2007
UEFA Super Cup: winner 2006