Tenacious and energetic, Niki Zimling emerged to form a productive central midfield alliance with William Kvist in the latter stages of Denmark's UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying campaign, replacing the experienced Christian Poulsen. He has shrugged off a disappointing spell with Udinese Calcio to make a name for himself in Belgium with Club Brugge KV.

• Started out with Brøndby IF but struggled to make it off the bench and made just a handful of substitute appearances as the club won the Danish double in 2004/05.

• Left for Esbjerg fB, where he sampled Superligaen football on a regular basis; enjoyed a particularly memorable 2006/07 campaign, scoring ten league goals in 30 appearances.

• His star on the rise, aided by a first senior cap for Denmark in a February 2008 friendly against Slovenia, he left Esbjerg for Udinese in January 2009 but made just five Serie A appearances over the next 18 months and spent the 2010/11 season on loan to Eredivisie club NEC Nijmegen.

• A restorative season in the Netherlands (26 league games – all starts – scoring four goals) earned him a return to the national side after almost three years and he started each of the last four UEFA EURO 2012 qualifiers, all of which resulted in victory.

• Ended his links with Udinese by signing a four-year contract with Club Brugge in May 2011 and quickly became a key player in the team, both in domestic competition and the UEFA Europa League.