There's only one John Jensen (thankfully..)

Last night Libby and I met up with a group of Danes (and a Swede) at a restaurant in Norrebro.. They were a bunch of colleagues and friends of those colleagues.. All very nice and, thankfully, spoke great English. I managed to order from the menu (and received a bonus point for successfully receiving my intended dish) but that was about as far as my Danish went.. Over dinner discussion ranged from the impenetrable accent of Swede's from Skane (an area in the south, close to Denmark) to Danish actors (apparently there are only five of them) and finally, with a guy called Thomas, to football and, in particular, John Jensen, that famous Danish export to Arsenal in the 1990s..

A few facts about John Jensen that I was reminded of (ok, actually told for the first time...) :

John Jensen was bought by Arsenal after he scored a very good goal for Denmark against Germany in the European Championship final of 1992. The story is proof that scoring a goal in an international championsip final does not mean anything at all.. As my new Danish friend told me, Jensen played 132 games for Arsenal and is chiefly remembered for the cult hero status he earned. No matter how hard Jensen tried (and, apparently, he tried exceptionally hard), he could not score a goal. The Arsenal fans came up with a song, "We'll be there when Jensen scores!" and by 1994, Jensen's search for a goal was such a cult cause that whenever he got the ball, no matter where he was on the pitch (even inside his own penalty area) the Arsenal fans would implore him to "Shooooot!".

Jensen finally scored his first goal for Arsenal after 98 matches, on a cold and wet night against Queens Park Rangers on 31 December 1994. Arsenal were losing 1-0 when Jensen picked the ball up just inside the penalty area, about 16 yards from goal. The crowd gave the obligatory "shoot!", and Jensen complied, curling a shot into the net, prompting wild celebration from the Arsenal fans. The fans sang "There's only one Johnny Jensen" for the rest of the evening. Apparently the goal is still remembered and one can still see t-shirts at Arsenal games saying "I saw John Jensen score" (I will check this with my Arsenal season ticket holder friend and report back).

I certainly didn't expect all that on a Saturday night out..!