Denmark men's national basketball team

Denmark
FIBA ranking59 Steady (25 February 2025)[1]
Joined FIBA1951
FIBA zoneFIBA Europe
National federationDBBF
CoachAllan Foss
Nickname(s)De rød-hvide
(The Red and White)
Olympic Games
AppearancesNone
FIBA World Cup
AppearancesNone
EuroBasket
Appearances3
MedalsNone
Championship for Small Countries
Appearances1
MedalsGold Gold: (2010)
First international
  13–109 Soviet Union 
(Paris, France; 3 May 1951)
Biggest win
  99–51 Cyprus 
(Copenhagen, Denmark; 26 April 1986)
Biggest defeat
 Soviet Union 118–14  
(Moscow, Soviet Union; 25 May 1953)

The Denmark men's national basketball team (Danish: Danmarks landsbasketballhold) represents Denmark in international basketball competition. The national team is controlled by the Danish Basketball Association.

The Denmark national team competed regularly at the EuroBasket in the 1950s, the top European tournament. Their best appearance came in 1951. Although since then, the team has struggled to maintain consistency to challenge the international elites. Denmark also has yet to reach qualification to play on the global stage at the FIBA World Cup.

History

EuroBasket 1951

Denmark debuted in the European championships at the EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. They were defeated in all of their preliminary round games, going 0–4. They ended up in last place in their group. In a direct elimination match against Luxembourg, Denmark took a 46–45 lead with 5 seconds left. A final half-court shot by Luxembourg bounced off the rim, giving Denmark its first ever win at the EuroBasket tournament and advancing the team to the first classification round. They picked up another win there, against Scotland, finishing in third place in the group at 1–2. Their third win of the tournament came against Portugal in the 13th–16th place classification semifinal. Denmark then lost to Switzerland in the 13th/14th place match to finish 14th of the 18 teams with a record of 3–7.

EuroBasket 1953

Two years later, at the EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow, Denmark did not fare as well. They dropped eight of their matches (three in the preliminary round, three in the first classification round, and the two-second-round classification games) on their way to a 16th-place finish out of the 17 teams in the tournament.

EuroBasket 1955

At the EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest, the national team struggled there as well just as they did at the prior EuroBasket. Losing all eight of their matches in non competitive fashion, this time they finished in last place of the 18 teams at the event.

Later years

After the EuroBasket 1955, the Danish national team regressed and never qualified for a major tournament again. Though, they did achieve some success on a lower level, at the European Championship for Small Countries, where they won Gold in 2010.

Competitive record

Results and fixtures

  Win   Loss

2024

23 February 2024   75–69  Georgia Næstved, Denmark
18:30 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 12–23, 16–14, 22–16, 25–16
Pts: Lundberg 19
Rebs: Knudsen 6
Asts: Lundberg 7
Boxscore Pts: Shengelia 27
Rebs: Shermadini 8
Asts: Thomasson,
Tsintsadze 4
Arena: Næstved Arena
Attendance: 2,153
Referees: Zafer Yılmaz (TUR), Yener Yılmaz (TUR), Juozas Barkauskas (LTU)
26 February 2024 Finland  89–85   Espoo, Finland
18:30 (UTC+2) Scoring by quarter: 23–27, 19–31, 30–14, 17–13
Pts: Jantunen 19
Rebs: Jantunen 7
Asts: Maxhuni 6
Boxscore Pts: Lundberg 26
Rebs: Dibba 7
Asts: Larsen, Lundberg 6
Arena: Espoo Metro Areena
Attendance: 5,339
Referees: Fernando Calatrava (ESP), Gintaras Vitkauskas (LTU), Blaž Zupančič (SVN)
21 November 2024   52–72  Serbia Copenhagen, Denmark
18:00 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 6–29, 13–14, 16–19, 17–10
Pts: Engelhardt 13
Rebs: Knudsen, Sorensen 5
Asts: four players 3
Boxscore Pts: Koprivica 13
Rebs: Ristić 6
Asts: Avramović, Jović 6
Arena: Farum Arena
Attendance: 2,993
Referees: Wojciech Liszka (POL), Nicolás Maestre (FRA), Ilias Kounelles (CYP)
24 November 2024 Serbia  98–51   Belgrade, Serbia
20:00 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 25–17, 25–11, 20–11, 28–12
Pts: Avramović 18
Rebs: Dobrić 8
Asts: Avramović 8
Boxscore Pts: Lundberg 15
Rebs: Lundberg 6
Asts: Lundberg 6
Arena: Aleksandar Nikolić Hall
Attendance: 6,300
Referees: Paulo Marques (POR), Mihkel Männiste (EST), Orhan Hekimoğlu (TUR)

2025

21 February 2025 Georgia  62–60   Tbilisi, Georgia
21:00 (UTC+4) Scoring by quarter: 19–21, 18–4, 11–20, 14–15
Pts: Shengelia 19
Rebs: Shengelia 13
Asts: Andronikashvili, Shengelia 4
Boxscore Pts: Larsen 14
Rebs: Berg 8
Asts: Berg 3
Arena: Tbilisi Arena
Attendance: 9,000
Referees: Luis Castillo (ESP), Ventsislav Velikov (BUL), Ilias Kounelles (CYP)
24 February 2025   77–83  Finland Copenhagen, Denmark
20:00 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 25–24, 22–17, 23–18, 7–24
Pts: Larsen 22
Rebs: Larsen 11
Asts: Lundberg 6
Boxscore Pts: Nkamhoua 26
Rebs: Nkamhoua 8
Asts: Salin 6
Arena: Farum Arena
Attendance: 2,391
Referees: Ariadna Chueca (ESP), Igor Mitrovski (MKD), Péter Praksch (HUN)
2 August 2025   89–71  Norway Farum, Denmark
18:00 (UTC+2) Scoring by quarter: 25–15, 20–21, 20–17, 24–18
Pts: Jensen 21
Rebs: Erikstrup 8
Asts: Berg, Jensen 5
Boxscore Pts: Frey 23
Rebs: Nordheim 6
Asts: Odfjell, Savić 4
Arena: Farum Arena
Attendance: 1,133
Referees: Gatis Saliņš (LAT), Péter Praksch (HUN), Juozas Barkauskas (LTU)
9 August 2025 Croatia  100–71   Opatija, Croatia
20:30 (UTC+2) Scoring by quarter: 24–14, 32–29, 21–16, 23–12
Pts: Smith 24
Rebs: Drežnjak 5
Asts: Smith 6
Boxscore Pts: Dibba 17
Rebs: Berg 5
Asts: three players 3
Arena: Marino Cvetković Sports Hall
Attendance: 500
Referees: Kerem Baki (TUR), Michał Proc (POL), Zdenko Tomašovič (SVK)
13 August 2025 Norway  70–79   Bergen, Norway
18:00 (UTC+2) Scoring by quarter: 12–15, 15–22, 22–18, 21–24
Pts: Savić 21
Rebs: Savić 10
Asts: Frey 5
Boxscore Pts: Erikstrup 32
Rebs: Erikstrup 9
Asts: Heede-Andersen, Jensen 4
Arena: Åsane Arena
Attendance: 1,030
Referees: Saverio Lanzarini (ITA), Fernando Calatrava (ESP), Mihkel Männiste (EST)
20 August 2025   76–79  Croatia Farum, Denmark
19:00 (UTC+2) Scoring by quarter: 21–12, 17–24, 19–24, 19–19
Pts: Dibba 19
Rebs: Webb 11
Asts: Heede-Andersen 8
Boxscore Pts: Šarić 30
Rebs: Šarić 8
Asts: Badžim 5
Arena: Farum Arena
Attendance: 1,763
Referees: Wojciech Liszka (POL), Lorenzo Baldini (ITA), Mihkel Männiste (EST)

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers matches in August 2025 against Norway and Croatia.[2][3]

Denmark men's national basketball team roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr.
PF 0 Bakary Dibba 23 – (2001-10-23)23 October 2001 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Breogán Spain
C 2 Marcus Engelhardt 18 – (2006-12-01)1 December 2006 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) Unicaja Spain
SF 3 Sylvester Berg 27 – (1998-05-27)27 May 1998 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Bakken Bears Denmark
G 6 Ogbemudia Uagboe 19 – (2006-05-07)7 May 2006 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) SISU Denmark
PG 12 Adam Heede-Andersen 28 – (1996-07-04)4 July 1996 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) Svendborg Denmark
PF 13 Kevin Larsen 32 – (1993-07-17)17 July 1993 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) Lucentum Spain
SF 15 Zarko Jukic 32 – (1993-07-28)28 July 1993 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) ÍR Iceland
C 22 Jermaine Ballisager 22 – (2003-02-22)22 February 2003 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) Portland Pilots United States
F/C 32 Dane Erikstrup 22 – (2003-04-03)3 April 2003 2.12 m (6 ft 11 in) Donar Netherlands
C 33 Johan Munch 20 – (2005-06-21)21 June 2005 2.12 m (6 ft 11 in) Oregon State Beavers United States
SF 35 Niklas Polonowski 20 – (2005-01-11)11 January 2005 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Penn Quakers United States
PG 71 Jonathan Klussmann 22 – (2002-10-06)6 October 2002 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Unattached
G/F 77 Tobias Jensen 21 – (2004-05-08)8 May 2004 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Ulm Germany
Head coach
  • Denmark Allan Foss
Assistant coach(es)
  • Republic of Ireland Michael Bree
  • Denmark Jeffrey Jensen
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Club – describes last
    club before the competition
  • Age – describes age
    on 2 August 2025

Depth chart

Pos. Starting 5 Bench 1 Bench 2 Bench 3
C Jonas Zohore Asbjørn Midtgaard Sami Eleraky Jacob Jensen
PF Kevin Larsen Daniel Mortensen Zarko Jukić Sylvester Berg
SF Darko Jukic Jonathan Gilling Chris Nielsen Morten Sahlertz
SG Shavon Shields Philip Hertz Thomas Laerke David Knudsen
PG Iffe Lundberg Adama Darboe Frederik Nielsen Chanan Colman

Head coach position

  • Belgium Per Huyghebaert – (early 1990s – 1994)
  • Denmark Allan Foss – (2004–2009)
  • United States/Denmark Peter Hoffman – (2010–2011)
  • Finland Pieti Poikola – (2013–2016)
  • Israel Erez Bittman – (2017–2021)
  • Croatia Arnel Dedić – (2021–2022)
  • Denmark Allan Foss – (2022–present)

Past rosters

1951 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 18 teams

3 Knud Lundberg, 4 Knud Norskov, 5 Erik Korsbjerg, 6 Erik Wilbek, 7 Peter Tantholdt, 8 Belger Can, 9 Bent Sondergaard, 10 Erik Melbye, 11 Sven Thomsen, 12 John Christensen, 13 Ove Nielsen, 14 Kai Sogaard, 15 Erik Carlsen, 16 Niels Mygind (Coach: ?)


1953 EuroBasket: finished 16th among 17 teams

3 Kai Sorensen, 4 Knud Norskov, 5 Knud Lundberg, 6 Peter Tantholdt, 7 John Christensen, 8 Erik Madsen, 10 Torben Starup-Hansen, 11 Ivan Rasmussen, 12 Ove Nielsen, 13 Erik Wilbek, 14 Pierre Meilsej, 15 Willi Mouritsen, 16 John Nielsen (Coach: ?)


1955 EuroBasket: finished 18th among 18 teams

3 Kai Sogaard, 4 Erik Korsbjerg, 5 Peter Tantholdt, 6 Pierre Meilsej, 7 An Lillelund, 8 Ivan Rasmussen, 9 Ove Nielsen, 10 T Storup, 11 P Hintz, 12 T Malmquist, 13 Willi Mouritsen, 14 S Sparre (Coach: ?)

Kit

Manufacturer

See also

References

  1. ^ "FIBA World Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 25 February 2025. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  2. ^ "Foss vil videre fra gruppen: Norge må ikke undervurderes – igen". basket.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  3. ^ "Denmark during the 2027 FIBA World Cup European Pre-Qualifiers in August 2025". Retrieved 2 August 2025.

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