Denmark men's national basketball team
| FIBA ranking | 58 1 (3 March 2026)[1] | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Joined FIBA | 1951 | ||
| FIBA zone | FIBA Europe | ||
| National federation | DBBF | ||
| Coach | Allan Foss | ||
| Nickname(s) | De rød-hvide (The Red and White) | ||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Appearances | None | ||
| FIBA World Cup | |||
| Appearances | None | ||
| EuroBasket | |||
| Appearances | 3 | ||
| Medals | None | ||
| Championship for Small Countries | |||
| Appearances | 1 | ||
| Medals | Gold: (2010) | ||
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| |||
| First international | |||
| Denmark 13–109 Soviet Union (Paris, France; 3 May 1951) | |||
| Biggest win | |||
| Denmark 99–51 Cyprus (Copenhagen, Denmark; 26 April 1986) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
| Soviet Union 118–14 Denmark (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.
In the 1950s, the Denmark national team competed regularly at the EuroBasket, the top European tournament. Their best appearance came in their debut appearance in 1951. Since then, the team has struggled to maintain consistency, but won gold at the European Championship for Small Countries in 2010. Denmark has yet to qualify 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 went 0–4 in the preliminary round and 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, Denmark lost all eight of their matches and finished last 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. They did achieve some success on a lower level, at the European Championship for Small Countries, where they won gold in 2010.
Competitive record
FIBA World Cup
Olympic Games
Championship for Small Countries
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EuroBasket
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Results and fixtures
Win Loss
2025
| 21 February 2025 | Georgia | 62–60 | Denmark | Tbilisi, Georgia |
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| 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) |
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| 24 February 2025 | Denmark | 77–83 | Finland | Copenhagen, Denmark |
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| 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) |
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| 2 August 2025 | Denmark | 89–71 | Norway | Farum, Denmark |
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| 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) |
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| 9 August 2025 | Croatia | 100–71 | Denmark | Opatija, Croatia |
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| 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) |
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| 13 August 2025 | Norway | 70–79 | Denmark | Bergen, Norway |
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| 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) |
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| 20 August 2025 | Denmark | 76–79 | Croatia | Farum, Denmark |
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| 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) |
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| 27 November 2025 | Denmark | 64–74 | Spain | Farum, Denmark |
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| 18:30 (UTC+1) | Scoring by quarter: 23–25, 10–20, 14–15, 17–14 | |||
| Pts: Jensen 20 Rebs: Larsen 8 Asts: Berg, Jensen 3 |
Boxscore | Pts: Fernández 15 Rebs: Osobor, Paulí 8 Asts: Cárdenas 4 |
Arena: Farum Arena Attendance: 2,630 Referees: Mārtiņš Kozlovskis (LAT), Michał Proc (POL), Blaž Zupančič (SVN) |
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| 30 November 2025 | Ukraine | 88–71 | Denmark | Riga, Latvia |
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| 19:00 (UTC+2) | Scoring by quarter: 18–20, 28–16, 27–10, 15–25 | |||
| Pts: Kovliar 28 Rebs: Bobrov 11 Asts: Kovliar 11 |
Boxscore | Pts: Erikstrup 21 Rebs: Erikstrup, Larsen 7 Asts: Jensen 10 |
Arena: Xiaomi Arena Attendance: 500 Referees: Petar Pešić (SRB), Ilias Kounellis (CYP), Ioannis Tsibouris (GRE) |
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2026
| 27 February 2026 | Denmark | 71–89 | Georgia | Farum, Denmark |
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| 18:30 (UTC+1) | Scoring by quarter: 12–12, 20–27, 15–38, 24–12 | |||
| Pts: Jensen 15 Rebs: Berg, Knudsen 8 Asts: Knudsen 4 |
Boxscore | Pts: Shengelia 24 Rebs: Shengelia 7 Asts: Reed, Shengelia 5 |
Arena: Farum Arena Attendance: 1,908 Referees: Péter Praksch (HUN), Carsten Straube (GER), Valerio Grigioni (ITA) |
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| 2 March 2026 | Georgia | 89–60 | Denmark | Tbilisi, Georgia |
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| 21:00 (UTC+4) | Scoring by quarter: 21–17, 22–14, 30–18, 16–11 | |||
| Pts: Reed 29 Rebs: Shengelia 11 Asts: Reed 8 |
Boxscore | Pts: Klussmann 17 Rebs: Heede-Andersen 9 Asts: Jensen 5 |
Arena: Tbilisi Arena Attendance: 7,100 Referees: Georgios Poursanidis (GRE), Çisil Güngör (TUR), Elvis Binders-Čoders (LAT) |
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Team
Current roster
Roster for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers matches on 27 February and 2 March 2026 against Georgia.[2]
| Denmark men's national basketball team roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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
- Per Huyghebaert – (1991–1994)
- Allan Foss – (2004–2009)
- / Peter Hoffman – (2010–2011)
- Pieti Poikola – (2013–2016)
- Erez Bittman – (2017–2021)
- Arnel Dedić – (2021–2022)
- 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 Per Meilsøe, 15 Willi Mouritsen, 16 John Nielsen (Coach: ?)
1955 EuroBasket: finished 18th among 18 teams
3 Kai Sogaard, 4 Erik Korsbjerg, 5 Peter Tantholdt, 6 Per Meilsøe, 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
- 2018–present: Spalding
See also
- Sport in Denmark
- Denmark women's national basketball team
- Denmark men's national under-20 basketball team
- Denmark men's national under-18 basketball team
- Denmark men's national under-16 basketball team
- Denmark men's national 3x3 team
References
- ^ "FIBA World Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 3 March 2026. Retrieved 3 March 2026.
- ^ "Denmark during the 2027 FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers in November 2025". Retrieved 27 February 2026.
External links
- Official website (in Danish)
- Denmark FIBA profile
- Denmark National Team – Men at Eurobasket.com
- Denmark Basketball Records at FIBA Archive
Videos
- Denmark v Belarus – Full Game – FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Pre-Qualifiers Youtube.com video