Jerry Lucena

Lucena started playing for the youth side of Danish football club Esbjerg fB. In 1999, he made his professional debut for Esbjerg in the Danish 1st Division, the second highest football league in the country. Esbjerg won promotion to the top-flight Danish Superliga in 2001. Lucena was a mainstay in the team during the 2002-03 Danish Superliga season, playing of 32 of 33 games as Esbjerg finished 5th and qualified for the European UEFA Cup tournament.

On 14 August 2003, Lucena played his first European game for Esbjerg in the qualifying round of the 2003–04 UEFA Cup. His club won 5–0 against Andorran football club FC Santa Coloma in his debut.[2] Esbjerg would advance to the next round on a 9–1 aggregate result. Lucena played all 33 games, as Esbjerg won bronze medals in the 2003-04 Danish Superliga championship. In 2006, he was part of the Esbjerg team which reached the final of the Danish Cup, but lost to Randers FC.[3] He played a total 245 senior games for Esbjerg, before leaving the club in 2007.[4]

Lucena signed with Superliga rival club AGF Aarhus in 2007, one of the oldest sport clubs in Danish football. Jerry Lucena played full back and occasionally the midfielder position for AGF.[5] When AGF were relegated to the Danish 1st Division in 2010, Lucena stayed with the club. He helped AGF win the 2010–11 Danish 1st Division, getting promotion for the Superliga.

He had the remainder of his AGF contract annulled in June 2012, in order to go back to Esbjerg.[4]

Lucena's contract with Esbjerg end in Summer 2016 when Lucena will be retiring from competitive football as a player. As part of a final agreement with the club, he served as assistant coach to the club's youth team in the U19 League, and is targeting to pass the exam in May 2016 to be a T-trainer enabling him to acquire an A-license, the second highest coaching license in the DBU.[6]

Born to a Filipino father and a Danish mother, Lucena was eligible to represent either side at the international level. Initially, he was called up to represent the Denmark U-21 squad in 2001.[7] In 2006, Lucena again represented Denmark as part of its League XI international football team, which is an unofficial national team assembled by the Danish Football Association to evaluate the level of the best players from the Danish Superliga.

Lucena switched to represent the Philippines in March 2011. On 23 March 2011, he made his international debut for the Philippines national team against the Palestine team in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying round.[8] The match ended in a 0–0 draw, but the Philippines would eventually clinch the second spot in their bracket to qualify for the group stage of the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.[9] On 11 October 2011, Lucena again represented the Philippines in an international friendly match against Nepal, which ended in a 4–0 win for the Philippines.[10]

In November 2012, Lucena is part of the Philippine team in the Group A stage of the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup, the football championship cup for Southeast Asia. The Philippines finished second in the group with 2 wins and 1 loss record, qualifying them to semi finals versus Singapore. Lucena was instrumental in the Philippine squad defense wherein he played in two games : Thailand 2–1 Philippines and Vietnam 0–1 Philippines. Lucena will once again reprise his role in the midfield in the second leg of the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup Semi-finals against Singapore.

International goals

As of 3 September 2015.[11]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	27 May 2014	National Football Stadium, Maldives	Maldives	2–1	3–2	2014 AFC Challenge Cup
2.	3 September 2015	Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila	Maldives	2–0	2–0	Friendly

• Lucena skal være træner og mentor i EfB, bold.dk, 26 May 2016

• Jerry Lucena national team profile at the Danish Football Association (in Danish)
• Jerry Lucena official Danish Superliga statistics at danskfodbold.com (in Danish)
• Jerry Lucena at DR (in Danish) (archived)
• Jerry Lucena at Soccerbase