He joined Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam, for whom he made his debut for the Denmark national team in June 1971.

He moved to Sparta's inner-city rivals Feyenoord Rotterdam, and was eventually dropped from the Danish national team in November 1972.

Partly because the national team had prolific attacking players like Henning Jensen, Ulrik le Fevre, Per Røntved and not least Allan Simonsen.

And partly because Kristensen had trouble in getting the time off to travel home to Denmark to play for the national team.

He moved back to Denmark to play for Køge again, and was recalled for the Danish national team in August 1976.