Denmark’s Eriksen aims to impress for World Cup at Brentford

About seven and a half months after his cardiac arrest in Denmark’s first appearance at EURO 2020 against Finland on 12 June, Christian Eriksen signed with Brentford. More precisely, the 29-year-old playmaker for now received a contract with the Bees until 30 June. Before that, he had to terminate his agreement with Inter Milan, which originally ran until the summer of 2024. This is because the Italian federation FIGC does not permit the use of players with a defibrillator inserted. 

Eriksen worked with Chiasso and Jong Ajax on his comeback

Eriksen then trained with two teams between late December and January. First, he kept fit near Milan with Chiasso, who play in the Swiss 1st division promotion. Then he did so with Jong Ajax. The second team of the most successful Dutch club, where Eriksen was under contract from 2010 to 2013, competes in the Eerste Divisie.

After three seasons at Ajax, Eriksen moved to Tottenham Hotspur. The Danish playmaker spent six and a half years at the Premier League club before moving from London to Milan in January 2020. Now the 29-year-old returns to the British capital.

Brentford represents a sort of branch of Danish football

Bees coach Thomas Frank said Eriksen will arrive on Sunday and take part in team training for the first time on Monday. After that, he said, it will become clear when the “possibly most important new signing in Brentford’s history” is likely to make his debut.

Frank is one of the reasons for Eriksen’s move to the Premier League. After all, the 48-year-old Dane already coached him when he was a youth player for the Danish Football Association DBU. Moreover, Brentford’s squad includes six other Danes. By this, we mean, among others, the defenders Mads Bech Sörensen, Zanka and Mads Roerslev Rasmussen. Then there are midfielders Christian Nörgaard and Mathias Jensen as well as substitute goalkeeper Jonas Lössl.

Nörgaard and Jensen are in the extended squad of the Danish national team. Now Eriksen hopes to join them at the World Cup finals in Qatar. Denmark has already their ticket thanks to the first place in Group F of the European qualifiers. And the team coach Kasper Hjulmand certainly won’t be to blame either.

Alice Kopp

By Alice Kopp

Alice is half Austrian and half Italian. That's why she experienced the 1990 World Cup in Italy at first hand. And that awakened her enthusiasm for football. Since she has loved writing since childhood, Alice began to study journalism while still at school. It was very convenient for her that her class took part in a project of a German daily newspaper. She was also allowed to write for the children's pages of an Austrian daily newspaper and to get a taste of the sports department of the same medium. This is how she received her first press accreditations, which was of course anything but a matter of course for the then 18-year-old. Although she was partly advised against it, Alice decided to study journalism and communication sciences. After a few years, she decided to use the exams she had taken as an elective. Nevertheless, she applies the knowledge she has acquired in her further professional life. The same applies to her language skills. In addition to her mother tongues German and Italian, Alice is also proficient in English and Spanish. She also understands French and can use this language in research. During her studies, Alice was involved in an Austrian football club. At the same time, she wrote for a total of three Austrian portals and worked as an Austria correspondent for an Italian-language online medium. This collaboration started during Giovanni Trapattoni's era at Red Bull Salzburg and continued during EURO 2008. This gave her the opportunity to interact with Trapattoni as well as with Italian journalists. From the following year, Alice initially worked with a Swiss portal before discovering sports betting content for herself. On the one hand, this kept her in sports journalism, and on the other, it broadened her horizons. And that both in the context of the sports betting industry and with other sports as well as countries. In the field of sports journalism, she focused in particular on football from around the world, volleyball and beach volleyball. In addition, she naturally wrote several guides, bookmaker profiles, bonus articles and other content for betting enthusiasts. She did this for the same company for about ten years, writing articles in German and Italian. She also built the Italian-language website together with the managing director. Meanwhile, Alice started working with another Austrian football club. Furthermore, she joined the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS) in 2016. This gives her the opportunity to watch teams and athletes on the ground relatively often. Not only sports betting, but also radio In January 2019, the next step in her professional development followed. For: she started creating premium content on the topic of sports betting. In the process, she finally put out feelers to almost all countries and all continents. And this was not least due to the fact that both German and English-speaking users subscribed to her content. Nevertheless, Alice continued to use her knowledge of Italian, among other things. On the one hand, because she regularly exchanges ideas with Italian colleagues, and on the other, because she works with a web radio station. The Corona crisis had a strong impact on the sports world and on interest in sports betting, primarily in the early days. Therefore, a fresh start was necessary and, on balance, Alice found the fields of activity that suited her best. She also writes articles for an agency on almost all disciplines as well as on eSports and content for a German online medium. Alice is half Austrian and half Italian. That's why she experienced the 1990 World Cup in Italy at first hand. And that awakened her enthusiasm for football.