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Christian Eriksen
- Thread starter spurspinter1
- Start date
parklane1
Teddy Sheringham
This, he makes my pants sticky and as good as it was to see Kane sign this is the big one ( imo).
monkeybarry
Dimitar Berbatov
Agreed.
Even if he left and found another creator, the years Eriksen, Kane, Alli, Son have spent kmowikn eachothers game give us an extra edge.
afsoc4life
Alf Ramsey
We really need a backup or another player like him. I see him getting exhausted due to the number of games.
Gazza
Johnny Morrison
Can you also see how many goals and assists he will get please ... i want to win on the betting
Lemonade Money
Andy Thompson
The making of Christian Eriksen: from the start he was a ‘wow’ footballer
Coaches who have worked with the Denmark midfielder explain what makes him so special – and how he needed a kick up the backside to go from good to great
A 14-year-old Christian Eriksen, seventh left, with his team-mates in the Lillebælt school team at the Ekstra Bladets school football tournament in 2006. Photograph: Ekstra Bladet
The first thing that strikes a visitor to Middelfart Boldklub is the sheer number of pitches. There is plenty of space to learn football here, in this affluent spot plum in the centre of Denmark, but there has to be the appetite, too. Around 600 youngsters aged between five and 17, taken from a wider community of around 37,000, are currently signed on and, if the number seems high, it is not exactly a hard sell these days. “The name means something now,” says Claus Hansen, the chairman. “When kids start playing football they think: ‘Christian Eriksen is from Middelfart – I want to play at Middelfart too.’”
Hansen is speaking inside the smart, modest red-brick clubhouse, standing in front of a wall that displays shirts signed, at various points in his career, by his club’s most famous son. It is March and, by coincidence, the night Eriksen and Denmark will face Panama in a pre-World Cup friendly. The room will be packed as always, eyes transfixed on the television opposite, just as it is, Hansen says proudly, whenever Tottenham are on air.
On the way in a visitor must walk past the first pitch a five-year-old Eriksen ever used – these days a haphazardly kept quadrangle with small-sided goals dotted around. It was, at first, a well-trodden path. Three decades before him Hansen had begun kicking a ball around on the same turf, progressing to play for Middelfart’s first team alongside Eriksen’s father, Thomas.
Eriksen playing football in his parent’s garden in Middelfart with his father Thomas. Photograph: Poulsen Lars/Ritzau/Press Association Images
Eriksen was moving in that direction, too. “He was the best technical player I have ever seen, quite unique,” says Anders Skjoldemose, sitting in an office at the training ground of Odense BK. “But he was a team player too. Everyone could see he was the best individual but he was just as much the best at working for the team.”
These days Skjoldemose works in the top-flight club’s commercial department but in 2005, when a 13-year-old Eriksen made the 30-mile journey from Middelfart, he was at the heart of their youth operation. “Middelfart always have one or two players who are good enough,” he says, and that year they were Eriksen and his close friend Rasmus Falk, who now plays for FC Copenhagen. The pair came as a well-established double act.
Coaches who have worked with the Denmark midfielder explain what makes him so special – and how he needed a kick up the backside to go from good to great
A 14-year-old Christian Eriksen, seventh left, with his team-mates in the Lillebælt school team at the Ekstra Bladets school football tournament in 2006. Photograph: Ekstra Bladet
The first thing that strikes a visitor to Middelfart Boldklub is the sheer number of pitches. There is plenty of space to learn football here, in this affluent spot plum in the centre of Denmark, but there has to be the appetite, too. Around 600 youngsters aged between five and 17, taken from a wider community of around 37,000, are currently signed on and, if the number seems high, it is not exactly a hard sell these days. “The name means something now,” says Claus Hansen, the chairman. “When kids start playing football they think: ‘Christian Eriksen is from Middelfart – I want to play at Middelfart too.’”
Hansen is speaking inside the smart, modest red-brick clubhouse, standing in front of a wall that displays shirts signed, at various points in his career, by his club’s most famous son. It is March and, by coincidence, the night Eriksen and Denmark will face Panama in a pre-World Cup friendly. The room will be packed as always, eyes transfixed on the television opposite, just as it is, Hansen says proudly, whenever Tottenham are on air.
On the way in a visitor must walk past the first pitch a five-year-old Eriksen ever used – these days a haphazardly kept quadrangle with small-sided goals dotted around. It was, at first, a well-trodden path. Three decades before him Hansen had begun kicking a ball around on the same turf, progressing to play for Middelfart’s first team alongside Eriksen’s father, Thomas.
Eriksen playing football in his parent’s garden in Middelfart with his father Thomas. Photograph: Poulsen Lars/Ritzau/Press Association Images
Eriksen was moving in that direction, too. “He was the best technical player I have ever seen, quite unique,” says Anders Skjoldemose, sitting in an office at the training ground of Odense BK. “But he was a team player too. Everyone could see he was the best individual but he was just as much the best at working for the team.”
These days Skjoldemose works in the top-flight club’s commercial department but in 2005, when a 13-year-old Eriksen made the 30-mile journey from Middelfart, he was at the heart of their youth operation. “Middelfart always have one or two players who are good enough,” he says, and that year they were Eriksen and his close friend Rasmus Falk, who now plays for FC Copenhagen. The pair came as a well-established double act.
Lemonade Money
Andy Thompson
Tonny Hermansen, the current head of Odense’s academy and a former coach of Eriksen at regional level, remembers a match between Middelfart Under-12s and their rivals TPI in which the latter were 4-0 up at half-time. Within 20 minutes of the second half TPI, who included Hermansen’s son, were 8-4 down. “Christian and Rasmus just got on the ball, pa-pa-pa-pa-pa, played it between them, put it in, took the ball and started again,” he says. “They made all the goals. If you ask the guys that played at the time, they still remember.”
Things continued in a similar vein at Odense, where their age group would win the national title in 2006. Skjoldemose, who coached them directly at under-16 level, quickly noticed “some kind of magical atmosphere around that team”, Eriksen’s seriousness and maturity setting him apart. “He was invited to trials abroad at places like Chelsea and Milan,” he says. “When he got back the guys in the dressing room would go: ‘How was it in Milan?’ but he’d just say, ‘Yeah, it was OK. Are you ready for another session now?’ Every other kid would have been walking in the sky.”
Christian Eriksen with Ajax in 2011. ‘They played the kind of football the family wanted,’ one his former coaches says. Photograph: VI-Images via Getty Images
Out on Odense’s pitch No 1, Eriksen would score free-kick after free-kick, rinse and repeat. Sitting next to Skjoldemose, Hermansen reaches for his laptop and pulls up footage from a technical skills DVD he made for the Danish FA in 2005, one that is still shown in seminars around the continent today. It showcases one star pupil in particular. “His touch on the ball – 13 years old!” he exclaims, as if watching Eriksen for the first time, as the youngster passes and dribbles, but the most familiar-looking piece of footage is of a technically perfect set piece, curled into the corner of the goal. Six of his 41 goals in the Premier League have come that way and there is a thrill in seeing the past presage the future so unmistakably.
It was 2008 when Eriksen, then 16, joined Ajax. Hermansen believes that, back then, he would have found first-team chances hard to come by at Odense – it was not the fashion, he says, for Danish clubs to trust youngsters, even exceptional talents. “It was very smart of them,” he says of the Eriksens’ choice. “I think they knew 100% what they wanted to do with Christian and how. Amsterdam is five or six hours’ drive away. They’ve always had Danish guys there and they also played the kind of football the family wanted.”
Morten Olsen first watched Eriksen play in November 2009, two months before his promotion to the Ajax first-team squad. Denmark’s under-17s were playing a friendly against France and Olsen, nearly a decade into his 15-year stint as the senior national team’s coach, found himself transfixed.
World Cup in South Africa, appearing against the Netherlands and Japan.
His path towards becoming the country’s footballing fulcrum was set, although there was the occasional bump in the road. If there was one thing lacking in Eriksen, his coaches at Odense had thought, it was a dose of fire and brimstone; his way from the very beginning had been to let the ball speak but Olsen thought that, playing for Denmark, that was lending itself too much to passivity. In October 2014 he fiercely reproached Eriksen after a Euro 2016 qualifying defeat by Portugal, saying the player was not managing to control games and that this was “not Ajax any more … not development”.
“He’s the only guy in the national team I have criticised as much as that after a game,” Olsen says. “Normally I do it indoors but I said to myself that he could live with it – and that he had to live with it. Because of the kind of player he is, he needed to learn to live with the responsibility. Some people said I was too hard but at the time I had to press another button on Christian Eriksen, knowing the human being and the footballer.”
It was a carefully calculated kick up the backside. In Eriksen’s next 20 internationals he scored 15 goals, including the hat-trick in Dublin that in effect took Denmark to the World Cup. These days the team’s style, under the current coach, Age Hareide, is designed to put him in areas where he can hurt opponents to a degree none of his peers can match. “Even on a bad day Christian would run 13 or 14km for the team,” Olsen says. “So we can never really say he played a poor game. If he and the team can find form together, I think Denmark can surprise in Russia.”
Eriksen celebrates after scoring for Denmark in the play-off against Republic of Ireland which sealed a World Cup berth. Photograph: Lars Ronbog/FrontzoneSport via Getty Images
Whether or not they do, Eriksen will almost certainly be back in Middelfart later this summer, staying with his parents and dropping in on old friends. He will see the pitch Middelfart Boldklub constructed with the £35,000 they received on his move from Ajax to Tottenham; perhaps he will also pass by his old school, Lillebælt, whose “Cruyff Court” bears his name and was bequeathed during his time in the Eredivisie. An unassuming town and its equally demure offspring have served one another well.
“It would be great to have one like him every 10 years but nobody can promise that,” Hansen says. The regret is a trifling one at most; his club has already delivered a talent for the ages.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/15/christian-eriksen-making-of-denmark-tottenham
Things continued in a similar vein at Odense, where their age group would win the national title in 2006. Skjoldemose, who coached them directly at under-16 level, quickly noticed “some kind of magical atmosphere around that team”, Eriksen’s seriousness and maturity setting him apart. “He was invited to trials abroad at places like Chelsea and Milan,” he says. “When he got back the guys in the dressing room would go: ‘How was it in Milan?’ but he’d just say, ‘Yeah, it was OK. Are you ready for another session now?’ Every other kid would have been walking in the sky.”
Christian Eriksen with Ajax in 2011. ‘They played the kind of football the family wanted,’ one his former coaches says. Photograph: VI-Images via Getty Images
Out on Odense’s pitch No 1, Eriksen would score free-kick after free-kick, rinse and repeat. Sitting next to Skjoldemose, Hermansen reaches for his laptop and pulls up footage from a technical skills DVD he made for the Danish FA in 2005, one that is still shown in seminars around the continent today. It showcases one star pupil in particular. “His touch on the ball – 13 years old!” he exclaims, as if watching Eriksen for the first time, as the youngster passes and dribbles, but the most familiar-looking piece of footage is of a technically perfect set piece, curled into the corner of the goal. Six of his 41 goals in the Premier League have come that way and there is a thrill in seeing the past presage the future so unmistakably.
It was 2008 when Eriksen, then 16, joined Ajax. Hermansen believes that, back then, he would have found first-team chances hard to come by at Odense – it was not the fashion, he says, for Danish clubs to trust youngsters, even exceptional talents. “It was very smart of them,” he says of the Eriksens’ choice. “I think they knew 100% what they wanted to do with Christian and how. Amsterdam is five or six hours’ drive away. They’ve always had Danish guys there and they also played the kind of football the family wanted.”
Morten Olsen first watched Eriksen play in November 2009, two months before his promotion to the Ajax first-team squad. Denmark’s under-17s were playing a friendly against France and Olsen, nearly a decade into his 15-year stint as the senior national team’s coach, found himself transfixed.
World Cup in South Africa, appearing against the Netherlands and Japan.
His path towards becoming the country’s footballing fulcrum was set, although there was the occasional bump in the road. If there was one thing lacking in Eriksen, his coaches at Odense had thought, it was a dose of fire and brimstone; his way from the very beginning had been to let the ball speak but Olsen thought that, playing for Denmark, that was lending itself too much to passivity. In October 2014 he fiercely reproached Eriksen after a Euro 2016 qualifying defeat by Portugal, saying the player was not managing to control games and that this was “not Ajax any more … not development”.
“He’s the only guy in the national team I have criticised as much as that after a game,” Olsen says. “Normally I do it indoors but I said to myself that he could live with it – and that he had to live with it. Because of the kind of player he is, he needed to learn to live with the responsibility. Some people said I was too hard but at the time I had to press another button on Christian Eriksen, knowing the human being and the footballer.”
It was a carefully calculated kick up the backside. In Eriksen’s next 20 internationals he scored 15 goals, including the hat-trick in Dublin that in effect took Denmark to the World Cup. These days the team’s style, under the current coach, Age Hareide, is designed to put him in areas where he can hurt opponents to a degree none of his peers can match. “Even on a bad day Christian would run 13 or 14km for the team,” Olsen says. “So we can never really say he played a poor game. If he and the team can find form together, I think Denmark can surprise in Russia.”
Eriksen celebrates after scoring for Denmark in the play-off against Republic of Ireland which sealed a World Cup berth. Photograph: Lars Ronbog/FrontzoneSport via Getty Images
Whether or not they do, Eriksen will almost certainly be back in Middelfart later this summer, staying with his parents and dropping in on old friends. He will see the pitch Middelfart Boldklub constructed with the £35,000 they received on his move from Ajax to Tottenham; perhaps he will also pass by his old school, Lillebælt, whose “Cruyff Court” bears his name and was bequeathed during his time in the Eredivisie. An unassuming town and its equally demure offspring have served one another well.
“It would be great to have one like him every 10 years but nobody can promise that,” Hansen says. The regret is a trifling one at most; his club has already delivered a talent for the ages.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/15/christian-eriksen-making-of-denmark-tottenham
SissokoWasGood (BoL)
Paul Stalteri
It’s really interesting that point that he got rebuked by his national coach - I feel like that’s when he really stepped up another level for us too. Quite a good calculated gamble to call him out, but it definitely worked.
thfcsteff
Teddy Sheringham
Xmas the season before was the time he really kicked on IMO, after a similar “challenge” was thrown down at ours. Before that you could see both the talent and the “drift”...I think since that time he has been consistently excellent.
Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
Bullet
Paul Stewart
It was strange watching Eriksen for Denmark, he could barely get the ball. His teammates were really poor, scrappy possession, shanking it around the place, Eriksen just thinking "oh dear, gimme the ball for Christ's sake" and then he would play a give and go but not get it back... made me realise just how good Spurs players are!
thfcsteff
Teddy Sheringham
It was incredible. They sat him deep for a half to generate the play but that can only work if there is quality ahead. They are easy to mark, but this is where he is such a brilliant player these days because he keeps looking for that space to spring his moment. The pass was perfect.
Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
thfcsteff
Teddy Sheringham
Agreed on all.
Fatso Jason
Kasey Keller
Nice goal for Denmark
PochettinoPochettinoPochettino
Serge Aurier
Irreplaceable. Should never ever ever even think of selling him.