As a young boy in a remote area of Denmark called Thy I learned that I had a talent. Long legs and speed gave me the opportunity to become a professional football player. In Denmark in the 1990s it was very common to pack a bag and travel for half a year in Asia between school and university. For me that wasn’t a possibility as I already was on the path to becoming a professional at Danish club AaB.
So my girlfriend and I made an agreement. Football was to be our opportunity to see Europe and experience different cultures. After two years with Ajax in Amsterdam, the capital of diversity and tolerance, I arrived at Chelsea in 2000 and stayed there for two years. I was part of the movement the club made from being an ambitious, underachieving one to regular participants in the latter stages of the Champions League. Off the pitch I was astonished by British football culture.
The football fan on the street knew everything there was to know about the team’s current results, as well as their performances going back 10 years. He knew everything about Everton’s back four, even though he supported Chelsea or Manchester United. They knew all about the Danes in the Premier League, past and present: Peter Schmeichel at Manchester United, of course, but also John Jensen with Arsenal and even Mikkel Beck at Middlesbrough.
I always took the opinions of these fans seriously, even though they could be harsh and without justification. Both because they knew their football and because they appreciated their players. When I revisited Chelsea in the 2010/11 Champions League with FC Copenhagen I was welcomed with open arms, and I’m sure I would be today.
The British attitude towards continental football also said a great deal about the people. In short they were totally indifferent towards football and countries abroad. They did not know the difference between Denmark and Norway. Were they part of the same country? And what about Scandinavia? The Bundesliga and all of the Spanish league, apart from Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, did not matter. I was astonished about the gap that existed between the patriotism surrounding British football and the scepticism about continental football. Football was to be played the British way and the game on Saturday became such a focal point for friends, family and pints that other, European football cultures were almost frowned upon.
But I was fine with it. I just thought it was the way British football culture had evolved. This approach was just an expression of a great love for your own way of during things.
I also experienced other cultures, German and Spanish, and what football meant to them. In Germany, where I spent a year with Stuttgart, everything was incredibly decent, organised and precise.
Spain still intrigues me. I played for Atlético Madrid in 2005 and did not understand how on the surface people could be so happy, seemingly unworried, despite high unemployment rates and other economic difficulties for the country, and at the same time feel such a great passion for their football club. It was like those two things did not correlate.
I ended my career in the Danish capital. We won championships and established perhaps the greatest Danish club team ever, in 2010/2011, when we made it to the last 16 of the Champions League, a feat no other Danish team has ever managed.
Even though Copenhagen was very different from Thy, where I had grown up, Denmark was my safe harbour, as I returned for my retirement. But I – and many others like me – had made Europe my workplace.
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