Re: Christian Eriksen - Confirmed
Wednesday 19 December 2012 10.55 GMT
Christian Eriksen: is Ajax's coveted young playmaker ready to move on?
The highly coveted Ajax and Denmark star, a target for many of Europe's top clubs, on what the future might hold for him
'To get to the highest level, you have to be in the Premier League,' says Christian Eriksen, who has 18 months left on his Ajax contract. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian
Stuart James
Christian Eriksen's mind drifts back to Denmark's friendly against England early last year, when Ajax's prodigiously talented playmaker stole the show. It was a night when the English press had travelled to Copenhagen expecting to write about … "Wheelchair," Eriksen says, before there is chance to finish the question. "I read that before the game, the fight between the two youngsters – hopefully I won it."
The verdict was unanimous. Jack Wheelchair, who was winning his first full cap, was upstaged along with the rest of England's team by a player who has become one of the most coveted in Europe. "Too bad that I didn't score but it was a good game," Eriksen says, recalling a 2-1 defeat in which he hit the upright. "It was one of my best games for Denmark. Everything was right on time, every pass was good."
His career was already in the fast lane at that point. Eriksen was only 17 when Martin Jol, Ajax's manager at the time, talked about him in the same breath as Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart. A few months later, he became the youngest player to appear at the 2010 World Cup. In 2011, Eriksen helped Ajax win the title and was named Dutch Talent of the Year and Danish Player of the Year. This summer, at the age of 20, he carried the hopes of a nation. "At the European Championships everybody wanted me to make three goals every game. And everybody hoped that maybe then we would have a chance to go through. But it didn't happen."
Eriksen delivers far more often than not, though, which is why Europe's leading clubs are constantly linked with him. There is not much of him – he is 5ft 9in and has a slight physique – but with the ball at his feet he is a joy to watch. It is no surprise that the tricks, outrageous nutmegs, sublime goals and eye-of-a-needle passes have prompted comparisons with another great Dane who played for Ajax.
"In the beginning it was like you have a Michael Laudrup sign on your back," Eriksen says, alluding to the parallels that Johan Cruyff and so many others drew when he first broke through. "But now I've played a lot of games, I haven't read about the Laudrup comparison for a long time, so it's just Eriksen and I think that's a good thing. I'm my own person and I think that's what everyone wants because it's difficult to be somebody else."
Eriksen is talking in the canteen at Ajax's training ground, which feels like a retirement home for Premier League legends as Edwin van der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars, who all work for the club, stroll through. Black and white photographs decorate the walls and provide a reminder of those glorious days when Cruyff inspired a team that won the European Cup three years on the spin in the early 1970s.
Ajax's status has changed since those times, which is why there is an acceptance that Eriksen, who has 18 months left on his contract, will move on at some point. Does he have a preference for the country where he will play next? "I heard sometimes [from others] I would like to play in the sun because it's better, so Italy or Spain, or in England … although it's cold and raining every day and no Christmas, so it's different there," he says, laughing. "I'm going to see what opportunities there are but I'm still happy here and I don't have any thoughts that I have to leave."
Eriksen gives the impression that he loves life in the Netherlands. He speaks Dutch fluently, enjoys the fact that he can walk through the streets of Amsterdam without being hassled – "It's only tourists here" – and sounds sincere in his affection for Ajax and the game he was born to play. "Money has never been a motivation. I have chosen football before that every time and I still do that," he says. "I'm addicted to football. When I get outside, I just want to stay on the training pitch."
He remembers the days when he spent hours honing his skills in Middelfart, the small Danish town where he grew up "playing a hell of a lot of Football Manager on the computer" and running rings around friends with a ball at his feet. His father, Thomas, coached him from the age of three up until he turned 13, when he joined Odense. Bigger clubs soon took notice. He spent a week with Barcelona, three days with Milan and had two trials with Chelsea, at the age of 14 and 15.
Chelsea liked what they saw but not enough to offer Eriksen a contract. "I was not disappointed, for me it was just to see how it goes, it was not really for going [there]," Eriksen says. "It was another world. It was not like Denmark, or like this, where it is open and everyone can come [to training]. Everything was closed and if you are there as a 16-year-old and you have to be so closed, you lose a lot of things. And we thought the football was a little bit more power than what I wanted.
"Also Chelsea is such a big club, they have so much money that if they need someone for the first team, they just buy them. Ajax buy them if they are young and they see talent. And it's easier to go to the first-team here and that was also what I saw. At Chelsea it was like, Under-17 own world, Under-19 own world and then the first team another world. For a [young] player it was difficult to see how there could be a possibility."
Chelsea's decision not to sign Eriksen was influenced by the fact that they already had Josh McEachran, who played in a similar position and was a year younger. Fast forward five years and McEachran has made one Premier League start for Chelsea and is on loan at Middlesbrough. Eriksen has played 136 times for Ajax. "Exactly," Eriksen says. "Of course it's a different league. And a lot of players in England, when they are with big clubs, they go out on loan. That hasn't ever really been spoken about here because I played. For me, I am at the right place at the right time."
It is difficult to think of a better club than Ajax for a gifted youngster, which is why it is easy to understand Eriksen's decision to reject interest from Emirates Marketing Project 18 months ago. "Again, it was the feeling to get to a big club where they buy some new players every six months. Then, probably, if you didn't do well in the beginning, you would go out on loan. I wouldn't like that. For me, it was just about wanting to play. At that point I was just 19 years old, so I had no hurry."
Has that feeling changed? "But of course we have won two times the championship and we've played a lot in the Champions League. When I came everybody was saying: 'We have to be champions, we have to play in the Champions League.' Now we have played there for two years and everybody knows how it is. But still, for me, as a young player, you have to play every week and you have to be better and better. That's what counts."
He smiles when the conversation turns to the four points Ajax took off Emirates Marketing Project in the Champions League this season. "I think we won [at home] because we played different. In England, you play the long ball and you want the second ball. Here we play between the lines and it's easier for us to play football. I think everybody saw opportunities because we played against Manchester United last season and that was the same, we had our chances and we didn't take them. Against City, we took them."
Although there is clearly a perception that English football lags behind technically, Eriksen expresses admiration for the "exciting" and "competitive" nature of the Premier League and leaves the door open to the possibility of playing here one day. "I think for everyone who wants to get to the highest level, you have to be in the Premier League, of course. But when that should be, I have no idea. Maybe 10 years."
The interview is coming to an end but Eriksen knows there is one more question coming and breaks into laughter when it starts with the suggestion that everyone is going to be writing his name when the transfer window opens next month. Could he move? "I don't think so," he says. "If something really exciting is coming, maybe you would look at it. But my feeling now is take it easy and see when it comes."
Christian Eriksen has been named in the Guardian's inaugural World's Top 100 Footballers series, part 1 of which will be published on guardian.co.uk at midday on Thursday, counting down to revealing No1 on Monday
