Mikkel Damsgaard - three years after silencing Wembley he has rejuvenated his career in southwest London

 

Under the famous Wembley arch on July 7^th 2021, the England fans, who largely dominated the stadium, fell silent. Stunned by a free-kick that viciously swerved and dipped past Jordan Pickford to put Denmark ahead in the Euros semi-final.

But for three years after that free-kick, it seemed he had lost his way and was unable to replicate the ability he had shown on that day, and for Nordsjaelland in the Danish Superliga, before he moved to Sampdoria the year before the Euros.

The gauntly teen hit 11 league goals in the 2019/20 season for Nordsjaelland, a club that has been synonymous with producing exciting talent.

Toke Theilade, the editor-in-chief at Vilfortpark, said: “He was always considered a big talent, and impressed at all levels.

“He was versatile at a young age, and although he mostly played in the midfield, he was also tried as a striker. Generally moved around a lot and never really struggled anywhere.

“Nordsjælland aren't afraid of giving young players early debuts, and Damsgaard received his when he was only 17.

“He ended up playing quite a lot in his first senior season, although he didn't make a huge impact.

“The expectations was that he would break through on the first team and that the club would generate a big income when selling him abroad.”

That move came in the form of Sampdoria, and with this switch to Serie A, the interest grew, the scrutiny increased and the expectations intensified all at the age of 20.

Theilade said: “He had outgrown the Superliga, and it would have been a waste of his time to stay there.

“At least as a football player. However, I think as a person, he could have used the extra time to get a little bit more mature.

“However, I'm sure moving to Italy shortly before Covid hit didn't make his life any easier as it surely didn't make adjusting to a new country easier.

“Ultimately, I think Sampdoria was a bad choice for him though. I think he should have gone to either Germany or Spain and played for a more possession-based team with less focus on defensive tactics.

“He is clearly an offensive-minded player, and he needed to play for a team where he was allowed to make mistakes and had a coach who trusted him.”

Despite only scoring two goals in 46 Serie A games, his form for Denmark continued to keep the spark, that garnered so much excitement, alive, and in between his two dreaded seasons at Sampdoria, he sparkled at the European Championships for Denmark.

“He had the insane Euro 2021,” said Theilade.

“He looked like a future world-class player. Suddenly he was rumoured to Barcelona and similar, and I think it almost made things harder for him.

“The expectations became huge and, he couldn't live up to them. He had the tournament of his life, but things were tough in Italy where he hardly played afterwards.

“I think Sampdoria were also disappointed that they couldn't cash in on his EUro performance and sell him for a huge fee.

The curious thing is that while he was awful for Sampdoria he kept shining for Denmark afterwards. I think the comfortability the national team brought him was important and that he truly enjoyed returning home to play for Kasper Hjulmand, who also coached him at Nordsjælland, and with his Danish teammates.”

Brentford rescued the midfielder and brought an end to his underwhelming Sampdoria spell, but after two years it looked like he was writing a similar script in southwest London.

He had started 16 games out of a possible 76 in his two opening Premier League campaigns, and registered two assists in that time, with none during his debut season.

Away from the glaring unproductive numbers he was slightly improving in the sense that he was becoming a better link between the midfield and attack, through dribbling and passes.

And now we are seeing a different Damsgaard, and he is playing in a style that looks to have revived his career and looked to help Brentford become a more collective threat.

He has become an all-round midfield player with his influence in the attacking third as he has already made 15 goal-creating actions, eight more than his two previous seasons combined.

Defensively he is a tireless and effective worker with the number of tackles and interceptions he has made this season already at 65 attempts, while in 2022/23 he recorded 41 and the season after 40.

The key? It wasn’t about unlocking a player but more about a person and making the human feel at home to then showcase the footballer.

There is a strong Danish contingency in Brentford, including head coach Thomas Frank and this seems to have helped Damsgaard perform.

Toke said: “He started to look like one of those eternal talents that just never makes it at the very top, also with his age nearing the stage, where he is no longer considered young.

“But this season has been fun to follow. We are finally seeing the player that we saw at the Euro again.

“It seems like he has finally found his confidence again, and also I think Frank is the perfect coach for him. He has full trust in him, and he is in many ways a clone of Hjulmand in their leadership style.

“Brentford is also a great club for him as the pressure and coverage is lower than many other clubs at the same level.

“In that way, it is very similar to Nordsjælland, and I think it suits a guy like Damsgaard greatly as he needs that confidence and trust from his surroundings.

“I hope he can make up for the time he has lost and keep his current level because then he'll be a great player for the national team for many years to come.

“I think he has a ceiling now that I didn't predict earlier. I don't see him making it to the absolute top, but I obviously hope I am wrong."

He has taken a deeper role and is involved in carrying Brentford up the field and supplying the dangerous Yoanne Wissa and Bryan Mbuemo, who are the poster boys of this post-Ivan Toney team.

Behind the two fierce forwards is Damsgaard silently working and once again making an impact in London, but this time for a more sustained period.

The cover image for this post was sourced from Wikimedia Commons under the

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International licence

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brentford_Community_Stadium_from_Lionel_Road_South.jpg), and is attributed to the author, AndyScott. It was retrieved by me on the 20 February 2025.