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The Danish midfielder has played on the grass every minute of the Premier and the Eurocup.
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The fortress has always been a faithful life companion of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Copenhagen, 1995). When he was still a child, the current midfielder of the Danish national team decided to change the shirt of the Copenhagen for the Brondby, which is like leaving the Real Madrid al athletic -or the other way around-, provoking suspicious glances around him. It was the best for his progression as a footballer, he thought at the time, and he was right even though there were those who did not understand his decision. There, he helped Brondby break the league hegemony of his eternal rival in lower categories in previous years and caused scouts from the best clubs in Europe to notice his qualities.
A mere anecdote, in any case, compared to the traumatic situation that life forced him to face at the age of just 17, already a player of the Bayern. His father came down with cancer and the boy cried for the pain in his shoulder. Pep Guardiola, then your coach. Both shed tears that day and the technician promised to speak with Bayern to transfer his father to Germany and put him in the hands of the best doctors in the country. His father, despite the help of the club where his son played, ended up dying, but Hojbjerg never forget that gesture.
By then, Guardiola considered him the great jewel of the Bavarian quarry, I saw him as the ideal man to perform at Bayern the role that he exercised Sergio Busquets in his Barcelona. He was young and still fragile, but Pep was convinced of his enormous potential. It happened, however, that Hojbjerg made several transfers in the Bundesliga that did not help him settle into a squad brimming with talented players who could occupy the position of midfielder as Xabi Alonso, Javi Martnez, Lame, Kimmich, Thiago… “I want to go, it’s time to settle down as a first-team player elsewhere,” declared the footballer in 2016, even before he was 21 years old.
The jump to the Premier, key
His ambition led him to sign for the Southampton, the great springboard club of the Premier, through which players like Bale, Man, Van Dijk, Shaw, Oxlade… After four seasons in the south of the UK, Jos Mourinho He claimed him to reinforce the core of his Tottenham. It was not just another signing, it was his great bet to give his team a more aggressive and winning character. One year later, the success of his hiring is unquestionable.
Mourinho was fired before the season ended, but that didn’t stop him from Hojbjerg He would play each and every minute of the 38 Premier matches, a milestone that – goalkeepers aside – only matched the Czech Tomas Soucek (West Ham) and English James Ward-Prowse (Southampton). To finish the course, Hojbjerg so far he has played every possible minute with Denmark in this Eurocup, essential also for Kasper Hjulmand.
Among all competitions, the midfielder of Denmark accumulates 5,396 minutes of play during this very long season, according to the data collected by the portal Transfermarkt. In the five major leagues, there are only six players with the most accumulated playing time: Rben Dias, Frenkie de Jong, Youri Tielemans, Andy Robertson, Bruno Fernandes Y Harry Maguire. If he completed both the semi-final and a hypothetical final, only the City center-back and the Bara midfielder would be above him.
The unfortunate low of Christian Eriksen has increased its importance in the future of this surprising Denmark, in which the player of the Tottenham He acts as a total midfielder, builder and destroyer. Glory is only a matter of 180 minutes now. And then yes, Hojbjerg you can rest.
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