Nicklas Bendtner: the Danish party boy who refused to grow up

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As the Danish striker’s time at Arsenal comes to a close, Hugo Greenhalgh wonders where it all went wrong for Nicklas Bendtner…

In the same way that a stereotype can often contain a heavy dose of truth, a brief, personal anecdote epitomised all the expectations of a certain footballer. On a recent flight back from Copenhagen I was convinced I had seen Nicklas Bendtner boarding the same plane. But what was a Premier League footballer doing flying EasyJet? Arriving at London Gatwick I called, ‘Nick’. He turned around to reveal a puffy-eyed and scruffy visage, topped off with a backwards baseball cap. ‘Where have you been?’, I asked.

‘Vegas.’ Continue reading

Wild Tigers Unleashed: The Remarkable Rise of FC Nordsjaelland

The False Nine’s Danish correspondent Josh Dishman praises the recent achievements of FC Nordsjaelland, who are enjoying their adventures in the Champions League…

The story of FC Nordsjaelland is the stuff Hollywood scriptwriters would struggle to conjure up. Ten years on from gaining promotion to the Danish Superliga, after years of financial and political scandal, the small club from the sleepy North Zealand town of Farum in the suburbs of northern Copenhagen won its maiden league title. Continue reading