‘Ciao, Ciao!’ Christian Eriksen said a cheery farewell in Italian and disappeared from the screen. He looked healthy, fit and in good spirits. Just about the last person you would expect to collapse at the age of 29.
It was less than two weeks ago and Eriksen was speaking to us from Denmark’s training camp before Euro 2020. He was looking forward to the tournament and in particular the three group games at home in Copenhagen.
His coach Kasper Hjulmand had already told us that Eriksen is typically top of his team’s running stats in games, which isn’t always the case with star players.
Denmark star Christian Eriksen is just about the last person that you would expect to collapse
It was after bursting forward in the 42nd minute at the Parken Stadium on Sunday that the Inter Milan midfielder fell to the turf.
In the harrowing moments that followed, it was impossible not to think back to the smiling character who had been so excited about his country’s opening game against Finland.
The Euros will always hold a special place in the hearts of the Danes — shock winners in 1992.
‘I was three months old,’ recalled Eriksen. ‘Anyone in Denmark knows what happened in ’92. It’s been made a movie series, all the players from back then are still very famous in Denmark — that’s what it means to win a big tournament like the Euros. It’s many years ago but it’s still remembered.
Before the tournament Eriksen spoke of his excitement of playing games at home in Denmark
‘It will be very, very special to play at home. We can’t wait. It’s been postponed for a while so we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time now.
‘I think this is the best Danish squad I’ve been in since I came into the national team. We’re going to try to bring our momentum from the last few years and take it into the tournament.
‘It’s difficult to see where we end up but we have a very strong and exciting team so hopefully we can go further than we’ve done before and get where it’s really fun.’
Eriksen opened up about his prospects at Inter, having left Tottenham after six-and-a-half years to move to the San Siro in January 2020.
It was the worst possible timing, coinciding with the pandemic and forcing the former Ajax man to live at Inter’s training ground for a while.
‘It’s been 15 months with a lot of ups and downs,’ he admitted.
Eriksen also discussed the legacy of Denmark’s success at the 1992 European Championship
‘Going there was something that I wanted to do, but I was there for less than a month and the whole country shut down for corona.
‘My hotel shut down and I had to find a place to stay — the options were the couch at Romelu Lukaku’s house, the couch at Ashley Young’s place or the training ground and it ended up being the training ground.
‘Being kicked out of the hotel and staying at the training ground and coming back for pre-season in an apartment with no furniture or anything, it’s been a rollercoaster ever since.’
Romelu Lukaku helped Eriksen to settle in Milan, translating from Dutch into Italian for his new teammate. But things didn’t work out as he had hoped and Inter’s chief executive Beppe Marotta confirmed that Eriksen could leave in the January transfer window just a year after arriving from Spurs.
Eriksen stayed and turned his fortunes around. It began in the Coppa Italia tie against AC Milan that month, when he came off the bench to score an injury-time free-kick.
Coach Antonio Conte started the Dane in 17 of the final 19 Serie A games as Inter won their first scudetto in 11 years.
Eriksen spoke of his gratitude to Romelu Lukaku after the striker helped him settle in Italy
‘I was there to play football and the first year I didn’t play as much as I wanted but that hasn’t changed me, I was still the same guy even when I wasn’t playing,’ said Eriksen.
‘There has been a lot of extra training, shooting drills, free-kicks, a bit more in the gym than I’m used to.
‘In the end, I was lucky the manager looked my way. I wanted to play more, that’s why I came and what I expected and what everybody else expected.
‘I’m pleased that in the end he let me play and then of course to win a trophy was something special and something I couldn’t have imagined even six months before, to have as big a part as I ended up having.’
Eriksen spoke of his gratitude to Lukaku and his enduring friendship with former Tottenham teammates Jan Vertongen and Toby Alderweireld, three players he was looking forward to facing when Denmark play Belgium in Copenhagen on Thursday.
That reunion won’t take place now, of course, but after the dreadful scenes at the Parken Stadium on Sunday afternoon we should just be grateful the situation isn’t even worse.