Christian Thers Nørgaard (born 10 March 1994) is a Danish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings w ...

and the Denmark national team. Between abortive spells with

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thr ...

and

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

, Nørgaard came to prominence in his homeland with Brøndby. He transferred to Brentford in 2019 and in 2021 was part of the squad which won promotion to the top-flight of English football for the second time in the club's history. Nørgaard was part of the Denmark squads at

Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europ ...

and the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wo ...

Club career

Early years

, Nørgaard began his career in his native Denmark with BK Heimdal and Espergærde IF, before entering the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping street and the site ...

in 2008. He progressed to win three calls into the first team squad during the 2011–12 season and made his only senior appearance for the club as a substitute in a 2–2 Superliga draw with

HB Køge HB Køge () is a professional Danish football club based primarily in the town of Herfølge, and secondly in the town of Køge, both in the Køge Municipality, part of 'Region of Zealand', in the eastern part of Zealand, south of Copenhagen. ...

on 20 November 2011. Two months later, Nørgaard spurned interest from

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 season ...

and

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V., or simply TSG 1899 Hoffenheim or just Hoffenheim () is a German professional football club based in Hoffenheim, a village of Sinsheim municipality, Baden-Württemberg. Originally founded in 1 ...

to transfer to

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

club

for a €400,000 fee. He signed a -year contract, but was unable to settle at the club and failed to make any first team appearances before his departure in August 2013. He gained his first regular experience of senior football with 22 appearances for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

Brøndby IF

On 21 August 2013, it was announced that Nørgaard had joined Danish Superliga club Brøndby on a four-year contract. Following a difficult first three seasons with the club, he thereafter was a regular fixture in the team under incoming manager

Alexander Zorniger Alexander Zorniger (born 8 October 1967) is a German football manager of Greuther Fürth and retired player who played as a midfielder. Coaching career Early career Zorniger started his coaching career with stints as head coach of Normannia Gm ...

and signed a new -year contract in January 2017. Nørgaard was named as Brøndby's Player of the Year for the 2017 calendar year and won the first

silverware Silverware may refer to: * Household silver including **Tableware **Cutlery **Candlesticks *The work of a silversmith * Silverware is also a slang term for a collection of trophies A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achieveme ...

of his career with the 2017–18

Danish Cup The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official " knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will qu ...

. Nørgaard became a cult hero at the club and by the time of his departure in July 2018, he had made 145 appearances and scored 11 goals.

Fiorentina

On 19 July 2018, Nørgaard moved to Italy to sign for

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

club

for a fee of approximately €3.5 million. He signed a four-year contract, but made just six appearances before departing the club in May 2019.

Brentford

On 28 May 2019, Nørgaard moved to England to join

on a four-year contract, with the option of an additional year, for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £2.8 million. The move reunited him with his former Denmark youth and Brøndby head coach

Thomas Frank Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

. Used as a screening midfielder in front of the

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

, Nørgaard made 45 appearances during the 2019–20 season, which ended with defeat in the 2020 Championship play-off Final. In September 2020, he signed a new four-year contract, with the option of a further year. Nørgaard began the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season as a virtual ever-present in midfield and winning senior international recognition with Denmark, but an ankle injury suffered during a match versus

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syst ...

on 4 October 2020 prevented him from making only one appearance during the following four months. Nørgaard returned to the team in late February 2021 and late in the season he was deployed as the

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) perciform fish of the family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 26 species in two genera. One species (''Pempheris xanth ...

in a

3-5-2 In association football, the formation of a team refers to the position players take in relation to each other on a pitch. As association football is a fluid and fast-moving game, a player's position (with the exception of the goalkeeper) in ...

formation. An injury restricted Nørgaard to only one appearance during Brentford's 2021 playoff campaign, which culminated in promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

after a 2–0 victory over

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ...

in the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. He finished the season with 22 appearances and one goal, scored in a 2–0

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...

second round win over

Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...

early in the campaign. Nørgaard scored his second Brentford career goal on the opening day of the 2021–22 season, in a 2–0 win over

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. He continued as a virtual ever-present in Premier League matches and in late December 2021, he signed a new -year contract, with a one-year option. Nørgaard's performances were recognised with the club's Supporters' and Players'

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

awards. He ended the 2021–22 season with 38 appearances, three goals and having attempted the most tackles of any Premier League player. Due to a knee problem suffered prior to Brentford's final match of the 2021–22 season, Nørgaard missed much of Brentford's

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, though he participated in the club's

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. He returned to match play for the final friendly of pre-season on 30 July 2022. Following four appearances and one goal during the opening month of the regular season, Nørgaard was withdrawn in order to recover from an ongoing achilles problem, which did not require surgery. He returned to match play in early November and made two appearances prior to the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

break. Still struggling with the achillles following the World Cup, Nørgaard elected to play through the pain and hope that the issue resolved itself, which was successful. He also captained the team in the absence of the injured

Pontus Jansson Pontus Sven Gustav Jansson (; born 13 February 1991) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Brentford, where he serves as club captain. Jansson started his career with local club Malmö FF before moving to Ita ...

International career

Nørgaard won 73 caps and scored five goals for Denmark between U16 and U21 level. He was a part of the Danes' 2011 U17 World Cup and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

and 2017 European U21 Championship squads. Nørgaard an unused substitute for the senior team during four 2018–19 Nations League group stage and

Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europe ...

matches in 2018 and 2019. On 8 September 2020, Nørgaard made his debut for the senior team with a start in a 0–0 Nations League draw with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and his performance was recognised with the

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man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award. After winning three further caps during the 2020–21 season, Nørgaard was named in the Denmark squad for

and appeared as a substitute in five of the six matches of the Danes' run to the semi-final. Nørgaard was named in Denmark's

squad and made one substitute appearance prior to the team's group stage exit.

Style of play

Nørgaard has been described as "technically good and looks to pass the ball forward. Importantly, he is also good at intercepting passes and has a strong defensive mindset". He "can play in a variety of different positions in the midfield, but has given his best performances as a deep midfield player".

Personal life

Nørgaard was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and grew up in

Espergærde Espergærde is a town situated in North Zealand near Øresund in Denmark and is statistically considered part of the larger urban area Espergærde-Snekkersten- Elsinore, some 5 to 8 km south of the centre of Elsinore and in reality separated fr ...

from the age of five. He is married with a son.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nørgaard goal.''

Honours

Brøndby *

: 2017–18 Brentford *

EFL Championship play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Individual * Brøndby Player of the Year: 2017 * Brentford Supporters' Player of the Year: 2021–22 *Brentford Players' Player of the Year: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * *
Christian Nørgaard
at brentfordfc.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Norgaard, Christian 1994 births Living people Footballers from Copenhagen Association football midfielders Danish men's footballers Denmark youth international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Denmark international footballers Lyngby Boldklub players Hamburger SV players Brøndby IF players ACF Fiorentina players Brentford F.C. players Danish Superliga players Regionalliga players Serie A players English Football League players UEFA Euro 2020 players Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Italy Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Premier League players 2022 FIFA World Cup players