Mathias Ross Jensen (born 15 January 2001) 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 lea ...

who plays as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is currently a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

. He is the older brother of Oliver Ross.

Club career

AaB Fodbold

Growing up in the Hasseris district of

Aalborg Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...

, Ross started his football career as a 10-year-old at Aalborg KFUM. At under-13 level he joined the

AaB AAB, AaB or Aab may refer to: Aviation * Abelag Aviation in Belgium * Air Assault Badge, a United States Army military badge * Anti-aircraft battery, a weapons system component for anti-aircraft warfare * IATA airport code for Arrabury Airport ...

youth academy. In his first year as a U17 player, other

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

s were preferred ahead of Ross, which meant that he mainly appeared on the reserve team or as a substitute striker in the final minutes. In his second U17 year, however, he became a regular player for the team in the U17 league. AaB U17 finished the 2017–18 season in third place in the league table, and in June 2018 he was named U17 Player of the Year in AaB. Ross made his professional debut for the AaB first team on 2 September 2018, when he came on as a substitute after 27 minutes for an injured

Jakob Blåbjerg Jakob Blåbjerg Mathiasen (born 11 January 1995) is a Danish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a defender (association football), defender. Youth career Blåbjerg joined AaB as a U14 player from Vejgaard BK. Cl ...

in a 2–2 draw against

Randers FC Randers FC () is a professional association football, football club based in Randers, East Jutland metropolitan area, East Jutland, that plays in the Danish Superliga, the top flight of the Danish football league system. Founded on 1 January 200 ...

. At the time of the substitution, AaB were behind 2–1, and newspaper ''

Tipsbladet ''Tipsbladet'' is a weekly sports magazine focusing on football which has been in circulation since 1948. It the oldest football magazine in Scandinavia and is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. History and profile ''Tipsbladet'' was founded ...

'' described Ross' debut as "excellent". A month later, in October 2018, he was permanently promoted to AaB's first team squad. During the regular season he was used three times, but from the relegation round he established himself as a starter in the first team. AaB eventually qualified for the play-offs to participate in the first qualifying round for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

, where they were, eliminated in the first round against AGF. In January 2019, Ross signed a contract extension keeping him in AaB until 2023.

Galatasaray

On 8 September 2022, Ross signed a four-year contract with

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

. It was announced that a transfer fee of €1,750,000 would be paid to the player's former team,

. Ross became the champion in the

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

in the

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 ...

season with Galatasaray. Defeating Ankaragücü 4–1 away in the match played on 30 May 2023, Galatasaray secured the lead with two weeks before the end and won the 23rd championship in its history. On 4 July 4 2025, Galatasaray announced that it has parted ways with defender Ross.

Loan to NEC Nijmegen

On 21 July 2023, Ross was loaned out to the Eredivisie club

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

for one

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. Accordingly, NEC Nijmegen would pay a temporary transfer fee of €250,000 to Galatasaray.

Loan to Sparta Prague

On 16 July 2024, it was confirmed that Ross joined

Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...

, which had Ross' former

manager,

Lars Friis Lars Friis (born 7 May 1976) is a Danish football manager. Playing career Lars Friis was born on 7 May 1976 in Feldborg, Denmark. He started playing youth football for local club, Feldborg-Haderup IF. Known for his technical ability and dedi ...

, as manager, on a loan deal for the 2024-25 season, with a purchase option of around €1.2 million.

International career

Ross made his international debut on 7 October 2017 as part of the Denmark under-17 team, when he was part of the starting lineup and played 90 minutes in a 3–4 defeat to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

. He went from being a peripheral player under the auspices of the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...

(DBU) to being

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

in the last match during the

2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-17 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (35th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth association foo ...

. He made 11 appearances for the national under-17 team. Ross made his first appearance for the Denmark under-19 team on 7 September 2018, and soon established himself as a starter.

Career Statistics

Club

Honours

Galatasaray *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Mathias 2001 births Footballers from Aalborg Living people Men's association football central defenders Danish men's footballers Denmark men's youth international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Danish Superliga players Eredivisie players AaB Fodbold players Galatasaray S.K. footballers NEC Nijmegen players AC Sparta Prague players Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Expatriate men's footballers in the Czech Republic Czech First League players 21st-century Danish sportsmen