Mikkel Duelund Poulsen (born 29 June 1997) 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

club

Vejle Boldklub Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six ...

Club career

Early career

Duelund was born in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

and started playing football at the age of two in Virup IF. From the time he was two years old, until he was eight years old, he played first for

Vejlby-Risskov Idrætsklub Vejlby-Risskov Idrætsklub, commonly known as VRI, is a sports club based in Risskov, Aarhus, Denmark. VRI is mostly known for its association football department, which competes in the Denmark Series, the fifth tier of the Danish football leagu ...

(VRI) and then for Hjortshøj-Egaa Idrætsforening (HEI). At the age of eight, he moved to

IK Skovbakken Vejlby Skovbakken Aarhus (; commonly known as VSK Aarhus) is a Danish football club based in Risskov, a neighbourhood in Aarhus. The club was founded in 2016 when the football departments of Vejlby IK Fodbold and Idrætsklubben Skovbakken decid ...

, where he played for three years. At the age of 11, Duelund joined the AGF academy; the most renowned in the city. He subsequently had offers from several other clubs, but at the age of 14 he chose to move to

FC Midtjylland Football Club Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Superliga, which they ...

Midtjylland

Duelund began his professional career with

side FC Midtjylland. In 2013, he took part in a trial with

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

but ultimately remained with Midtjylland's youth team. During his time with the U19 group, Duelund won the Top Goalscorer and Player of the Season awards as the side were crowned Danish champions. In 2014, he was named by ''The Guardian'' as one of 40 best young talents in World Football. Following his form at youth level Duelund was promoted to the first-team, making his league debut in March 2015 against

Hobro IK Hobro Idræts Klub (), commonly referred to as Hobro IK or HIK, is a professional football club based in Hobro, Denmark. The club currently competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of the Danish football league system, and plays its h ...

, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Petter Andersson Lars Petter Andersson (born 20 February 1985) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He represented Hammarby IF, captained FC Groningen, and won the Danish Superliga with FC Midtjylland during his career. He also ...

. By the end of his debut season he had helped the club to its first ever Superliga title. As a result of his showings in 2015 Duelund won the DBU U19 talent of the year-award. In the year that followed he made a goalscoring debut in the Champions League against Lincoln Red Imps before later debuting in the

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 ...

against

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

. In 2016–17, he became the seventh youngest player ever to score 10 career league goals in the Superliga. In March 2018, Duelund made his 100th appearance for Midtjylland and marked the occasion with a goal in a 2–1 win over

Silkeborg Silkeborg () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 52,571 (1 January 2025).Brøndby.

Dynamo Kyiv

On 31 August 2018, Duelund signed a contract with Ukrainian club

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

. He made his debut for the club on 16 September in a 1–1 away draw against

Zorya Luhansk FC Zorya Luhansk ( ) is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk was based in the city of Luhansk, Ukraine. However, due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the team currently plays its games at Slavutych-Arena in Zaporizhzhia. The modern club as a ...

, coming on as a substitute in the 59th minute for Volodymyr Shepelyev. In his third game, he scored his first goal for the club – the game-winner in a 1–0 away win over

Arsenal Kyiv Football Club Arsenal Kyiv () is a Ukrainian football club based in Kyiv. In 2019, the club's professional team was dissolved, but its junior teams continue to compete in city competitions. The club claims to be a successor of Kyiv Arsenal fac ...

. However, he would only play sporadically. Within two months of his move, he suffered an ankle fracture which meant that he barely made any appearances for over a year and a half. After recovering in February 2020, he mostly appeared as a substitute. During the 2020–21 season, Duelund made only four league appearances, of which one was in the starting lineup. In November 2020, Duelund was one of multiple Dynamo players infected with

SARS‑CoV‑2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the provisional name 2019 novel coro ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

NEC (loan)

On 22 June 2021, recently promoted Dutch

club

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion ...

announced that they had signed Duelund on a one-season loan from Dynamo Kyiv with an option to buy. He made his debut on 14 August in a 5–0 loss to defending champions

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

. On 5 August 2022, the loan was extended by another season. He started the 2022–23 season in convincing fashion, scoring once and adding two assists on the second matchday in a 4–1 victory against

FC Volendam Football Club Volendam () is a professional association football, football club based in Volendam, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of the Dutch football league system, following promotion from the Eerste Divisie in the 2024 ...

. On 29 January 2023 NEC confirmed, that Duelund's contract had been terminated by mutual agreement.

AGF (loan)

Later on the same day which Duelund left

club AGF confirmed that Duelund had returned to the club, which he played for as a youth player, on a loan deal for the rest of the season.

Vejle BK

On 17 June 2025 it was confirmed, that Dueland had joined

on a deal until June 2027.

International career

In June 2017, Duelund was one of two 19-year-olds named in Denmark's squad for the

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

in Poland. He featured twice at the tournament, including a start in a 3–0 loss to eventual champions

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 ...

, before Denmark were eliminated during the group stages. He got his debut for the Denmark League XI side in a friendly against

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

on 15 January 2018, where he scored one goal in Denmark's 2–3 loss.

Personal life

In February 2016, ahead of the Midtjylland's

game against

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

, Duelund stated he was a lifelong fan of the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club and named

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who was most recently the head coach of EFL Championship club Plymouth Argyle F.C., Pl ...

as his footballing idol.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Midtjylland *

: 2014–15, 2017–18 Dynamo Kyiv *

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

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 ...

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( ) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003–04 season, the Cup winner qu ...

: 2019–20,

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup () is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football (soccer), football competition season in Ukraine. Originally it was s ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

References

External links

Mikkel Duelund
at AGF
Mikkel Duelund
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duelund, Mikkel 1997 births Living people Danish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Danish Superliga players Ukrainian Premier League players Eredivisie players VSK Aarhus players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players FC Midtjylland players FC Dynamo Kyiv players NEC Nijmegen players Vejle Boldklub players Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Ukraine Danish expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Footballers from Aarhus 21st-century Danish sportsmen