Christian Eriksen: “I’m grateful to have my old life back”

Ahen the scenes of his collapse flicker across the big video screen, the moment when doctors are fighting for Christian Eriksen’s life and a Danish team remains in shock, followed by images of his return to life and onto the football field – there is silence the presentation of the Laureus World Sports Awards. For the first time since 2020, the grand gala will be held in person to celebrate the power of sport and its heroes. Ericsen is one of them.

The presentation of the comeback award to the Danish national player was the emotional highlight of the gala in the Vendome pavilion in Paris on Monday evening, where superstar Messi had previously been honored as athlete of the year and caused a state of emergency on the red carpet. Eriksen now allowed a look back at that ominous day that changed his life and the time after, first on stage and later in more detail and in peace.

The prize was presented to him by someone who understands what Eriksen experienced: David Ginola (56), former French soccer player. Ginola was 49 when he collapsed in the midday sun during a football game and was taken to hospital with a suspected heart attack. A quadruple bypass operation followed. Eriksen is now up there on the stage and begins his acceptance speech. Among the gala guests looking at him is his wife Sabrina Kvist Jensen. He says: “Seeing this video, the memories – my wife Sabrina just reacted very emotionally, she takes it with her. It also affected other people around me very much.”

More than himself, as he suspects, even if Eriksen adds: “That day changed my life, for the worse. But I was also lucky: my teammates and the doctors reacted very quickly and brought me back. And I didn’t have any serious consequential damage.” He smiles.

“I enjoy my life more than before”

The day that Eriksen was talking about was June 12, 2021. The Danish national team’s star midfielder collapsed with cardiac arrest during the European Championship match against Finland. He was “dead for five minutes,” said Eriksen later. How often did he look at the pictures of the dramatic minutes? Eriksen puts the comeback trophy down next to him, a few minutes from the ceremony, and he says: “I actually watched the video of my breakdown a few times, even the day after it happened. To see what had happened. It doesn’t get any easier to watch the scenes. But it belongs to me.”

For a long time it was uncertain whether he would even be able to make a comeback on the pitch, and the path was not easy. Many didn’t believe that Eriksen could get his old professional life back after the dramatic scenes and with a pacemaker fitted to him afterwards.

In the beginning there was something completely different in focus for him anyway. “The most important thing for me was to come back as a person and not as a footballer. My first goal was to come back to life and be a full-time dad, a full-time partner to my wife. That was and still is the most important thing to this day.” In general, he has learned to look at other people more. “Because I quickly felt like myself again. But it did something to the others.”

But his view of life has changed, the perspective, the priorities. “I enjoy my life and being with my family even more than before. I have learned to enjoy being here, to enjoy what is and what is to come. Playing football as long as I enjoy it. And when that is no longer the case, to do something else. I’m more relaxed and less nervous.”

Eriksen wanted to prove it to himself and everyone else

Football is now back in his life. Six months after that ominous day, Eriksen took the first step in this direction: he trained at his youth club Odense BK. However, a return to his club Inter Milan was ruled out, they agreed to terminate the contract because players with a pacemaker are not allowed to compete in the Italian Serie A. “I knew that there are a lot of rules in Italy that forbid me from continuing to play there,” he says. So at the time I didn’t think it was all over. Above all, because football wasn’t my focus again back then. I didn’t know if I could really come back.” At the beginning of 2022, Eriksen was without a club. His future in football was uncertain.

He still follows the games of his old club, he harbors no grudges. why? The situation was without alternative. “I had a great time at Inter Milan and it was sad that we had to end it like this, but we had no choice,” says Eriksen. “And of course I’m still following the club, talking to the lads and cheering for the Champions League semi-finals.” Inter meets AC Milan this Wednesday. “I’m sure they’ll make it to the final,” says Eriksen.

He himself is also in the middle of big business again. In February 2022, Eriksen returned to Brentford FC as a professional footballer, and in March also as an international. Manchester United finally signed him in the summer. And at the World Cup in Qatar he was on the pitch every minute for Denmark. “There have been a lot of nice sporting moments since I was able to continue my career. To be me, to be able to be a professional footballer again. I’m happy and grateful to have my old life back, to have a second chance,” he says. “I will forever be grateful to Brentford for giving me the opportunity to be a footballer again.”

Above all, it was his passion for the sport that helped him along the way. “I wanted to be a soccer player again, wanted to be what was taken from me,” he says at the end in Paris. “I wanted to show myself and everyone else that I could do it. But more important than my wish was that of my family: Is it okay for them? And that was it.”