While the 33 -year -old Christian Eriksen is preparing to earn his 143rd cap for the Danish national team in a friendly against Noord -Ireland on Saturday evening, he tells Dr.DK's podcast “Fodboldlists” that there is one thing that annoys him when he looks back on his career.
He won national championships with both Ajax and Inter and played in the Champions League final with Tottenham. But in terms of the Danish national team there is still something in my career, says Eriksen.
“I would have liked to have had it further in a final tournament with Denmark. Of course there were the European Championships in 2021 (Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest while playing in the opening match against Finland), but I did not feel that I was part of it. In a different way than what I should have been,” he says.
Christian Eriksen participated in six final tournaments with Denmark (World Cup 2010, 2018 and 2022) and European Championships (2012, 2021 and 2024).
Denmark enjoyed their best results in 2018 and 2024, where the team reached the quarterfinals if you ignored the 2021 tournament in which Eriksen could not play because of his accident.
“I would have liked to take Denmark further than what I was able to do. There I felt that I could have signed my name in a larger way in the history books. That was missed.”
No one in Danish football history has reached as many caps as Eriksen, an achievement that he is proud of.
“To sit here and to have played the most international matches, that is special. It is very, very special and something that I am incredibly grateful that I was able to do it. But at the same time it is also a small pat on the back for myself that I actually achieved a lot of things in my career that I had hoped to do that.
Next year the World Cup will mark the Swan Song of Christian Eriksen in the Danish national team next year and he will clearly hope to go to a peak.
“In most of the last camers we have succeeded in leaving the phases of the groups and then we came across teams in the 1/8 final where we have not been good enough to continue. The last time it was the same in Germany, where I think we were good, but Germany was just too good and more clinical.”