When Aston Villa bought Jores Okore from FC Nordsjælland it was considered something of a coup. Several clubs had been interested in the central defender, but Aston Villa managed to beat the competition in a £4m transfer, a record for Nordsjælland.
Things soon went wrong, with Okore suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury in the September, and being ruled out of the rest of Aston Villa’s season. Okore was actually out for over a year, and the injury probably led to the sequence of events which saw the defender leave Villa Park.
Joining FC Copenhagen in the summer, with the Danish media reporting it as a free transfer, Okore hasn’t let his Aston Villa experience put him off playing abroad and wants to do so again as quickly as he can.
As he battles to get back to his old level, Okore has only managed a handful of games so far but is already looking to the future. Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet quote the player as saying: “You are always hungry, and I have ambitions to be allowed to play abroad again, so I would obviously like to play and show what I am capable in match situations and not only for training, he continues.
“It all depends on my own and the club’s situation. It must of course also be the right club for me. There are always many things that come into play. You cannot set a date on such a desire, but surely it would be within a reasonable time frame.
“I still think that English football would be interesting, but it could also be fun to try German or Spanish football. I won’t be choosy, should there be an opportunity to play abroad again.”
Okore still has a long way to go before he’s ready to play abroad again. The Aston Villa move went badly, and it’s going to take a lot of coming back from. Now 24 years of age, Okore is in a completely different situation than before the Villa move.
There’s the worry over his serious injury, and failure so far to get back to his best, either at Aston Villa or Copenhagen. Perhaps the defender should just focus on getting on the pitch for now.
