Christian Eriksen sounds like a content man. Still only 24 years of age, Eriksen made his debut for Ajax when he was just 17. A few months later he made his debut for Denmark and the hype machine really got started.
Denmark quite fancied having a great talent come through and Eriksen was the one to hang hopes upon. Those hopes became expectations and the footballer has at times struggled to work out what he’s supposed to do for the national team, and been hurt by criticism from both the media and the country’s former manager.
Speaking to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet this week, Eriksen explained he took him some time to get used to joining up with the national squad, because of everything attached to it. The youngest player at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Eriksen was a little overwhelmed by everything surrounding the squad: “I would really just like to play football.”
On that note, Eriksen made of point of saying it’s different with Tottenham, the players are protected and not pushed into the media limelight. Clearly not a fan of speaking to the press too much, Eriksen explained: “I think it’s really nice that you have the option to choose whether you want to (speak to the media) or not. I know how much focus is on Tottenham, so I think it’s quite fair, if people do not want to talk to the press very often.”
The Spurs ace says he understands if he’s obliged to speak because the club has commitments, and added “…but to sit down for half an hour, it happens almost never at the club.”
It could easily be argued that speaking to the media is a rather important part of being a footballer. The high wages are paid because footballers are stars and with that comes a certain obligation to speak, but Eriksen prefers to keep it to a minimum.
He’d find it harder at some other clubs and that could be one reason for a long career at Tottenham, where he clearly feels shielded.
