When FC Copenhagen chose to accept a very lucrative offer from FC Porto for the signing of Danish international midfielder Victor Froholdt at the end of the transfer window, the Copenhagen management couldn't help but express a bit of disappointment over the deal.
The Danish champions accepted a €22 million bid from Portuguese giants for the 19-year-old to break their own sale record, yet sports director Sune Smith Nielsen was still frustrated to wave goodbye to one of Europe's best talents before their crucial Champions League qualification clashes against Malmo FF.
Moving the limit for record transfers
FC Nordsjaelland also chose to offload one of their biggest hopes this summer, as under-21 international Norwegian Sindre Walle Egeli was finally allowed to join Ipswich.
After turning down several big clubs, FCN could, however, take pleasure from the fact that they sold Egeli for £17.5m, breaking the record for a transfer fee spent by a Championship club after the Danes had purchased Egeli for merely €200,000 from Sandefjord in January 2022.
FC Midtjylland could have also made their cash register ring when German giants Bayern Munich showed an interest in signing the 21-year-old leading goalscorer in the Danish Superliga, Franculino.
However, the Danes immediately shut the door on Bayern Sport Director Max Eberl in their efforts to keep their squad together for domestic and international campaigns to follow in the fall.
All of these cases show that there is a new order to follow in Denmark on the back of the transformation that the top clubs have undergone since the COVID-19 period.
"There has been an improvement in the financial foundation and business model in the Danish top clubs after Corona", says Ph.D. and sports business expert Kenneth Cortsen (from University College of Northern Denmark), to Flashscore.
Strong financial partnerships
Scandinavia’s movement from a regional talent development mindset to a global talent platform is partly related to the actions of international investors.
Midtjylland have been one of the clubs at the forefront of this transformation, led by its former majority owner, Matthew Benham (owner of Brentford).
Benham played a major part in establishing a sustainable business model in the Danish top flight, which was copied by other clubs in the league. Benham was since replaced by Danish business tycoon and billionaire, Anders Holch Povlsen.
Nordsjaelland and the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana have ventured into a strong partnership in a business climate that holds looser squad restrictions on non-EU players and favours those organisations seeking to establish club networks. This has enabled them to develop 'top five' league players such as Mohammed Kudus, Kamaldeen Sulemana, and Ernest Nuamah in recent years.
"If you look at player sales and commercial partnerships, which have helped to set the standard for football in Denmark, the top three clubs are now able to sell players at significantly higher price levels than five or 10 years ago or to attract players at levels closer to Ajax, PSV, Anderlecht, clubs which previously dominated European football," adds Cortsen.
Attractive to international investors
"FC Copenhagen and FC Midtjylland in particular have become regular participants in European club competitions like the UEFA Champions League or the Europa League, which have made them attractive to international investors, strengthened their commercial foundations and seen them take new steps in terms of talent identification - and development while FC Nordsjaelland still proves to be successful as a strong talent factory," explains Cortsen.
When Copenhagen reached the last 16 in the Champions League two years ago, their under-19 outfit at the same time reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Youth League.
Midtjylland and Nordsjaelland have also won major youth tournaments, and when you see that some of their biggest talents move abroad and can establish themselves in big leagues, it has a self-reinforcing effect, underlines Cortsen:
"Commercially, they are in a much better position than before and can capitalise on the talent development in relation to the impact they make in the European club tournaments, and that has a positive effect on player sales."
In addition, thanks to the reputation that Denmark has for being a well-functioning society and clubs being praised for their great programs, Danish clubs can attract huge talents into the country, such as Andreas Schjelderup, Franculino, and Roony Bardghji.
Best Superliga talents heading for top European leagues
The days when bigger European clubs could harvest the best talents from the Danish Superliga for relatively small funds are gone.
Today, the top Danish clubs have become so financially strong that they are no longer inclined to accept limited offers for some of their best assets, as demonstrated by the fact that offers around €12-14 million are merely not enough to make Midtjylland, Copenhagen, or Nordsjaelland venture into negotiations.
"Barcelona won the race for Bardghji and I am sure that we will also see in the future that the biggest talents from the Danish Superliga will join European top four or five leagues," concludes Cortsen.
FC Copenhagen kickstart their campaign in the Champions League next week when they face Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday in Copenhagen, while FC Midtjylland take on Sturm Graz in the Europa League on home turf the following week.
