Christian Eriksen ended the night of June 12, 2021 in the hospital in Copenhagen with one hope - to live.
About two hours after collapsing in front of the home crowd at the Parken stadium in Denmark's opening game against Finland in the European Championship, he recovered alongside his partner - Sabrina, and saw before his eyes only the desire to be okay and raise his children.
To the football fans and probably to the midfielder as well, it seemed in those moments that he would not return to the grass.
God willed and probably wanted Eriksen even more and 17 months later, he will go up today (15:00, here 11) together with his friends for the first match in the framework of the 2022 World Cup against Tunisia.
When a pacemaker was implanted in Eriksen's heart in the days after the collapse and he received the explanation from the doctors that he could play sports, his thinking changed and everything he did in the last year and a half was a gradual climb back to the top of world football and to the most exciting tournament it has to offer.
After his contract at Inter was mutually canceled following a ban from playing with the pacers in Serie A, he continued to train and stay fit.
Later, in the transfer window of January 2022, he was convinced by Brentford's coach and his countryman - Thomas Frank - to sign with the team and realized that his heart should feel at home and when the squad has five other Danish players besides him, it was the perfect choice for him. Brentford only wanted to stay in the league and finished in 1st place -13 when Eriksen scores a goal and prepares four more.
Last summer, when he became a free agent, Eriksen made another leap.
He was wanted by quite a few teams but in the end Manchester United got their hands on him.
Although it is not easy for Erik ten Hah to regain his crown and despite the difficult saga with Cristiano Ronaldo, there are things in which the Dutchman can be proud and one of them is the signing of Eriksen.
Very quickly, the 30-year-old player became one of the most important players in the Red Devils' formation, the one who runs the game, clears areas and shows a great partnership with Bruno Fernandes, one that the residents of Old Trafford feared would not work.
Eriksen against France in the Nations League, photo: Reuters
Eriksen in 20 official games in all formats scored six and added a debut goal against Fulham, right before the break.
Tim Sherwood, who coached Eriksen at Tottenham in the 2013/14 season and now works as a journalist for talkSPORT has named him in the team of the season so far.
"If Alejandro Granacho, the discovery of Ten Haah wants to progress, he should go and sit next to Eriksen, and learn how to be a professional footballer. You will never get a better example than Christian. You can also ask Harry Kane who also learned a lot from him as a youngster young".
At the same time as returning to club football, Eriksen gradually returned to the Danish national team as well.
In March he made a renewed debut against the Netherlands and scored two minutes after coming on as a substitute, and in September he gave the goshpanka that he is once again the host of his team.
He excelled in the victory over France in the Nations League, breaking a factory record by creating eight scoring chances, which led to great compliments even from the world champion who will meet Eriksen this Saturday - Didier Deschamps.
Besides Eriksen's tremendous numbers in the Denmark uniform (39 goals and 26 assists in 117 games) he brings with him in his wide set of tools equally important things.
He leads the dressing room, inspires experience, connects the players not only on the grass and to his regret, or maybe to his joy, his breakdown caused even more connection between the players.
The back wind that the difficult scenes in Parken gave to Denmark until reaching the semi-finals of the Euros, is the one with which they will also go to the games in Qatar.
"When we came back after the Euros and started the World Cup qualifiers, we didn't know if it was just Euro fever in Denmark, it turned out to be just football fever and since then the atmosphere has become even crazier in the country," said Denmark's coach, Kasper Jollmand, after landing in Qatar.
Denmark players cry while Eriksen receives treatment, photo: AFP
And after all, apart from the emotion, in the end what matters is the football.
Despite Eriksen's social involvement in the protests against Qatar, he and his coach know that what matters in the end is the quality on the field.
Today against Tunisia, the Danes need to be at their best, because if they misjudge Tunisia, they can pay the price.
"I think we're in a good position to succeed but you can't keep winning just from emotion. We'll have to have quality and we're ready," Eriksen said.
Trust him he knows what he's talking about.
Winner ratio for a Denmark win 1.40, for a draw 3.85 and for a Tunisia win 7.30
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
