It was during the first days of January 2020 when Christian Eriksen received a call from John Steen Olsen, Ajax’s celebrated Scandinavian scout who first watched the Denmark midfielder when Eriksen was a 13-year-old. “I called him and said: ‘You know that Ajax is always there for you,’” Steen Olsen told the club’s website. “He said he would like to but only when he is a little older.”
In the week that Steen Olsen, described by Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his “real father”, retired after 25 years’ service at Ajax, Eriksen has decided to become part of Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United rebuild. Ten Hag is a former Ajax manager and, like many of his predecessors, worked closely with Steen Olsen, a former Denmark forward who was appointed by Morten Olsen in 1997 and signed a lifetime contract with the Dutch club in 2015.
