Christian Eriksen is an inspiration.
The star of the Danish national team, the man who powered Brentford to Premier League survival in their first season back in the big time and now on the cusp of becoming Manchester United's newest addition after verbally agreeing a three-year deal, it's impossible not to admire him as a footballer. But it's not just what he does on the pitch that makes Eriksen such a special player and person, it's his incredible mental and physical resilience which emerged on his darkest day and shone through right up until his road to recovery was complete.
On Saturday, June 12 last year, the footballing world was brought to a standstill. Eriksen, playing in front of a loving home crowd at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, collapsed midway through a Euro 2020 match against Finland. He'd suffered a cardiac arrest.
As paramedics heroically rushed onto the pitch, the midfielder was quickly and thankfully saved. Fans around the world celebrated the scenes of him being seen awake on a stretcher leaving the field, and the European Championship continued without the potential tragedy. While we got on with our lives, Eriksen's had changed forever - but he wouldn't give up on the day job.
Just seven months later, the 30-year-old stepped back onto the pitch to make his debut for Brentford in a 2-0 defeat at home by Newcastle. Manager Thomas Frank hailed his arrival as possibly the biggest signing in the club's history and Eriksen would make a strong case with one goal, four assists and a number of top-class performances before the end of the campaign.
Watch him play and it's like he's never been away, but his career was in serious jeopardy only 12 months ago. The ex- Tottenham playmaker was still contracted to Inter Milan having helped them win the Serie A title in May 2021. But the stringent rules of Italian football prevented Eriksen from representing the Nerazzurri again, as he'd been fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) during his early recovery process.
As winter came around after months of being a free agent, he began regaining his fitness with two of his former clubs, Danish side Odense Boldklub and Dutch giants Ajax, who he joined in 2008. When the January transfer window rolled around, supporters across the globe pondered the prospect of Eriksen signing for their team, but it was Brentford, a forward-thinking family club, who made it their mission.
The move was dubbed most difficult transfer in history by insiders. As reported by the i, Brentford faced a host challenges in order to get the deal over the line safely. Firstly, Brentford's medical team would have to ensure that they were up-to-speed on how the ICD works, with the device fitted to monitor his heart rhythm and detect malignant arrhythmias.
The Bees consulted world-class cardiologist Sanjay Sharma, also the medical director for the London Marathon and English Institute of Sport, throughout the negotiations, and there were more off-field hurdles to overcome. Brentford wisely sought extensive legal advice from independent law firms to fully understand the club's responsibilities in relation to British law.
Eriksen's modest wage demands - at least compared to his elite-level contemporaries in the sport - eased the financial strain of the transfer on the Bees. Soon-to-be boss Frank and future teammate Christian Norgaard, who are both Danes, convinced the ex-Ajax prodigy to return to London on a six-month contract, having spent six-and-a-half years in the capital with Tottenham.
Now basking in the light of recovery and on the verge of a move to Manchester, Eriksen won't forget the darkness he faced and how Brentford gave him the chance to get his life back on track - even though he'd promised his girlfriend, Sabrina Kvist Jensen, that his days as a footballer were over.
"If Sabrina had said, 'I don't want you to play any more', this would be a very different situation," Eriksen explained ahead of his remarkable comeback. "Of course, we have a trauma from June 12, but since then we have found our bearings so that Sabrina is okay with me going to the gym for a few hours and to the practice field. She trusts that when I go, I always come back."
Speaking candidly about his cardiac arrest on Danish television channel DR1, the 115-capped international added: "I felt a small cramp in my calf and then I blacked out. When I woke up from the CPR it was like waking from a dream. I don’t remember a thing from when I passed out.
"I'm on my back when I wake up. I feel them pressing on me. I struggled to breathe — and then I heard faint voices and doctors talking. Im thinking, 'This can't be me lying here, I'm healthy'. My first thought is that I broke my back. 'Can I move my legs? I can move my toes.
"I look up and see the fans singing. I get carried out to the ambulance. It's not until I'm in the ambulance that I realise I had been dead. I'm thinking, 'Keep my boots, I won't play again'. I tell my fiancee Sabrina the same — 'I'm not going to play again, no way'."
Those boots will need to be squeaky clean at Old Trafford, though, as Eriksen has accepted a three-year deal with the Red Devils. Having also shone on the international stage again with Denmark this summer, there's no doubting his ability to produce at the highest level, as United legend Gary Neville explained.
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, Neville declared: "I tell you what, if you were any top-six club that were looking at a midfield three and you wanted a player to go in there and play 30 games for you in a squad-type [situation], you'd [take him]. He could play for Manchester City, he could play for Liverpool, he could play for any of the top six."
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The Red Devils defender-turned-Sky pundit added: "Why would you not look to him to come in for two seasons and do a job for you doing that? He's brilliant. He's a brilliant pro, he's a great player, his quality on the ball is unbelievable. To be fair, Brentford played out here [at Old Trafford], it was one of the games United won, but some of Eriksen's passing in that game was out of this world at Old Trafford."
Frank certainly didn't seem to be concerned about the potential risk of signing him back in January, telling reporters later in the term when the Bees assured their safety: "For me, it was not a gamble. I was convinced he could help us and that he could be the best signing ever for Brentford. It was not an injury, it was a heart condition. So he wouldn’t have lost any speed or anything. There's a mental issue but when he decided he wanted to play that was it."
So, it's now down to United to help Eriksen continue his resurgence. Not only the big-name teammates and new manager Erik ten Hag, but those behind the scenes who're bidding to replicate Brentford's success and whose importance shouldn't be forgotten if another miraculous transfer is finalised.
