Christian Eriksen has signed for Brentford on a six-month deal, just seven months on from suffering a cardiac arrest.
The former Tottenham midfielder returns to the Premier League after he left Inter Milan by mutual consent in December. The 29-year-old has been fitted with a implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) device but was unable to continue his career in Italy due to Serie A rules.
Eriksen’s last appearance came at the Euro 2020 finals in June when the Denmark international collapsed on the pitch during the group stage match against Finland in Copenhagen. Eriksen required life-saving treatment on the pitch and later revealed that he had died “for five minutes”. He is targeting a return to football in order to make the Denmark squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“I’m happy to announce I’ve signed for Brentford, I can’t wait to get started and hopefully I’ll see you all very soon,” Eriksen confirmed on Monday. His move to Brentford, who were promoted to the Premier League for the first time last season, is subject to international clearance and comes after a lengthy medical evaluation.
Brentford’s director of football, Phil Giles, said: “We first discussed the possibility of Christian joining Brentford when we heard that he would be leaving Inter. It is fantastic that he is now with us.
“Naturally the process of signing Christian was more elongated than most transfers. I understand that many people will have questions about the process. In order to respect Christian’s medical confidentiality, we won’t be going into any details.
“Brentford fans can rest assured that we have undertaken significant due diligence to ensure that Christian is in the best possible shape to return to competitive football. Now Christian has made the decision to sign for Brentford, all parties want to focus fully on football.
“We are sure that Christian will make a big impact at Brentford and on the Premier League between now and the end of the season.”
Eriksen has previously worked with Brentford manager Thomas Frank, who was coach of the Denmark under-17 team when the midfielder was part of that group.
“I am looking forward to working with Christian again,” Frank said. “It has been a while since I last coached him, and a lot has happened since then. Christian was 16 at the time and has become one of the best midfield players to appear in the Premier League. He has also won trophies all over Europe and become the star of the Danish national team.
“We have taken an unbelievable opportunity to bring a world-class player to Brentford. He hasn’t trained with a team for seven months but has done a lot of work on his own. He is fit but we will need to get him match fit and I am looking forward to seeing him work with the players and staff to get back towards his highest level.”
Eriksen made 305 appearances for Tottenham across seven seasons at the Premier League club. He was Spurs’ player of the year in 2014 and 2017, made the PFA team of the year in 2017-18 and was part of the Tottenham side that reached the Champions League final in 2019.
He won the Serie A title with Inter and has also won league titles in the Netherlands with his boyhood club Ajax, who he returned to in order to work on his fitness following his cardiac arrest last summer.
