Brentford boss Thomas Frank is “flattered” to see Christian Eriksen linked with the club and has hailed the former Tottenham midfielder as “one of the world’s best players”.
Eriksen is currently on the hunt for a new club after his contract was cancelled by Inter Milan last month because he could not play in Serie A after being fitted with an implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), which is a type of pacemaker.
The Denmark international, who collapsed on the pitch after a cardiac arrest during Euro 2020, could play back in the Premier League, though, and is attracting interest from clubs in England.
Brentford are one of those teams keen on the 29-year-old and their manager, Frank, worked with Eriksen when he played for Denmark’s youth teams.
“It was a fantastic time. I was under-17 head coach for four years, under-19 coach for one year,” said Frank.
“But especially the under-17 years were amazing. It was a fantastic group of players. I was with Christian for a year, he was a young boy back then. Now he’s a grown man and one of the world’s best players.
“He is a really good player, we all know that he is a top Danish player. I worked with him in the past.
“He needs to find a club. I love to speak about players in house. I don’t think I should discuss that - maybe I should discuss [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo?
“If we were linked with Christian 10 or even five years ago, fans would say are you crazy. But we are in the best league in the world, the club is progressing. It’s positive. But, let’s speak about reality.
“If any club, or we, should sign a player, this is a player that only plays for the top clubs. Something unfortunate happened to Christian and now things changed a bit, he deserves to play at the highest level and I hope he will.
“Under normal circumstances there would be no rumours with a club like us. I guess we should be flattered that there are rumours with a player of his qualities. It’s the same with all players out there – Messi, [Kylian] Mbappe, Eriksen. If they fit the criteria of no d*******s, they can play for us.”
Frank spoke to Eriksen after his cardiac arrest last summer and hopes that the midfielder is back playing soon, wherever that may be.
“I really hope he comes back to top football again, that is what he wants,” he said. “Recently he was on a Danish programme and he said his big aim was to play in the World Cup.
“I really hope he succeeds, I can’t see why he shouldn’t. For all Danish fans he was the biggest star before the Euros. If he gets up to speed he will be the big star again. We all want the best for him and his family.”
