Joachim Andersen

Joachim Christian Andersen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈɑnɐsn̩]; born 31 May 1996) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Crystal Palace and the Denmark national team.

Club Career

Youth

Andersen started playing football at the age of 4 for local club Greve Fodbold, where he played from 2000 until 2009. He then joined Copenhagen’s academy, School of Excellence, before leaving for Midtjylland when he was 15. At Midtjylland he moved into the talent academy in Ikast where players like Simon Kjar, Winston Reid, Erik Sviatchenko, Viktor Fischer and Pione Sisto had stayed before him.

In April 2013, before he had made his first team debut with Midtjylland, Twente sent out scouts to observe Andersen, and offered him a one-week trial, which he accepted. Four months later, he signed a youth contract with FC Twente for a fee rumored to be around 5 million Danish kroner (€650,000). The plan was to start in the youth team in order to acclimatise, and progress to the senior sides after about 6 months.

Twente

Though he was still an under-19 player he was promoted to the senior team and on 8 November 2013, Andersen made his first appearance for Jong Twente playing the whole match. He did not play any matches for the first team in his first season, but already in his second year at the club he was promoted to train with the first team squad with players like Dusan Tadic, Hakim Ziyech, Jesus Manuel Corona, Quincy Promes, Andreas Bjelland, Kasper Kusk and Kamohelo Mokotjo.

On 7 March 2015, he finally got his chance in the first team debuting against Willem II, and playing the last 20 minutes. A week later, he signed a new contract with Twente until 2018. In 2015, Andersen won the prize for U19 talent of the year by the Danish Football Association.

On 22 March, he was named in the starting eleven against Groningen and scored his first goal for the first team. He slowly got more and more time on the p

This page also has a version in other languages :  Йоаким Андерсен (russian)