Football, North Zealand | Anders (25) sat up in Chelsea: – I cried like a child
And it’s not that nice either.
– Not many people knew about it, because I kept a low profile since I was very young.
Jensen meets Nettavisen at a cafe in the center of Oslo, and has squeezed in some time between meetings in the Norwegian capital.
The 25-year-old from Sarpsborg works as a global talent scout for North Zealand in Denmark. The club is known for its crazy talent factory, where perhaps the hottest sale object at the moment is Norwegian Andreas Schjelderup (18).
Nettavisen has previously visited the club from Farum, which according to the profiled talent scout Stig Torbjørnsen has a “unique position in Europe”.
The job of identifying young great talents falls, among other things, in Jensen’s hands. Despite his young age, he already has an impressive CV.
After starting in Sarpsborg 08 before turning 20, he was brought to Chelsea as a 19-year-old. When he was signed by the Premier League giants, he took proof of staying completely under the radar.
This caused many to be put off when he told them that he had exchanged the blue-clad ones for “little” Nordsjælland in Denmark earlier this year.
– I noticed a difference between people when they found out and when they didn’t. They would use it to their advantage. When you don’t have that much experience and are so young, it’s better to focus on work. I was proven who needs to know and who doesn’t, while I have kept a low profile and driven on, he says to Nettavisen.
After studying Sports Management in Molde, it quickly dawned on Jensen that he was not going to become a professional footballer. However, the passion for the sport meant that it was never relevant to work with anything else.
– I have always been interested in finding things that maybe not everyone else knows about. If it is a 16-year-old who has potential, it is exciting to see where it can end and imagine what will happen if he gets the same opportunities that others may have had.
Excluded from Kanté meeting
Thus, he quickly found that the scouting profession suited him well. Even as a 16-year-old connected to contacts in the industry, before he used his own pocket to travel around and watch countless matches and players.
– When I started to specialize in younger players, so I could acquire knowledge that not everyone else had, says Jensen.
Completely coincidentally linked to a contact in Manchester City, where he has been contacted with a colleague about the job at Chelsea.
Around six months later, Jensen was at Cobham, Chelsea’s training centre, where he was offered a contract with the club from West London.
As a 19-year-old, Jensen strolled in the same corridors as Antonio Rüdiger, N’Golo Kante and the other Premier League stars.
– The first time it was a bit nice. Here came an 18-year-old from Sarpsborg who will enter the training field for Chelsea. I didn’t know how to deal with it at first, but eventually you find out that the big stars are just like everyone else.
He particularly noticed this when he met the French star N’Golo Kanté. Jensen had to leave the training facility and went down the stairs a little behind French midfielder and current West Ham stopper Kurt Zouma.
– When I came down, Kanté stood and held the door open for me and said “hey, hey!” as he stands there smiling. Then I thought «he is just an ordinary guy who is good at playing football. I will take that with me further, always treat people with respect, no matter what your name is or who you are». He’s just a real bra person.
– Cry like a little child
Combined with the jobs at Sarpsborg 08, where Jensen acted as a link between development manager Erland Johnsen and sports manager Thomas Berntsen, the sarping scouted for Scandinavian talents for Chelsea.
Earlier in 2022, however, one of the few offers that clearly tempted Jensen away from the club, which has five league titles in the premiership in England, came.
North Zealand has built up an extremely good reputation when it comes to talent development in top European football.
The Danish club has sold players for over one billion Norwegian kroner in the last ten years, and serves new great talents to top European clubs in every transfer window.
Kamaldeen Sulemana (Rennes), Mohammed Kudus (Ajax) and Mikkel Damsgaard (Sampdoria) have disappeared in a row from the club, for over one hundred million kroner each, in the last four years.
A greater area of responsibility, which involved Jensen scouting players from both Scandinavia and Africa, meant that the 25-year-old chose to exchange for one of the world’s biggest clubs.
– It is a mixture of cultures which is very exciting and which triggers me, says Jensen.
Taking the phone to Chelsea with the message that he was going to resign was tough anyway.
Very tough.
– Yes, yes, yes. I cried like a little child. They bet on me and I was one of the youngest scouts they had. To call and say that to the man who has fought for me… then I started to laugh, Jensen says and smiles.
Nettavisen visited Nordsjælland and sports director Mikkel Hemmersam in 2021. Watch the video here:
The talent factory from Farum
However, the offer from Nordsjælland was too good to turn down.
– The project is incredibly exciting and not least rewarding. You can see young players rise and grow both on and off the field in record time. It was a gut feeling that this was insanely cool to be a part of
Jensen says he was very curious about how the Danish club from Farum works. The club is located just under half an hour from Copenhagen, and has repeatedly amazed Fotball Europe with crazy sales to top clubs in the biggest leagues.
Read more about North Zealand: This is the club all of Scandinavia looks towards. Has sold for over one billion: – Completely unique
The club has the world-renowned football academy «Right to Dream» in Africa. It also means that Jensen’s job is to go to Egypt and Ghana to find rough diamonds.
– In «Right to Dream», it is not only the football aspect that is important, but the whole fellow man. If you are accepted into the Right to Dream academy, you are guaranteed a good school education, as well as a football education, he explains.
It was precisely this aspect that triggered Jensen to go to North Zealand.
– They do something completely different from what many others say, and kill the myth that young players need experience to become good. It is a given that one must make mistakes in order to develop, and one must be given the opportunity to take the next step. It was a gut feeling that this is insanely cool.
Despite the fact that Jensen is still based in Sarpsborg for so long, the job in North Zealand causes many traveling days a year.
The 25-year-old travels around to see different players from the stands before reporting further up the system to the Danish club.
Despite the fact that much can be done by watching a player on video, he prefers to see them live as much as possible.
– It is extremely difficult for me to sit and say that we must invest this and that sum in a player without having put him to life. There you can see how they move and behave, he concludes.