Since Saturday, Simon Kjaer has become much more than just a captain in charge of wearing the armband for Denmark: the defender was exemplary with his cold blood to attend to his teammate and friend Christian Eriksen when he collapsed in the middle of a game of the European Championship
“He has an imperial calmness, we could see it with his extraordinary reaction on Saturday. He is a Beckenbauer species of today, a man with great class. Like all those who have had a relationship with him, Jean-Michel Vandamme, who signed him for the French Lille in 2013, confesses to AFP that he was not surprised by the action of the figurehead of some ‘Vikings’ that on Thursday will face Belgium.
When Erikssen collapsed just before half-time in Saturday’s European Championship match against Finland, time stood still in Copenhagen.
But not for Kjaer, who, from several meters away, rushed towards his partner to place him in a lateral position that would allow him to clear his breathing tubes and avoid suffocation. A decisive intervention seconds before the medical teams arrived.
As they took over, Kjaer stood up, stepped back, and kept an eye on his inert companion. All this while organizing his companions – some of them in tears – in a compact semicircle to protect the scene from the eyes and camera lenses.
“No one acted with the forcefulness of Simon Kjaer,” says the Politiken newspaper, calling the captain, a former Sevilla player, a “legend.”
– Unanimity in Milan –
For the newspaper, Kjaer was shown as a “rock” to which Denmark clung when Eriksen was between life and death.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, whose sangfroid was also applauded, paid tribute to “a fantastic person and captain.” “I was not surprised that Simon Kjaer took the initiative. He has great ethics and I am proud to consider him my friend,” he said at a press conference.
When Eriksen’s partner, present in the stands, jumped onto the pitch, it was again Kjaer -with Schmeichel- who hugged her and reassured her: they know each other, because they live in the same city, Milan, with Eriksen defending the colors of Inter and Kjaer from AC Milan.
The immense scare managed these days to placate the rivalry between the two Lombard clubs.
Inter’s Italian international Nicolo Barella was among the first, on Saturday, to praise Kjaer: “Beyond the colours, congratulations Simon, a captain and a real man.”
Giuseppe Marotta, CEO of the Nerazzurri club, also highlighted “the very important intervention” of the Rossoneri defender. Even the Inter ultras unfurled a banner to applaud Kjaer’s serenity.
At AC Milan, some fans would welcome Kjaer’s move to the captain’s armband.
– ‘Exemplary boy –
A proposal that is not unreasonable given his weight in the San Siro locker room, despite the fact that he arrived there in January 2020: the current captain Alessio Romagnoli is not a starter, and his second, Gianluigi Donnarumma, is leaving. Although there are other candidates such as the totem Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the midfielder Franck Kessié or the veteran Davide Calabria.
But in any case, Kjaer arouses unanimous admiration in Milan, as he did in Lille (2013-2015).
“The first thing I remember about him is the person. He was an exemplary boy, and a true professional, extremely kind,” René Girard, his coach at Lille, told AFP.
Now it remains to be seen how Kjaer will be able to assume from an emotional point of view, and on the pitch, his international notoriety.
On Saturday, he resumed the game against Finland like his teammates, although he was soon substituted. But Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand will again need the captain’s poise against Romelu Lukaku, Eriksen’s team-mate at Inter. AFP (hn)