Christian Eriksen: how Ajax roots paved path to Manchester United

It was during the first days of January 2020 when Christian Eriksen received a call from John Steen Olsen, Ajax’s celebrated Scandinavian scout who first watched the Denmark midfielder when Eriksen was a 13-year-old. “I called him and said: ‘You know that Ajax is always there for you,’” Steen Olsen told the club’s website. “He said he would like to but only when he is a little older.”

In the week that Steen Olsen, described by Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his “real father”, retired after 25 years’ service at Ajax, Eriksen has decided to become part of Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United rebuild. Ten Hag is a former Ajax manager and, like many of his predecessors, worked closely with Steen Olsen, a former Denmark forward who was appointed by Morten Olsen in 1997 and signed a lifetime contract with the Dutch club in 2015.

Steen Olsen’s departure at the age of 79 on 1 July marked the end of an era at Ajax after he played a part in bringing both Laudrup brothers to Amsterdam in the twilight of their careers and carried on the club’s longstanding Scandinavian association by scouting players such as Ibrahimovic, Jesper Grønkjær and Kasper Dolberg among many others. But he has always rated Eriksen as his greatest discovery after famously persuading the then sporting director Danny Blind to travel to Denmark to sign the 16-year-old from Odense after Eriksen’s father had refused to allow his son to attend a trial in 2008. “I forced the Ajax management to come,” Steen Olsen has said. “Otherwise, others would have taken him.”

United were among those to show an interest in the teenage prodigy who went on to be the youngest player to appear at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, although it was Chelsea, Milan and Barcelona who each took