- Name: Jakob Blåbjerg
- Age: 18 (11.01.95)
- Position: Centre Back
- Club: AaB Aalborg BK
- International caps:
- Denmark U20
- 2 matches / 0 goals
- Denmark U19
- 4 matches / 0 goals
- Denmark U18
- 2 matches / 0 goals
- Denmark U17
- 12 matches / 0 goals
- Denmark U16
- 7 matches / 1 goal
- Value: £125.000
He has been called one of the greatest talents of the club by former Aalborg Sports Director, Lynge Jakobsen. So far, he has only made one official appearance in the club dress, but there is firm believes in the defender. This week we keep an eye on Jakob Blåbjerg.
Jakob Blåbjerg is a bit uncertain about when exactly joined Aalborg from the local club Vejgaard Boldklub. When he thinks back, he must have been about 12 or 13-years-old. However, since he joined the club, he has developed into a promising player for the North Jutland flagship. Despite training with the senior squad, Blåbjerg is still a part of the talented U19 squad in Aalborg, but one of the prospects to become a full member of the Superliga team.
“We have always had a tremendous unity on the teams I have played for, and by looking at the senior squad, you can see that they are willing to use many of the young players, which is nice," says Blåbjerg about his youth time in Aalborg.
When Blåbjerg signed his first full time contract with the club in 2012, the current Sports Director Lynge Jakobsen called the defender one of the greatest talents in the AaB. A predicate the talent have learned to live with, but does think about in his everyday life. Manager in Aalborg, Kent Nielsen says about the player and his talent predicate that:
“Jakob have trough his presentations here in U17 and U19 teams, and through his many youth national matches shown that he is a talented player, but the hardest step is to go from youth to senior football.”
The defensive player took one step towards playing senior football when he was invited on the club's training camp in Portugal last February. Blåbjerg had played a few training matches, but did not expect to be invited to Portugal so when Director of Talent Development Poul Erik Andreasen called it was a great surprise for the defender. According to Blåbjerg, the call made him realise that he could do something with his football career.
As the start of the spring-season approached Aalborg's central defends were hard struck by injuries and bans; Kenneth Emil Petersen was out with a ban while Rasmus Thelander suffered from an injury, and on the day of the first match against Silkeborg the last defender Lasse Nielsen was injured just before kick off. Suddenly, Blåbjerg was facing his debut.
“I did know until 30 minutes before the match started. Mentally I hard warmed up as a substitute, and did expect to play as it is rare you make changes in the back four doing a match.
During the warm up I am playing some small games with the rest of the reserves when I am that he [Lasse Nielsen] is injured. We are three players beginning to warm up when Kent [Nielsen] approaches me and asks if I am nervous about playing, and I told him that I felt ready. Then you start he said."
Jakob Blåbjerg was not the only debutant that day. His partner in the central defends was the 20-year old Kasper Pedersen, and together with the rest of the team they were a part of the youngest starting lineup in the Danish Superliga ever. Despite ending 2-2, the player sees the match as his greatest experience in his career so far.
The defender has a couple of experiences to chose between with his, so far, 27 international caps divided on five different Danish youth national teams. Most of the matches, Blåbjerg have been in the starting XI and have been a regular for years both for Denmark and his youth teams in Aalborg.
“The primary development happens in your club, so it is something extra to be part of a national team and represent your country. Especially when we play qualification matches and matches where there are points at risk. Furthermore, it gives you some international routine even though it is only on a youth level," he says.
His international experience can turn out to be important for the talent to reach his next goal: to become a part of the AaB's Superliga starting line up. One thing is for sure; the managers and coaches in Aalborg has the belief in him, and so do Blåbjerg. The upcoming star in Denmark.
