Keep an eye on: André Rømer

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  • Name: André Rømer
  • Age: 20 (18.07.1983)
  • Position: Centre Back
  • Club: Esbjerg FB
  • International Caps
    • Denmark U20
      • 4 matches / 0 goals
    • Denmark U18
      • 2 matches / 0 goals
    • Denmark U16
      • 3 matches / 0 goals
  • Value: £125.000

“We have talked about it for years; how fun it could be if not playing on the same team, then meeting each other." This week we keep an eye on one of the Rømer brothers, André; another talent from the FC Midtjylland academy.

André Rømer was only fifteen when he decided to leave not only his parents and brother, but also his youth club to follow a dream of becoming a professional football player. The talent had the opportunity to move to Brøndby, a nearby club, but the fact that he had to spend time on travelling back and forth as well as two of his teammates was heading to Midtjylland made him chose the FCM Academy. However, the transition from being a star in Køge to becoming one of many talents in Jutland was not easy:

“It is a great upheaval moving from the safe settings home with your parents and being one of the best on your team, to suddenly have to compete for a place in the starting line-up. It was hard for me not playing in the first three to four matches before I managed to get on the team [In Midtjylland],“ Rømer says.

And the centre-back surely managed to get on the youth teams in his new club. In fact, when he thinks about his years at the academy he says: "most of the time it was only going one way, and it was up." But as any other footballers have experienced in the past: What goes up must come down. The talent ran into an injury sending him off the pitch for six months:

"It was almost in the worst period possible as it was just around the time where you would be given a contract or told to find another club.

“I was close to heading home as football wasn’t really working for me at the time," Rømer says.

However, the talent stayed in Midtjylland and convinced the staff that he is worth giving a contract. In the 2012/13 season,  he was promoted to the Superliga squad, and the plan was for Rømer to be send on loan in Hobro as many other FCM-talents had been in the past. There was only one problem: Hobro had no intentions of letting the defender play as a regular and instead he agreed with Midtjylland to stay as a reserve for the season. It wasn't until just the last match before the Christmas break Rømer was handed his debut against AC Horsens when he was given the last couple of minutes. So far the talent have played 20 matches, 12 of them this season, but not in the central defends as he has been used to during his youth years:

"Since I was promoted to the senior squad I haven’t played a minute on that position. As it looks now, I will be playing somewhere else in the future.

"I prefer to play on the central midfield where you're a part of everything", the 'all-rounder' says.

While André has been a part of a Superliga club for some years now, his brother Marcel Rømer signed with newly promoted Viborg before this season. The first meeting between the rivals ended in a draw while FCM won in Viborg. This means André has the right to mock his brother; however only Marcel played in the two matches:

“If I say too much he will say ‘I played, and you didn’t’ so I can’t mock him before I play," the FCM talent says.

Rømer started the season with an injury and has more or less been a substitute so far this season. However, he hopes to play more after the Christmas break. He is determined to make a breakthrough in the club, currently leading the Danish league and is willing to stay as a reserve for this season. However, the talent dreams of someday playing in Holland, France, Belgium or the Premier League. However, he can settle with being a profile in the Danish Superliga:

“It is a dream to play abroad, but if I stay in FC Midtjylland I will not be disappointed," Rømer ends.





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Keep an eye on: Pione Sisto

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  • Name: Pione Sisto
  • Age: 18 (04.02.1995)
  • Position Left and Right Wing
  • Club: FC Midtjylland
  • International Caps: None
  • Value: £275.000

He might only be 18-year-old and already a more or less established player in FC Midtjylland, but this talent keeps both his feet on the ground. This week we keep an eye on Pione Sisto.

This guy is not one of the typical Danish talents you have read about earlier on this blog; no, this guy has a history behind him, coming to Denmark along with his parents only two months old, escaping the war in Sudan. After a living seven years in the Danish town Skive, the family moved to Herning where Sisto started playing football for Tjørring.

"We managed to get to Denmark, where there was no war. We then moved to Skive for the first seven years, and then moved to Herning. As far as I know my family is happy to be in Denmark where there is a great system and things are just better," Sisto says and thinks back on his time in the small club Tjørring IF:
"Generally, I was happy in Tjørring, and I knew almost everybody, both the players and their parents and I lived closed to the club. I was always happy at the club and loved to play football, so I remember it as a fantastic period."
When he was 13-years-old FC Midtjylland, became Pione Sisto's new club when the talent decided that it was time to take a step towards a more professional career, and joined the academy. However, the winger has not always been sure that football should be his career move. In fact, he played several sports before deciding on football. When the talent joined FC Midtjylland, he learned the life as a professional youth player through the hard training - harder than he had been used to in Tjørring.
"You learn how it is to be in professional football in Denmark, and the way they [FC Midtjylland Academy] work with the players already from U15, helps the players to develop, and it also this that have helped me make my breakthrough in the senior squad," Sisto says.
And the hard training paid off with more than a place in the Superliga squad, when Sisto was announced as the Academy player of the 2012/13 season.
"I was extremely happy to receive the prize, and I am not trying to cover that it was a target for me, even though I did not tell many about my plan. It tells where you stand among the other talents at the academy, and obviously I want to be one of the best, and by winning the trophy it shows that I have worked hard to become one of the best," the award winning talent says.
Despite his young age, Pione Sisto has got a few starters earlier in this season, and after scoring a goal against AGF Aarhus in the first league match, he was suddenly on everyone's lips. However, his manager, Glen Riddersholm, is not afraid that his talent will lose his firm grip on the ground.
"Because of injuries earlier in the season, we couldn’t give him the breaks that are natural for a young player. We can do that now. It is no problem for him as he knows he shouldn’t say yes to everything so there will be created a hype about him," Riddersholm says and describes his player:
"He is a specialist in the way we like to develop our wings with some quick feet with the ball, good acceleration and good dribbling skills, as well. He is a player that we believe has a high potential, and a crowd favourite because they never know what will happen when he is on the ball.
"There is no doubt that he is a player that other clubs are keeping an eye on, and when he has developed, I am sure he will appeal to many leagues," Riddersholm says.
The talent welcomes the kind word from his manager, and acknowledges that Riddersholm has a great share in his current success. A success that is felt on the entire team, currently 1st in the Danish Superliga. Pione Sisto is sure that he and his teammates can bring metal to Herning this year:
"I think we have a chance of winning it as we have a good team player by player, and we have proven both for the manager and for the club as well as everyone else that this squad can go far.
"But the season is long, and the competition is hard, so we just keep looking at ourselves and keep developing," Sisto says.
One target for the talent is the Championship, but another and perhaps more important is to get a Danish passport. He has already passed the test and is only waiting for the passport and then, hopefully, a spot on the Danish national team. A big target for a young player, but not impossible if your name is Pione Sisto, the African-soon-to-be-Danish starlet.





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Keep an eye on: Nicolaj Ritter

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              Name: Nicolaj Ritter
               Age: 20 (8-5-1992)
          Position: Wing
              Club: Silkeborg IF
International caps: Denmark U20:  1 Match(es)
                                  0 Goal(s)
                    Denmark U19:  5 Match(es)
                                  1 Goal(s)
                    Denmark U18: 11 Match(es)
                                  0 Goal(s)
                    Denmark U17: 15 Match(es)
                                  1 Goal(s)
                    Denmark U16:  4 Match(es)
                                  0 Goal(s)
             Value: £175.000 (Transfermarkt.co.uk)
                  
”He is an aggressive, offensive player who loves to interfere in every situation of the match, even when he is not near the ball. He is a player who lives in the game and the type of player who can make things happen”
                                              - Keld Bordingaard, Coach of Silkeborg IF
 
Nicolaj Ritter moved around between minor clubs in North Jutland, before joining Aalborg BK. However, before his youth career was even started he joined the FC Midtjylland Academy, where he played together with last week’s talent Mads Hvilsom.
 
“It was a difficult choice to leave Aalborg. I was doing fine and thought that it was the club for me. However, after seeing the concept in FC Midtjylland, with the academy, the school and the pitches I fell in love with the idea. It seemed so professional at the Academy”.
Ritter joined Midtjylland at the age of fifteen, and thereby had most of his youth in the club. Here, he won two Danish youth Championships and participated in several international cups. It was also in Midtjylland Ritter found his way to the Danish youth national team. However, his senior debut was to be in another club. Last summer, the winger joined Silkeborg IF: 
 
“My time in Midtjylland was the best and I believe that it is the best place to be as a young player. However, I felt that I wouldn’t have any game time on the senior team. To develop I needed some senior game time and I felt that Silkeborg could give it to me”.
 
In the new club, Ritter went from being nobody to be in the starting XI. His debut in the best Danish league came, ironically, in the 2-1 win against his former club FC Midtjylland. However, the break trough is still to come, but one of the team mates in Silkeborg – former Bolton striker Henrik Pedersen – is sure this is the season for Ritter. The young winger is happy for the trust in him:
 
“I feel that I am getting better and better from every match I get, and I am proud and happy that a great player as Henrik, trust in me. I just hope I can live up to the expectations”.
 
Silkeborg coach Keld Bordingaard ensures that the break through is not impossible for Ritter, but he can’t “promise either Henrik or Ritter that it will happen.”

Since his transfer to Silkeborg, Nicolaj Ritter has been a part of the Danish U19 national team as well as the U20, where he had his debut this year. It is a dream for the young player, to play for the Danish senior national team, however; it is not something he worries about at the time. Instead, Ritter dreams to transfer to a foreign club one day: 
 
“If I have the chance in a couple of years, it is defiantly an opportunity. I would really like to experience life as a Dane in a foreign club.”

Ritter would prefer to play in the Dutch or Spanish league, and has Real Madrid as his favorite team. However, right now the talent keeps his feet on the Danish ground, and his coach urges him to stay there:
 
“Right now there is plenty of challenges for Ritter, in the Danish Superliga.”

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