Sportbladet on location in Ikast, Denmark
Updated 2024-02-28 07.39 | Published 2024-02-27 21.29
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IKAST The team received the news on Friday.
The rest of the world in the morning on Tuesday.
Sportbladet has visited a Danish top club in shock.
The elementary boys from the neighboring school play football in the small multi-arena in front of the entrance. Otherwise, there is a very subdued atmosphere at FC Midtjylland’s facility in the small town of Ikast in the middle of Jutland.
Sportbladet arrives at the newly built headquarters a few hours after the club sent out the shocking press release that one of their biggest stars, Kristoffer Olsson, has been on a ventilator for a week.
The Swedish national team member has suffered from some kind of acute brain disease, but the doctors do not know exactly what it is. Despite all the experts and specialists who have been called in, there is still no diagnosis.
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full screenFC Midtjylland’s training facility in Ikast, Denmark. Photo: Johan Flinck
The club does not want to make any more statements today, but refers to those in the press release.
– We can damn well put people on Mars if we wanted to, but we can’t find out what’s wrong with the guy. I have a hard time taking it in, can’t understand it, says a person in the club who wants to remain anonymous.
Unreal?
– Yes, surreal is the right word.
Psychologists on site
It was on Tuesday that Olsson collapsed in his home and was taken to Århus University Hospital, where he has been treated ever since.
On Friday, when the seriousness of his condition became clear, teammates were informed in a morning meeting before practice.
The shock was total and the reactions followed.
A source says that several of the players started crying and some were so dismayed that they vomited when they got the news.
The club management had ensured that there were psychologists and other expertise on hand to answer the players’ questions and concerns, including the most troublesome questions, and to support the team and staff.
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full screen Kristoffer Olsson is being treated at Aarhus University Hospital. Photo: Johan Flinck
Each player then had to choose whether he wanted to go home, stay inside the facility or go out to practice.
Everyone chose to train.
– To be able to be together and train for Kristoffer’s sake, as a source says.
There were only two days left until the derby against Århus, but still the coaches opted out of all tactics and video briefings.
On Sunday, they then went out and defeated Århus away from home with 3–2 after first reversing a 0–1 deficit and then deciding the match in the 96th minute.
After yesterday’s recovery training, the players have today off, as usual two days after the match.
But the staff is there – and more or less in shock. Olsson knows many of them very well as he is in his second stay and fifth season in total at the club.
Thoughts turn to Eriksen’s collapse
Sportbladet also meets people in town who are strongly affected by the news about one of the team’s biggest stars, who took part in winning the club’s first league gold in 2015.
– You get sad. I follow Midtjylland and even though I’ve never spoken to Kristoffer, I feel like I know him. And how can this happen to a healthy elite player, says Nikolaj Kristensen, 31.
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full screenNikolaj Kristensen, supporter of FC Midtjylland. Photo: Johan Flinck
Mikkel Korsgaard is a news journalist at the local media house Herning Folkeblad/Ikast-BrandeNyt.
– Kristoffer is very popular among the club’s fans and also here in the city. He is considerate and always poses for selfies with the children after training, says Korsgaard.
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full screen Mikkel Korsgaard, journalist at the local media house Herning Folkeblad/Ikast-BrandeNyt. Photo: Johan Flinck
And then he asks the question that many others do today:
– What really happened?
Since Olsson’s condition became official at nine o’clock this morning, greetings and warm words have flowed in to the club from all over football Europe.
– The football family comes together when something like this happens and you put the club colors aside. It’s a bit like the feeling from when Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch in the EC is coming back. We hope that Kristoffer feels the support, love and energy in some way and that it gives him a boost in the fight he is now fighting, says a person around the club.
As early as Friday, third in the table Midtjylland will play a match again – summit meeting against FC Copenhagen, who are second.
It remains to be seen how the teams and supporters will support Olsson in the first home game after the heavy news.
