Moments in crisis

Three days ago, F.C. Copenhagen’s players and head coach Jacob Neestrup were handed a 4-0 beating by Tottenham in the Champions League.

A low point in an autumn where, after an otherwise good start to the season, the team has found it increasingly difficult to be what Neestrup wants more than anything: A team you can rely on, like you could in the spring. A team with a high floor.

Except for the quick interviews right after the game in London, Neestrup has not spoken to the press since Tuesday.

But on Friday, two days before the Superliga match in Vejle, he stands before the gathered press after training and defends his goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski like a lion, after the latter cost two goals against Tottenham.

- For me it’s about the feeling that there’s a man standing in goal with a big heart for F.C. Copenhagen and some big balls – someone who can stand in there again without shitting his pants. And he can, emphasizes the FCK coach, and compares Kotarski’s talent to Kamil Grabara’s:

- He also made his mistakes in the first half-year, says Neestrup in this exclusive interview with the magazine Brølet.

Once Neestrup has answered everything, we begin walking toward the clubhouse. We need to find an office in the cramped facilities where we can sit down and do a longer interview.

But Neestrup suddenly turns on his heel and walks back to bold.dk and the other journalists who are still standing on the terrace with a view over the training ground.

- Did you understand what I said about xG?! we hear him say, before he clarifies what he meant.

The way to move forward

The self-confidence in communication that Neestrup shows both this day and every other day as head coach in F.C. Copenhagen stands in contrast to a comment he makes an hour later, after we’ve risen from our interview.

- When did you say the magazine comes out? he asks.

In about a month’s time.

- By then I might have been fired!

It’s said with both a wry smile and an understanding of the circumstances when producing an old-fashioned magazine, where production time is long. It wouldn’t be the first time we did a story on an FCK profile who was no longer at the club when the magazine hit the shelves.

Neestrup naturally feels great pressure. The team is only in fourth place in the Superliga behind AGF, FC Midtjylland, and Brøndby. And he knows that in this situation, communication is extra important. Like after the defeat in London.

- One thing is that you lose 4-0, but if you go out and look like death warmed up, or seem resigned in the media, defeatist, or blaming the players, then the defeat can become even worse.

- The way you get through a defeat, or the sweetness of victory, in different languages in the Champions League, helps get us all moving forward, or not. And it’s not just about the players, but about the many thousands who support F.C. Copenhagen, says Neestrup, who in many ways had an extremely tough day at the office that day.

Beer and video clips

Not only did he watch his team get outplayed, he also had to endure the humiliation of being filmed during the match, in the middle of a rage outburst, by someone in Tottenham’s VIP section, sitting just behind the bench. The minute-long clip later went viral in FCK circles.

- It was an expression of deep frustration over the goals we conceded, says Neestrup.

- But what you have to understand about that clip is two things: That's how I always am, even when we win, and the most frightening thing is that what used to be a space where coaches could be without the whole world getting too close — that space is gone. I actually noticed that someone was filming me in the row just behind the bench. But I moved on pretty quickly.

After the match, Neestrup shares a beer with Tottenham coach Thomas Frank.

- We talked about life as a top-level coach in England, about F.C. Copenhagen. And we talked about how football has its ups and downs — it does for Jacob Neestrup. It does for Thomas Frank. It does for our club, and it does for every other club, says Neestrup, who then has a long flight home, even though it doesn’t take much more than an hour and a half.

- You don’t exactly feel like sitting on a plane with the board, sponsors, and players. You just want to be by yourself. But life goes on. I can’t sleep on those kinds of flights, so I rewatch the match. I’m analytical, but I’m also still a slave to my emotions.

- I sit and clip together some footage, look through the goals. Kotarski obviously mustn’t make that mistake on the first goal. But I think more about our principle of ‘don’t lose the centre’. Too many of our players are pulled out of the central part of the pitch because of the opponents’ pace, and then it gets very open. I prepare those images together with my assistant coach and my analyst for the next time we meet with the players, says the head coach.

The perfect day off

Jacob Neestrup doesn’t meet with the players until Thursday, because on Wednesday both coaches and players have the day off — since they arrived home from London early in the morning and weren’t playing again until Sunday.

- On Wednesday, I walk my 7-year-old daughter to school, and then I sleep in. And then I try to shut everything out. Don’t read newspapers, don’t go online. When you're in a period with poor results, many injuries, many negative stories about FCK, that’s not something you should seek out, says Neestrup, before we ask what the perfect day off looks like, if he doesn’t have to think about football.

- On the perfect day off, I have a calm morning where it’s easy to get my daughter dressed, laughs the Copenhagener, who like the club lives in Frederiksberg.

- I get her to school on time. I rarely have weekends off — more often mid-week — but on the perfect day, I have breakfast with my wife. I spend some of the day with family or friends. Maybe a quick coffee meeting, and then some time alone. My daughter does gymnastics, and we enjoy being part of that.

Later, the family makes dinner together. Danes in general — and Copenhageners especially — are very respectful, even when F.C. Copenhagen loses. But a trip to the supermarket can still feel a little tougher during periods like this.

- My wife and I really enjoy going to restaurants, but it’s not always that you feel like doing it that day. Deep down, we just enjoy being home together.

The road to the job

37-year-old Jacob Neestrup grew up on Amager and joined F.C. Copenhagen as a very young boy, where he played all his youth years and also spent three years in the first-team squad.

After a couple of stints in Norway and Iceland, his career was already cut short at the age of 23 due to the ankle injury he had sustained at age 18 in his senior debut for F.C. Copenhagen.

- I never had the idea that I should become a football coach, says Neestrup about the time after ending his career.

- When I stopped playing, I thought I liked presenting things, teaching, speaking to people — whether they were older than me, my own age, or kids, whether they had other interests than me or not. So I started teacher training at the same time I got my first coaching job, as assistant to Brian Riemer with the U19s. That was in the spring of 2011, the class with Andreas Cornelius.

- That’s when I had an aha moment: ‘I’m really good at this.’ I probably wouldn’t have become a regular primary school teacher if I’d finished my degree. I’d probably have ended up with some boys who needed both a loving hand and a kick in the ass. Not that many years ago, I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to finish my education.

- It would’ve meant a lot for me to complete something I thought was really fun, says the Amager boy, who never burned as much for playing as he does for coaching and leading.

- Even if I hadn’t gotten injured at such a young age, I don’t think I would’ve had a full playing career. I started in KB when I was 6–7 years old. I played with the best in the country my entire youth, until I was 17–18, and then three years in the first-team squad, which also had the best players in the country. So the idea of playing for a 1st Division club — with all due respect — or at the bottom of the Superliga, that would’ve been difficult for me.

- I would probably have fairly early thought: ‘What do I do when I turn 35?’ I just didn’t burn that much for playing. The feeling I have from being a coach — all the way back to working with young talents — that’s a better feeling than I had as a player. I’ve felt from day one that I’m a better coach than I was a player.

Historically tough Superliga

Many FCK fans will remember the 2000s, when the club dominated the Superliga under Ståle Solbakken’s leadership. In the 2006/2007 season, the club won the Danish championship with a 24-point lead over AaB in second place. And it was 24.

Will F.C. Copenhagen ever again reach the point where they completely dominate and overshadow everything and everyone in the Superliga and win the championship year after year?

- Not under me, answers Neestrup without hesitation.

- Danish football is in a completely different place. Not to take anything away from Ståle’s team in the 2000s — it was totally dominant. But look at the 2010s.

- We didn’t win in 2012, 2014, 2015. We finished fourth in 2018. We didn’t win it in 2020 or 2021. Ståle’s F.C. Copenhagen in the 2000s — the best team in the club’s history — won championships in 2009, 2010, 2011 — from there until Jess Thorup’s title in 2022, we’re talking about a title-winning rate of 40 percent.

- If I’m being a bit cheeky, maybe it will never happen again that we qualify for the Champions League three times in four years, like we have since 2022. That kind of dominance — where you win with a 20-point gap — I just don’t think that will happen again. We’d have to be clearly the best in every parameter, and we’re not anymore.

- FC Midtjylland is on our level now. AGF was relegated three times in eight years — the country’s second-biggest city — and now they’ve figured out that they can play football, and soon they’ll have a new stadium, which will give them a massive boost. The competitive landscape is just different now than it used to be, says Neestrup, and continues:

- Our advantage is that when we talk to players we want to recruit, everyone knows what F.C. Copenhagen is. We have Parken, we have Copenhagen, we have our brand. All our championships, European football. But we’re jealous of, among others, FC Midtjylland’s facilities. There’d be no reason to spend 150–200 million on new facilities if you didn’t think it had an impact on performance.

- Said with a little twinkle in my eye: I’ve heard a rumor that when our dear rival in Herning was trying to recruit a very talented player from the Premier League this season (Philip Billing, ed.), they flew him over to see the training facility. It’s a bit the opposite with us. We prefer to wait to show the training facility until the ink is dry on the contract.

- The physical surroundings have a huge impact when you play 55 matches in a season. Seen in that light, F.C. Copenhagen has done an enormous overperformance with three championships in the last four years, two Doubles, and three Champions League group stages.

Downturn in Vejle

Misfortunes rarely come alone, as the saying goes. Injuries, for example, often come in bundles, as Neestrup has experienced this season.

And five days after the drubbing by Tottenham, the team loses 2-0 in Vejle. The 2-0 goal for Vejle is scored — ironically — by Amin Chiakha, a striker on loan from FCK, highlighting the problem with a lack of healthy, true box strikers in F.C. Copenhagen during the fall.

The players stand with bowed heads in front of the fans who have traveled to Vejle and receive an unambiguous message that “the shirt comes with responsibility”.

Jacob Neestrup had said two days earlier to Brølet that, to win back the championship, the team must first and foremost hold on through the final four matches of the fall:

- Best case would be that we come through with our skin intact. That we can say we qualified for the Champions League, that we kept the title within reach, and that we’re in the semi-finals of the cup. That’s what I hope to go on Christmas break with.

In Vejle, FCK did not keep their skin intact. And both the head coach himself and sporting director Sune Smith must respond on Viaplay to whether Jacob Neestrup is still the right man to lead F.C. Copenhagen.

- I’ve known Neestrup for an incredible number of years. I’ve followed him in good times. We’ve had bad times together. He’s a head coach who is strong in adversity, who works extra hard, and who has extraordinary focus. He is really strong in tough times, he’s been in this before, and I’m incredibly happy that he’s the head coach during this period we’re going through, says the sporting director, adding:

- He is damn good.

Neestrup’s dream

The question of what Neestrup’s biggest dream is as a coach actually belonged in the quick-fire round, which we can place in a box next to this main story.

Maybe he dreams of coaching Real Madrid. Or how about Ajax Amsterdam, who according to rumors were after Neestrup the day before Brølet interviewed him.

Maybe he dreams of winning the World Cup as coach of the Danish national team. His answer says so much about him that it deserves to be the conclusion here.

What is your biggest dream as a coach?

- That one day I leave F.C. Copenhagen with a good legacy. It’s not just about sporting results, but about people saying: “He damn well did the best he could for F.C. Copenhagen.” I don’t have a dream of some big address abroad. F.C. Copenhagen is a really big club, located in a capital city. There are usually between 25,000 and 30,000 people in Parken, and if it’s 0-0 at halftime, you get booed.

- With the title frequency and the European frequency we’ve had since Roy Hodgson came to the club (year 2000, ed.), it feels to the players like being at a big club abroad — and it feels that way for me too.