Andreas Cornelius’s shocking return to FC Copenhagen was the highlight on a busy final day of the international transfer window that saw a number of national team players move to find more regular playing time at other clubs.
The talented 20-year-old made the surprising move back to FCK just half a year after he was snapped up for around 70 million kroner by Cardiff City.
Injuries and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s recent introduction as manager by controversial chairman Vincent Tan meant that the young top-scorer from last year’s Superliga was brought back to Parken for just 28 million kroner – a Danish club record purchase but a solid piece of business for the Lions.
Among the other big moves, midfielder William Kvist made a loan move to Fulham from Stuttgart, left back Simon Poulsen left Sampdoria for Dutch club AZ Aalkmar, midfielder Jakob Poulsen moved from Monaco to Superliga leaders FC Midtjylland, and keeper Stephan Andersen left Real Betis for Go Ahead Eagles in the Netherlands.
Other notable deals included defender Lasse Nielsen leaving Aab for Dutch outfit NEC Nijmegen, while Peter Ankersen and Kian Hansen will both be leaving Esbjerg for Red Bull Salzburg and Nantes this coming summer.
Olsen overjoyed
If there was a clear winner from the transfer window, besides FCK of course, it was national team coach Morten Olsen, who was pleased that key national team players – particularly Kvist and Cornelius – had managed to leave clubs where they were struggling for playing time, even if it meant making a switch to a smaller club.
“Sometimes it can be clever to take a step back to get on top again,” he told online football site Bold.dk.
“We’d prefer our players to play in one of the five big leagues. Belgium, Holland, Austria, Scotland and the Scandinavian leagues are development leagues for the bigger ones.”
FCK also signed budding 21-year-old Argentine midfielder Franco Mussis from Gimnasia La Plata and 29-year-old Norwegian right back Tom Høgli from Club Brügge, but both players won’t transfer until the summer. Their eternal rivals Brøndby, meanwhile, have signed Paraguayan Ariel Nunez from Libertad.
