Doha: Denmark is where Awer Mabil says he turned from a boy into a man. It’s also where he met his partner, Camilla – and when the European Championships are on, they’re his team. He speaks the language, too. It’s a country that holds a special place in his heart.
But with a berth in the World Cup’s final 16 now up for grabs and the Danes in his way, the sentimentalities can be parked for a few days – and Mabil’s ruthless streak can take over.
Awer Mabil loves Denmark, and Danish football – but this week, he says he wants to “kill” them.Credit:Getty
“I would love to score against them,” the Socceroos winger said.
“Obviously, it’s like my second home, my girlfriend’s from Denmark. I’m supporting Denmark in the Euros and that, but when we play against them, I want to kill them, and win that game … it will be nice to rub it in their faces and beat them.”
These days Mabil, 27, plays his club football in Spain with Cadiz. But his first port of call in Europe after leaving Adelaide United at 19 was FC Midtjylland, a regular UEFA Champions League and Europa League club where he spent seven seasons. Two of them were spent on loan after Mabil was sent away to learn the ropes of high-level football, riding a rollercoaster of emotions as he experienced back-to-back relegations with Danish rivals Esbjerg fB and Portuguese side Pacos de Ferreira.
Mabil arrived a scrawny, showy youngster; a free spirit who loved to dribble, but with no real understanding of the responsibilities involved with representing a club like FC Midtjylland. He learned the importance of grinding out results and how to cope with the demands placed on players by impatient, hard-marking supporters.
Awer Mabil met his partner, Camilla, while playing in Denmark for FC Midtjylland.Credit:Getty
He left a hardened international footballer, and a completely different person.
“For me, Denmark means a lot because l became a proper man, and very independent,” Mabil said.
“When I left home, I was a young boy going into a new country. It’s a country that will forever be with me because the people are very nice, very calm … and as soon as I learned the language, they became some of the funniest people in the world.
“Their humour, it’s very dry. I didn’t think they were funny at the start because I didn’t understand their language and their sense of humour. After I learned the language I thought my teammates were funny, but before that, for like two or three years, I was like, ‘Ah….’”
Awer Mabil credits his time in Denmark with helping make him the person and footballer he is today.Credit:Getty
While Mabil learned a lot about both life and football in Denmark, he also learned how little respect some Danes held for the Australian game, which he said they view through a stereotypical lens: lots of running, physicality, aerial contests, duels, but no actual technical ability.
If that’s the true Danish assessment of the Socceroos, it isn’t exactly wrong: Australia’s 1-0 triumph over Tunisia, which lifted them to second spot in Group D, was built on all of those qualities, and the talk emerging from their camp ahead of Thursday morning’s (AEDT) showdown is of a kind: respectful in some aspects, but by way of omission, not of others.
Striker Andreas Cornelius, who plays with Maty Ryan at FC Copenhagen, has described them as a “great team, athletic team” who play at high intensity. Leeds United defender Rasmus Kristensen, one of Mabil’s former teammates, says the match will be a “battle”, and “if fighting is what it takes, we are going to do it.”
Speaking after their 2-1 defeat to France, which left Denmark needing a win over Australia to reach the next round, coach Kasper Hjulmand said the Socceroos “fight with might, driven on by fantastic team spirit” – making no mention of the slick technical moves or tactical exploitation behind their two goals so far at this World Cup, but admitting that his team can take nothing for granted at the Al Janoub Stadium.
“They think we’re very physical, obviously – a lot of people think we’re only physical,” Mabil said.
“And that’s good that they think that, because we can play football. I know we can play football. So when they see us, they get surprised.
“They see us as more like physical, basic football … they think we’re just a long ball kind of team, just fighting, running. But they’re going to have something coming their way, so let them think that.”
Prior to taking on the national team job, Hjulmand was coaching in the Danish Superliga, and having played against his teams, Mabil remembers them being spectacular to watch – although Denmark has struggled so far to play in that kind of way in Qatar, with their collection of big-name stars like Christian Eriksen, Simon Kjær and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg yet to truly click on the field.
“Denmark is a good team, a mix of young talent now, similar to us,” he said.
“They try to play football, the coach they have was also a coach when I was in Denmark, he was coaching one of the teams, and it was Total Football, trying to play like Barcelona, trying to keep the ball on the ground. In Danish football, they don’t play a lot of football on the ground in the league – only some teams.
“It’s going to be fun, I think.”
