Mathias Jørgensen

Mathias Jattah-Njie Jørgensen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈjɶɐ̯ˀɐnsn̩]; born 23 April 1990), commonly known as Zanka, is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Copenhagen on loan from Fenerbahçe, and the Denmark national team.

Mathias Jørgensen

Jørgensen playing for Huddersfield Town in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Mathias Jattah-Njie Jørgensen[1]
Date of birth	23 April 1990[1]
Place of birth	Copenhagen, Denmark[1]
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Position(s)	Centre back
Club information
Current team	Copenhagen (on loan from Fenerbahçe)
Number	25
Youth career
1994–2007	B.93
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2007–2012	Copenhagen	92	(6)
2012–2014	PSV Eindhoven	14	(2)
2013–2014	Jong PSV	7	(1)
2014–2017	Copenhagen	93	(4)
2017–2019	Huddersfield Town	62	(3)
2019–	Fenerbahçe	18	(2)
2020	→ Fortuna Düsseldorf (loan)	9	(0)
2020–	→ Copenhagen (loan)	5	(0)
National team^‡
2006	Denmark U16	1	(0)
2006–2007	Denmark U17	3	(0)
2007	Denmark U18	1	(0)
2008–2012	Denmark U21	15	(1)
2008–	Denmark	33	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 27 September 2020 ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 23:42, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

He began his career at boyhood club FC Copenhagen, playing regularly in five Superliga seasons, before a move to PSV Eindhoven in 2012, where he spent two seasons in the Eredivisie before returning to Denmark after finding his chances limited. He joined Huddersfield Town in July 2017 for a fee of £3.5 million.

Formerly an international at under-16, under-17, under-18 and under-21 level, Jørgensen made his senior international debut for Denmark aged 18 in November 2008.

Club career

FC Copenhagen

Born to a Danish mother and a Gambian father, Jørgensen moved to FC Copenhagen from neighbouring club B.93, where he had played in first-team matches even at the young age of 16. He signed a three-year contract with FCK on 26 June 2007.[2] Before signing with the Danish champions, he had visited Arsenal for a one-week trial.[3]

On 21 July 2007, Jørgensen strained the inner ligament in the left knee in a reserve team match – less than a month after he moved to the club.[4] On 9 September, he played again for the reserve team.[5] His first team debut came on 26 September 2007 in a cup match against FC Fredericia. He substituted Oscar Wendt five minutes before full-time, in the match FCK won 3–1.[6] Three days later he got his Superliga debut, this time replacing Hjalte Nørregaard about 15 minutes before full-time.[7]

Only eight days after his first team debut, Jørgensen was thrown on pitch in the extra time of the UEFA Cup first round second leg at Parken Stadium against RC Lens, after captain Michael Gravgaard had received a red card. He was substituted for Marcus Allbäck and played in the central defence together with Brede Hangeland, and they prevented any more goals for Lens, when they were 10 against 11.[8]

On 19 November 2008, he made his debut for the Danish national football team in a friendly against Wales.[9]

After Roland Nilsson became manager for Copenhagen he became captain for "The Lions". 22 February 2012 it was announced that Jørgensen would join Dutch club PSV Eindhoven on a free transfer during the summer transfer window.[10]

PSV

Jørgensen was featured in an unofficial pre-season tournament, The Polish Masters, in July 2012 and scored his first goal for PSV in their game against S.L. Benfica on 22 July. However, he struggled to break into PSV's first XI and only played 14 matches for the club over the course of two years.

Return to FC Copenhagen

On 7 July 2014, Jørgensen returned to his former team FC Copenhagen for a fee of around 600,000 Euros.[11]

Huddersfield Town

On 7 July 2017, Huddersfield Town confirmed the signing of Jørgensen from FC Copenhagen for £3.5 million on a three-year contract.[12] Jørgensen made 65 total appearances for the Terriers in his two seasons with the club as they suffered relegation to the Championship after the 2018–19 season.[13]

Fenerbahçe

On 10 August 2019, Huddersfield Town confirmed that the defender had joined Fenerbahçe on a permanent deal. The terms of the transfer were undisclosed.[13]

On 31 January 2020, Jørgensen joined Fortuna Düsseldorf on loan until the end of the 2019–20 season.[14]

On 5 October 2020, Jørgensen again returned to F.C. Copenhagen on loan until the end of the 2020–21 season.[15]

International career

In May 2018 he was named in Denmark's preliminary 35-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.[16]

Personal life

Jørgensen dated Hungarian model Enikő Mihalik.[17]

Zanka wrote an article against homophobia in football for the Danish Football Player’s Association in 2016.[18] In February 2017, following the monetary settlement that the players association had with the Danish national team, Zanka donated the 667,000 Danish crowns ($94,380) to help fund a new pro-LGBT+ campaign called “Fodbold for alle’ or ‘Football for all’ and visited schools to talk about the problem of homophobia.[18][19]

Nickname

Jørgensen received his nickname "Zanka" from the film Cool Runnings, in which the character played by Doug E. Doug is named Sanka.[20] The nickname was coined by Johan Lange in 2000, while both Lange and Jørgensen were playing for B.93.[21] Lange would go on to be one of the assistant managers during Jørgensen's first spell at FC Copenhagen, and he would later serve as the technical director when Jørgensen returned to the club in 2014.[22]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 27 June 2020[23]

Club	Season	League			Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Copenhagen	2007–08	Danish Superliga	12	1	0	0	—		0	0	12	1
	2008–09		20	0	0	0	—		10	0	30	0
	2009–10		24	4	0	0	—		9	1	33	5
	2010–11		25	1	1	1	—		11	0	37	1
	2011–12		11	0	2	0	—		4	0	17	0
	Total		92	6	3	1	—		34	0	129	7
PSV Eindhoven	2012–13	Eredivisie	5	2	3	1	—		2	1	10	4
	2013–14		9	0	0	0	—		5	0	14	0
	Total		14	2	3	1	—		7	1	24	4
Jong PSV	2013–14	Eerste Divisie	7	1	—		—		—		7	1
Copenhagen	2014–15	Danish Superliga	29	1	4	0	—		9	1	42	2
	2015–16		31	3	5	1	—		3	0	39	4
	2016–17		33	0	3	0	—		15	2	51	2
	Total		93	4	12	1	—		27	3	132	8
Huddersfield Town	2017–18	Premier League	38	0	2	0	0	0	—		40	0
	2018–19		24	3	1	0	0	0	—		25	3
	Total		62	3	3	0	0	0	—		65	3
Fenerbahçe	2019–20	Süper Lig	16	2	3	1	—		—		19	3
Fortuna Düsseldorf	2019–20	Bundesliga	9	0	2	1	—		—		11	1
Career total			293	18	26	5	0	0	68	5	387	28

International

As of match played 14 October 2020[24]

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Denmark
	2008	1	0
	2009	0	0
	2010	2	0
	2011	3	0
	2012	0	0
	2013	0	0
	2014	0	0
	2015	0	0
	2016	3	0
	2017	2	0
	2018	9	1
	2019	8	1
	2020	6	0
Total		34	2

International goals

Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first.

Goal	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	1 July 2018	Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia	15	Croatia	1–0	1–1 (2–3 p)	2018 FIFA World Cup
2	26 March 2019	St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland	22	Switzerland	1–3	3–3	UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

Honours

FC Copenhagen

• Danish Superliga: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2015–16, 2016–17
• Danish Cup: 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17

Individual

• Players' Talent of the Year: 2008[25]
• Arla Talent of the Year: 2008[26]
• Arla U-19 National Team Talent of the Year: 2008[27]
• F.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year: 2017[28]

References

1. "Jørgensen: Mathias Jattah-Njie Jørgensen: Player". BDFutbol. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
2. "Stortalent til F.C. København" (in Danish). F.C. Copenhagen. 26 June 2007. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
3. "Lørdagstræning i PARKEN" (in Danish). TV 2 Sport. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
4. "Lørdagstræning i PARKEN" (in Danish). F.C. Copenhagen. 18 August 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
5. "Christiansen: – Bedre dag for dag" (in Danish). F.C. Copenhagen. 11 September 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
6. "26.09. FC Fredericia – F.C. København (Kampreferat)" (in Danish). F.C. Copenhagen. 26 September 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
7. "29.09. F.C. København – Lyngby Boldklub (Kampreferat)" (in Danish). F.C. Copenhagen. 29 September 2007. Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
8. "04.10. F.C. København – RC Lens (Kampreferat)" (in Danish). F.C. Copenhagen. 4 October 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
9. "Bellamy matchvinder i Brøndby" (in Danish). bold.dk. 19 November 2008. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
10. "Jørgensen agrees to swap København for PSV". uefa.com. 23 February 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
11. "Officielt: FCK henter Zanka hjem". Retrieved 7 June 2014.
12. "TRANSFER: MATHIAS JØRGENSEN JOINS TOWN". Huddersfield Town A.F.C. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
13. "Defender departs Huddersfield Town permanently". Huddersfield Town A.F.C. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
14. "Foetuna leiht Zanka aus" (in German). Fortuna Düsseldorf. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
15. "ZANKA RETURNS TO F.C. COPENHAGEN ON DEADLINE DAY". F.C. Copenhagen. 5 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
16. "Revealed: Every World Cup 2018 squad - Final 23-man lists - Goal.com".
17. "Mihalik Enikő megtalálta az igazit". 15 July 2014.
18. "Danish internationals dig deep to fund anti-homophobia campaign". Reuters. 22 February 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
19. "These pro-LGBT+ football posters have been popping up all over Copenhagen". SBS. 4 September 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
20. "Fra A til Z som Zanka" (in Danish). sporten.dk. 10 February 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
21. "Manden bag Zanka" (in Danish). tipsbladet.dk. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
22. "Johan Lange" (in Danish). F. C. København. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
23. "M. JØRGENSEN". Soccerway. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
24. "Mathias "Zanka" Jørgensen". Danish Football Association. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
25. "Årets Talent 2008" (in Danish). Spillerforeningen. 11 November 2008. Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
26. Nielsen, Pia Schou (17 November 2008). "Martin Laursen Årets Spiller" (in Danish). Danish Football Association. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
27. Berendt, Lars (5 December 2008). "Lumb og Eriksen nyeste Arla Landsholdstalenter" (in Danish). Danish Football Association. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
28. "Årets Spiller 2016/2017: Mathias Zanka". F.C. København. 30 May 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2019.

External links

• F.C. Copenhagen profile at the Wayback Machine (archived 22 October 2007) (in Danish)
• Danish national team profile (in Danish)
• Career stats at Danmarks Radio at the Wayback Machine (archived 17 October 2007)
• Mathias Jørgensen at Voetbal International (in Dutch)
• Mathias Jørgensen at Soccerbase