Despite record spending
©IMAGO
The 1-2 home defeat against Randers FC on Sunday evening marked the negative highlight of FC Copenhagen’s season. The reigning champion and record champion missed the championship round introduced in 2020 for the first time in its history, although the club recorded record expenses this season, including for former Dortmund player Youssoufa Moukoko. Those responsible were shocked.
“This is embarrassing and a black day for us. We don’t deserve the championship round. I think we overestimated ourselves for too long. That’s the situation, we can only blame ourselves,” coach Jacob Neestrup told the TV station “TV2”. “I think that many FC Copenhagen fans find it difficult to identify with the current FC Copenhagen team. And for me that is almost the worst thing. I bear an enormous responsibility for not leading the team out of this crisis. For not turning things around.” Ex-Bundesliga professional and veteran Thomas Delaney added: “I’m deeply ashamed. We’re not meeting expectations, it’s hell.”
The season actually got off to a promising start for the 16-time champion. After ten match days, the capital city team were in third place with 20 points, three points behind league leaders Aarhus GF. But since then, Copenhagen has been in free fall, winning only two of twelve games and most recently remaining without a three-pointer six times. The result: The record champions have to compete in the relegation round, where the last two have to go into league two. However, the lead should be enough to avoid relegation. Seventh place would be the worst placement since the 1999/00 season, when the club was eighth.
In order to be competitive after the record sale of Victor Froholdt, who went to FC Porto for 20 million euros, and the departures of Roony Bardghji (FC Barcelona) and Kevin Diks (Gladbach), Copenhagen invested 22.8 million euros in new professionals – the club never paid more. But many of the expensive new signings such as Moukoko or the 17-year-old Dominik Sarapata fell short of expectations. Moukoko only scored three goals in 18 league games, ten of them in the starting line-up, and Sarapata was loaned back to Poland in January without appearing in the Superliga. Goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski, who came from PAOK for 5 million euros, only kept four clean sheets in 22 games.
The squad value is symbolic of the sporting crisis. While this has increased at 75 percent of the Superliga clubs, at FC Copenhagen it has fallen by 20.5 percent since the start of the season. To save the season, all that remains is the Oddset Cup, through which Copenhagen can still qualify for international business. On Saturday there will be the second leg against Viborg FF, Copenhagen won the first leg 2-1. As Denmark expert and TM user “Andilife84” explains, missing international business could have far-reaching consequences: “Financially, missing the European competitions would be fatal. The expensive squad – two thirds of the contracts run until at least 2028 – threatens to become a burden.”
