With Arsenal, Liverpool and more joining the race to sign Eintracht Frankfurt forward Jesper Lindstrom ahead of a fiercely contested battle of ‘transfer tug-of-war’, Tottenham Hotspur could do worse than to enlist the help of ‘agent Hojbjerg’.
Newcastle United have the money and the ambition. Liverpool have the prestige. Arsenal have the allure of Champions League football.
Tottenham, facing a fight to get into the top four and dreading another summer of Daniel Levy-driven negotiations, may feel – in comparison to their rivals at least – almost like poor relations in the race to sign one of European football’s most coveted young attacking midfielders.
One advantage Spurs do have over Newcastle, Arsenal and co, however, is a track record of signing rising Danish talent. Christian Eriksen, Denmark’s favourite footballing son, spent six-and-a-half seasons in North London.
Hojbjerg, meanwhile, has been one of the first names on the Tottenham team-mate for nearly three years now. With Lindstrom set to link up with both Eriksen and Hojbjerg again during next international break in June, Tottenham could do worse than to enlist the help two Spurs favourites – one past, one present – to make Lindstrom a Spurs player of the ‘future’.
Could Tottenham win the race to sign Jesper Lindstrom?
“I play with guys like Christian Eriksen, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg from Tottenham,” Lindstrom told Forbes back in January. They are top players.
“But you don’t see it like this when you go to the national team. You just see them as colleagues and friends. We have a very good community spirit in the team, and everybody fights for Denmark.”
Lindstrom, capped nine times by his country, is likely to be sold by Eintracht Frankfurt this summer. So long as their £26 million price-tag is met, that is. Tottenham, Danish publication Ekstra Bladet report, are among the 23-year-old’s admirers.
And if Lindstrom’s name feels oddly familiar to some Spurs supporters, that’s probably because he spent much of October’s Champions League group-stage meeting testing the speed of Hugo Lloris’ reflexes; Lindstrom a constant thorn in Tottenham’s side with his intelligent position, turn of pace and powerful ball-striking ability.
“Jesper is very young and came from a different league. The Bundesliga is a tougher league than the Danish league. You need to adapt to it,” team-mate Kevin Trapp says; hailing a player who, should he maintain his current rate of progression, could soon become Frankfurt’s latest big-money sale following Luka Jovic, Sebastien Haller, Andre Silva and Filip Kostic.
“Jesper has already made significant steps forward. You can see that he’s an outstanding footballer and has very good technique.”
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