Runar Alex Runarsson will have to wait for his chance at Copenhagen after leaving Premier League giants Arsenal in the January transfer window with a backseat role awaiting the Iceland international in Scandinavia.
Think of this as something of a trial period. An audition, if you will, for the number one spot at the Parken Arena.
Runar Alex Runarsson, signed on a free transfer from Arsenal on deadline day last week, has been brought in as back-up to Kamil Grabara. But with the one-time Liverpool ‘keeper agreeing to join Wolfsburg at the end of the current campaign, the message to Runarsson – from Copenhagen coach Jacob Neestrup – is a clear one.
If you want to be our new first-choice glovesman from the summer and beyond, Neestrup intimates, then here’s your chance to stake your claim.
Runar Alex Runarsson leaves Arsenal permanently
“There is no secret that Kamil is our first choice,” Neestrup, who masterminded that famous Champions League triumph over Manchester United, tells Bold. “Right now, it is the case that Kamil Grabara is a fantastic keeper at FC Copenhagen. And, then, Alex has to come in and press on with everything he can.
“(Runarsson) comes in and must be ready in case of an accident. He and we know that there is a situation in the summer where Kamil changes. So he now has five months to convince us that we should look his way in relation to a potential first-choice keeper at FC Copenhagen.
“We’ll have to look (whether we feel he can replace Grabara). But we think we’ve got a really good goalkeeper in. It is important, and we are satisfied with that.”
It’s fair to say Runarsson, brought in from Dijon in a £1 million deal back in 2020, didn’t really ‘cut the mustard’ at the Emirates. His forgettable four-year spell at Arsenal is probably best remembered for a mighty blunder in an Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester City, with Runarsson farmed out on loan to OH Leuven, Alanyaspor and Cardiff City in the last few seasons.
‘He’s a fantastic goalkeeper’
Fellow Iceland international Sverrir Ingi Ingason, however, has faith that Runarsson will prove his doubters wrong in Denmark.
“I have known Runar for many years. We played together for the u21s and for the national team in Iceland. His father, Mike, coached me when I played in Belgium,” says Ingason, who represents Copenhagen’s rivals FC Midtjylland.
“So I know him and his family quite well. He is a fantastic goalkeeper.”
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