Nicklas Bendtner was just forgettable at Nottingham Forest – but he’s just had the best season of his career in Rosenborg.
When it was announced that Nicklas Bendtner had signed for Nottingham Forest in September of last year after seeing his contract terminated at Bundesliga side Wolfsburg, it seemed inevitable that the headline hogging striker was either going to be a huge success or a bonafide disaster.
It was the latter. Throughout Bendtner’s nomadic career, he has frequently flattered to deceive. And after scoring just twice in 15 Championship games for Forest, the same can be said about his forgettable stint at the City Ground. Who can forget his horrific own goal in the 3-0 defeat to bitter rivals Derby County?
But few who watched the Danish frontman amble around the pitch during his ill-fated six month spell in the East Midlands would have predicted what would come after it. A move to Norwegian side Rosenborg in March appeared to symbolise the beginning of the end for Bendtner.
Though the 29-year-old is not on the scrapheap just yet. In fact, Bendtner has just enjoyed the best season of his journeyman career by far.
Revival
He had only scored 47 goals in his entire league career before moving to Rosenborg. But in 28 games for the Scandinavian giants, Bendtner hit the back of the net 19 times – the first season in which he has ever hit double figures – to fire the club to the Norwegian title.
And with Denmark securing a place in next summer’s World Cup via a 5-1 play-off thrashing of the Republic of Ireland in Dublin, in which Bendtner came off the bench to fire home the fifth from the spot, the former Arsenal, Sunderland and Juventus man appears to be finally, finally showing what he’s capable off on a regular basis.
Shame he couldn’t do this at Forest.
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