Nicolai Jörgensen has no fond memories of the 2018 World Cup. Denmark was eliminated in the eighth finals after penalties by losing finalist Croatia. Jörgensen missed the last penalty in the penalty series on behalf of Denmark, after which he received the necessary hate and death threats in his home country.
After misses by Christian Eriksen and Lasse Schöne, Jörgensen saw his decisive penalty kick also saved by Croatian goalkeeper Danijel Subasic. The elimination in the eighth finals of the World Cup hit Denmark hard and the former Feyenoord striker even had to deal with threats from supporters. “It has certainly had a big impact on me as a person and on my enjoyment of football,” Jörgensen said in an interview with TV3† “To be slammed by so many people is difficult. I was not prepared for that.”
The hatred and death threats against Jörgensen were so intense that the Danish Football Association reported it to the police. The disappointing World Cup for the 31-year-old attacker took place more than three and a half years ago, but only recently has he really put it behind him. “It’s only been a week since I finally had the courage to talk about those feelings,” says Jörgensen. “That was a huge relief. I didn’t think it would do so much to me. It didn’t matter who it was against, it was a huge relief.”
“I never thought it would fill such a large part of my body. But it did, because I felt relaxed and free of tension after I told.” Jörgensen left Feyenoord last summer after five seasons for Kasimpasa. The adventure in Turkey ultimately did not turn out as he had hoped. The Dane had his contract terminated last month and returned to FC Copenhagen, the club he had previously played for for four years.
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