Andersen on football, fashion and everything in between

This interview originally featured in the Palace v West Ham matchday programme – get your programmes by clicking HERE.

However vociferous you choose them to be, the sounds remain a product of a deeply ingrained reflex across supporters of all varieties. “Man on!” tends to be the loudest; “Boo!” the most common; “Shoot!” the most elongated. Others are better left to the mumbles.

Selhurst Park attendees over the last two seasons have come to utter one more than most other supporter subsets: the slack-jawed, wide-eyed, involuntary speaking of recognition which comes with the solitary word: “Ball.”

In the goalless draw with Everton at Selhurst Park in April, goalkeeper Sam Johnstone and centre-backs Marc Guéhi and Joachim Andersen attempted a combined 47 long passes between them. The Dane led the way on completions – nine – as the aerial route to goal brought about many of Palace’s clearest chances.

It is not the first time Andersen has topped such a table. Last season, no Premier League player completed more long balls than the Dane – 253, over 50 more than second-placed Trent Alexander-Arnold. This season, his record has been just as strong.

Against Arsenal on the opening day of the season, even in defeat, Andersen registered more completed passes (91), long passes (12) and final-third entries (20) than any other player, leading commentator Jamie Carragher to later reflect: “I thought I was getting a bit carried away when I called Andersen ‘Ronald Koeman’ in the first-half – but I don’t think I was.”

Such skill has not come at a defensive cost, either, with Andersen winning the most duels and completing the most clearances in that game. He sits third in this season’s Premier League table for the latter (181, behind Brentford’s Ethan Pinnock and Everton’s James Tarkowski). But ‘ball-playing centre-back’ was not always such a natural description of his talents.

“When I was four-years-old, I was a right winger and, sometimes, a striker,” Andersen recalls. “When I first moved to FC Copenhagen, I started playing more centrally – like a No. 8 – and it helped me develop a lot. I got used to being comfortable on the ball.

“I moved to Midtjylland when I was 15 and they saw me as a central defender, even though I’d never played there before. I had a coach – Svend Graversen – who’s now Director of Football there, and he helped me to understand the steps I should take.

“I played a lot of different positions but, by the time I moved to Twente and Holland, at 17, I almost only ever played as a centre-back. It’s just natural, sometimes, in how your body grows and how your game develops. I was good on the ball and growing a lot.

“It was a good experiment, at first, to see how it was back there. I enjoyed it: I had more time on the ball and could see everything ahead of me. I’m quite vocal on the pitch, so it helps a lot to organise situations.”

For some, like Andersen’s self-confessed model defender – Sergio Ramos – you sense the thrill of defending comes with the rush of blood behind a last-ditch tackle or clearance. But for the Palace man: “I like to have the ball at my feet. I want to have possession, make good passes and get clean sheets… but I don’t care if I have a good or bad game, in truth, as long as I win.

“I like to have the ball more than I like defending, but in my position, you need to do these kind of things to win. I learned a lot about it playing in Italy [with Sampdoria], which was one of the main reasons I wanted to play there – to improve.

“Defending has changed a lot nowadays. It’s not just about being aggressive, no-nonsense – you need to be able to play. You need to be clever in your tackles – you can’t just kill everyone, going into reckless tackles, because you might get a red card with VAR.

“You need to be cleverer with how you do certain things.” ‘Clever’ is the operative word, for while Andersen remains a shrewd performer on the pitch, he retains a wide array of diverse interests away from it.

For while the Denmark international – who at one point puts us to shame by listing the five different languages he speaks fluently – is in the prime of his career, he has kept one eye on the future in the form of his diverse investment portfolio.

Investing in the stock market via different funds, largely into tech companies, it’s tough to recall many other footballers who have appeared in Forbes magazine.

“It comes from my Dad” – Jacob Andersen is a successful manufacturing entrepreneur in Denmark – “because he always said to me that I am my own little company.

“There will be a day when I’ll be done as a player, and I need to have a solid platform for my career afterwards. That’s what I’m trying to do, so that I can have a good life afterwards. I speak a lot with my Dad and different investors and financial workers, and it’s something I enjoy doing.

“It’s started to become more and more popular among footballers – but it’s so difficult to know who you can trust. I’m just in the luckiest position to have a Dad who can help me in that situation, when many players don’t.

“I love it, but sometimes, you can become tired of only talking about football. When I’m with my friends, sometimes I ask if we can speak about something else – I always get the same questions and it can get annoying, to be honest!” We laugh – nervously.

“I quite like having something to get my mind going on something else. It helps me relax.”

One such investment is based closer than you might think: a high-end clothes shop in Soho, which reflects Andersen’s well-publicised passion for fashion. “It started when I was at boarding school in Midtjylland at a boarding school. I had a lot of spare time, so I would always look at what was around on the internet, and I bought a lot of clothes online.

“Since then, I’ve liked it a lot. It’s important for me to feel good in what I wear. It’s fun, and I like to have different styles – not just one.

“I have a lot of clothes, to be honest, and many, many styles. It’s really difficult to choose a favourite – it depends on what mood I’m in. Sometimes I like to dress nicely, sometimes I like to dress more relaxed – it’s difficult to say.”

Was Andersen’s spell at Sampdoria in north Italy a further influence? “People like clothes there,” he agrees. “Many of the players came into training in nice clothes, something I appreciated.

“There, it’s an aspect of manners, also. When you’re going to a meeting or a dinner, you’re expected to dress nicely. For me, that’s really important: to present yourself in a good way.”

Copenhagen too? “Copenhagen has many architects. It has many good designers, furniture designers, nice clothes brands… so it’s a city that many people admire in the design and art world. It’s quite famous for that.”

… and, dare we ask, Crystal Palace? He smiles, glancing around the canteen, before saying: “We speak about it when people come in wearing nice things and crazy stuff.

“There are some styles I quite like here. Wilf [Zaha] has some nice clothes – many things I wouldn’t wear myself, but on him they look nice. Chris [Richards], as well, has a few styles I quite like.

His voice raises a notch: “JP always comes in wearing ugly clothes…” The animated rebuttal from the neighbouring table is both prompt and inevitable: “Hey – do not speak about me!”

The brief interchange reflects the jovial mode around the training ground of late, off the back of a positive run of form since Roy Hodgson’s return to Palace – a run on which Andersen hopes his side can build against former club Fulham on Saturday.

“It’s been really good under the new manager and the coaches. It’s always interesting when you have a manager coming in who you’ve never met before. They’ve been really good to us, making things simple so everyone knows their task.

“It’s been really positive within the training ground. There have been a lot of good laughs. When we train, we’re serious, but I feel like we have fun while we’re doing it. That’s really important for players, for the team and for everyone’s mindset: to enjoy playing football.

“It’s always amazing with our supporters – they help us to play better and, in difficult periods, it helps us get our confidence back and to punish opponents.”

Keep that passing counter ticking up, and Palace’s Premier League position – much like Andersen’s assortment of stocks and shares – will surely be on the rise.