When Danish captain Simon Kjaer resigned from the national team in August last year, he didn’t know it would be too difficult to find a new club. – The 35-year-old was already without a club after AC Milan chose not to renew his contract.
After the summer European Championship finals, Simon Kjaer had the following message to his fans on social media:
Dear everyone
, Everything comes to an end.
This also applies to my 15 fantastic years with the environment on and around the Danish national team.
I have notified DBU that I am no longer available, and I feel very comfortable with that decision.
The timing feels right, but of course sad, given that the national team has meant so much to me and has been such a big part of my entire adult life.
Playing 132 times for my country and participating in six finals with Denmark has surpassed all my childhood dreams.
In my career, I am most proud of the enormous privilege it is to have been captain for eight years.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone in DBU, the national coaches, the staff, my many teammates over the years – and first and foremost to you fantastic Danish fans for everything we have achieved together.
It has always been an honour and a privilege to represent Denmark.
Now it’s all over!
Now six months without finding a club that fits, Simon Kjær told Danish TV2 it was over. “Now is really the right time to close that chapter”
Kjær became league champion with Milan in 2022. An eventful career that started in Midtjylland also took him to Palermo, Wolfsburg, Roma, Lille, Fenerbahçe, Sevilla and Atalanta. – He was also close to a transfer to Bodø/Glimt a few years ago.
“This is not a decision I have made after the summer, but one I have been thinking about all year before the European Championships,” he says and adds:
“There were many things that made it kind of like this: Let’s see what comes, but if the right thing doesn’t come, first and foremost for the family and then the sporting, then I’ll stop now.
Kjær became league champion with Milan in 2022. An eventful career that started in Midtjylland also took him to Palermo, Wolfsburg, Roma, Lille, Fenerbahçe, Sevilla and Atalanta.
For Denmark, Kjaer played a total of 132 games, many of them as captain.
