Mathias Jattah-Njie Jørgensen (; born 23 April 1990), also known by his

mononymous A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

nickname Zanka, is a Danish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and the Denmark national team. Jørgensen began his career at boyhood club

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

, playing regularly in five Superliga seasons, before a move to

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

in 2012, where he spent two seasons in the Eredivisie before returning to Denmark after finding his chances limited. He joined

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

in July 2017 for a fee of £3.5 million, where he played until their relegation in 2019. Afterwards, he played for Fenerbahçe, before returning to the Premier League in 2021 where he signed with

. Formerly an international at under-16, under-17, under-18 and under-21 level, Jørgensen made his senior international debut for

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

aged 18 in November 2008.

Club career

FC Copenhagen

Born to a Danish mother and a Gambian father, Jørgensen moved to

from neighbouring club B.93, where he had played in first-team matches even at the young age of 16. He signed a three-year contract with FCK on 26 June 2007. Before signing with the Danish champions, he had visited

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

for a one-week trial. On 21 July 2007, Jørgensen strained the inner ligament in the left knee in a reserve team match – less than a month after he moved to the club. On 9 September, he played again for the reserve team. His first team debut came on 26 September 2007 in a

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

match against

FC Fredericia Fodbold Club Fredericia af 1991 (, simply known as FC Fredericia), is a professional association football club based in the town of Fredericia, Denmark, that competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of the Danish football league syst ...

. He substituted Oscar Wendt five minutes before full-time, in the match FCK won 3–1. Three days later he got his Superliga debut, this time replacing Hjalte Nørregaard about 15 minutes before full-time. Only eight days after his first team debut, Jørgensen was thrown on pitch in the

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

of the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

first round second leg at

Parken Stadium Parken Stadium, also known simply as Parken and as Telia Parken (2014–2020), is a football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (''Inner Østerbro'') district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from 1990 to 1992. The stadium, which features a retractable ...

against

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), come ...

, after captain

Michael Gravgaard Michael Julius Gravgaard (born 3 April 1978) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He began his career at Randers Freja. During his stay at Viborg FF he occasionally played as a forward. With Copenhagen he won th ...

had received a red card. He was substituted for

Marcus Allbäck Marcus Christian Allbäck (; born 5 July 1973) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was known for his sharp finishing ability and represented clubs in Sweden, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, England, and Germa ...

and played in the central defence together with

Brede Hangeland Brede Paulsen Hangeland (born 20 June 1981) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a central defender. He began his career with Viking, where he won the Norwegian Cup in 2001. In 2006, he moved to Copenhagen, and went on to ...

, and they prevented any more goals for Lens, when they were 10 against 11. On 19 November 2008, he made his debut for the

Danish national football team The Denmark men's national football team ( da, Danmarks herre-fodboldlandshold or ''herrelandsholdet'') represents Denmark in men's international football competitions. It is controlled by the Danish Football Association (DBU), the governing bo ...

in a friendly against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. After

Roland Nilsson Nils Lennart Roland Nilsson (born 27 November 1963) is a Swedish professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. As a player, Nilsson played 116 games for Sweden, making ...

became manager for

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

he became captain for "The Lions". 22 February 2012 it was announced that Jørgensen would join Dutch club

on a free transfer during the summer transfer window.

PSV

Jørgensen was featured in an unofficial

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

tournament, The Polish Masters, in July 2012 and scored his first goal for PSV in their game against

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

on 22 July. However, he struggled to break into PSV's first XI and only played 14 matches for the club over the course of two years.

Return to FC Copenhagen

On 7 July 2014, Jørgensen returned to his former team FC Copenhagen for a fee of around 600,000 Euros.

Huddersfield Town

On 7 July 2017, Huddersfield Town confirmed the signing of Jørgensen from FC Copenhagen for £3.5 million on a three-year contract. Jørgensen made 65 total appearances for the Terriers in his two seasons with the club as they suffered relegation to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

after the 2018–19 season.

Fenerbahçe

On 10 August 2019, Huddersfield Town confirmed that the defender had joined Fenerbahçe on a permanent deal. The terms of the transfer were undisclosed. On 31 January 2020, Jørgensen joined

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

on loan until the end of the 2019–20 season. On 5 October 2020, Jørgensen again returned to F.C. Copenhagen on loan until the end of the 2020–21 season.

Brentford

On 9 September 2021, Jørgensen joined Premier League club

on a one-year contract. During an injury-hit 2021–22 season, made 10 appearances and scored one goal. After his contract expired in June 2022, it was announced by the club that, whilst he would depart as an official squad member, he would be allowed to train with them in order to complete his rehabilitation on an adductor injury and enable him to find a new club. In July 2022, he joined the club's pre-season

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events, ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and on 22 August 2022 signed a new one-year contract with an option for an extra year.

International career

In May 2018 he was named in Denmark's preliminary 35-man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia. In the

round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

against

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, he scored the opening goal in the first minute of the match. In the 116th minute, he commit a professional foul in the penalty area to prevent Croatia from scoring a late winning goal, and was subsequently yellow carded. His tackle temporarily paid off as Danish goalkeeper

Kasper Schmeichel Kasper Peter Schmeichel (born 5 November 1986) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Nice and the Denmark national team. Schmeichel began his career with Manchester City, but had loan spells with Darlington, B ...

saved

Luka Modrić Luka Modrić (; born 9 September 1985) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for La Liga club Real Madrid and captains the Croatia national team. He plays mainly as a central midfielder, but can also play as an attack ...

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

, maintaining the 1–1 draw and forcing the match into a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

. However, Denmark would go on to lose the shootout 3–2. In May 2021, he was named in Denmark's preliminary 26-man squad for the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

Personal life

Jørgensen previously dated Hungarian model

Enikő Mihalik Enikő Mihalik (; born 11 May 1987) is a Hungary, Hungarian model (person), model who rose to prominence after placing 4th in the Elite Model Look 2002 and is known for her work with Netherlands, Dutch photography team Inez van Lamsweerde and Vin ...

. Jørgensen wrote an article against homophobia in football for the Danish Football Player’s Association in 2016. In February 2017, following the monetary settlement that the players association had with the Danish national team, Jørgensen donated the 667,000 Danish kroner ($94,380) to help fund a new pro-LGBT+ campaign called “Fodbold for alle’ or ‘Football for all’ and visited schools to talk about the problem of homophobia. Jørgensen married Nanna Ottosen in April 2022 in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area. Chelsea histori ...

. They have a son, born 31 October 2021.

Nickname

Jørgensen received his nickname "Zanka" from the film ''

Cool Runnings ''Cool Runnings'' is a 1993 American sports film directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Leon Robinson, Doug E. Doug, Malik Yoba, and John Candy. It is loosely based on the true story of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team's debut in competition ...

'', in which the character played by

Doug E. Doug Doug E. Doug (born Douglas Bourne; January 7, 1970) is an American actor. He started his career at age 17 as a stand-up comedian. He played the role of Griffin Vesey on the CBS sitcom ''Cosby (TV series), Cosby'', Sanka Coffie in the film ''Co ...

is named Sanka. The nickname was coined by Johan Lange in 2000, while both Lange and Jørgensen were playing for B.93. Lange would go on to be one of the assistant managers during Jørgensen's first spell at FC Copenhagen, and he would later serve as the technical director when Jørgensen returned to the club in 2014.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Jørgensen goal''.

Honours

FC Copenhagen *

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

: 2008–09, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Danish Cup The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will quali ...

: 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 Individual * Players' Talent of the Year: 2008 *

Arla Arla may refer to: * ''Arla'' (moth), a genus of moth * Arkansas Library Association * Arla, Greece, a village * Ärla, a village in south-eastern Sweden * Arla Foods, a large Scandinavian producer of dairy products ** Arla (Finland), a subsid ...

Talent of the Year: 2008 * Arla U-19 National Team Talent of the Year: 2008 * F.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year: 2017

References

External links

Profile
at the Brentford F.C. website * *
Mathias Jørgensen
at ''

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and Profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM but l ...

'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jorgensen, Mathias 1990 births Living people Footballers from Copenhagen Danish men's footballers Denmark youth international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Denmark international footballers Danish people of Gambian descent Association football defenders Boldklubben af 1893 players F.C. Copenhagen players PSV Eindhoven players Jong PSV players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Fortuna Düsseldorf players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Danish Superliga players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Premier League players Süper Lig players 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Germany Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Danish expatriate sportspeople in England