Morten Wetche Frendrup (; born 7 April 2001) 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

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

. He has been capped for various Denmark national youth teams. Frendrup was born in

Tuse Tuse is a village in Denmark, located about west of Holbæk. It has a population of 1,176 (1 January 2022). Tuse is located in Holbæk Municipality and therefore is part of the Zealand Region. The town has a relatively large local historical si ...

and played youth football with Tuse IF and

Holbæk B&I Holbæk Bold- & Idrætsforening is a Danish football club currently playing in 2. Division East. They play at Holbæk Stadion in Holbæk on Zealand, which has a capacity of 10,500. From 2008 to 2014 their first team played under the name Nordve ...

before starting his professional career with

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a professional association football club based in Brøndbyvester, Capital Region of Denmark. The club was founded in 1964 as a merger between two local clubs and was p ...

, where he became the youngest player to debut for the club. He became an established player under manager

Niels Frederiksen Niels Frederiksen (; born 5 November 1970) is a Danish professional football manager. He last worked as the head coach of Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF. Frederiksen began his career as a head coach at Lyngby Boldklub in 2009 after having ...

, and was part of the title-winning team of

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

. His performances earned him a move to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club

in February 2022. He is a Denmark youth international, having appeared for the under-21 team since 2021.

Club career

Brøndby

Early career

Born in

outside

Holbæk Holbæk () is a town in Denmark and the seat of Holbæk municipality with a population of 29,608 (1 January 2022).Holbæk B&I Holbæk Bold- & Idrætsforening is a Danish football club currently playing in 2. Division East. They play at Holbæk Stadion in Holbæk on Zealand, which has a capacity of 10,500. From 2008 to 2014 their first team played under the name Nordve ...

. He was only at Holbæk for one year, because he had joined the

academy at under-14 level, which meant that he played for two clubs for a short period. During this time, he commuted several times a week between his home in Tuse and Brøndby, a distance of approximately 60

kilometre The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

s. When Frendrup finished

primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...

, he began attending Brøndby Idræts

efterskole An efterskole (literally ''"afterschool"'', plural efterskoler) is a unique type of Danish voluntary independent residential school for young people between the age of 14 to 18. At an efterskole, students can choose to spend one, two or three year ...

, a five minute walk from the Brøndby IF training ground. He won the Danish under-15 Cup on 11 May 2016 in a 1–0 win over

FC Nordsjælland Football Club Nordsjælland, commonly known as FC Nordsjælland, Nordsjælland () or FCN, is a professional Danish football team from the North Zealand town of Farum. Founded as ''Farum Boldklub'' from the merger of the town's two football club ...

. At under-17 level, he captained the team to a second-place finish in the league behind winners AGF.

2017–20: Breakthrough

In the summer of 2017, aged 16, Frendrup was included in the first-team training camp in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

together with fellow academy players Christian Enemark and

Andreas Bruus Andreas Bruus (; born 16 January 1999) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Troyes. He has also represented Denmark at youth international level. Career Brøndby Youth Born in Greve Strand, Bruus joined the B ...

. In December 2017, he signed a new deal with Brøndby, keeping him in the club until the summer of 2020. On 11 February 2018, Frendrup made his senior debut, aged 16, in a 3–1 win over

Lyngby Boldklub Lyngby Boldklub () is a Danish professional football club founded in 1921. It is based at Lyngby Stadion in Kongens Lyngby, Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality, a northern suburb of Copenhagen. From 1994 to 2001 the club was known as Lyngby FC. The club ...

in the

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 ...

. He was brought on as a substitute in the 85th minute, becoming the youngest player to appear for Brøndby, 37 days younger than second on the list, Magnus Warming. On 15 March 2018, Frendrup signed his first professional contract, keeping him at the club until 2021. During the 2019–20 season, Frendrup started playing more regularly in the fall due to long-term injuries to starters Lasse Vigen,

Simon Tibbling Simon Hjalmar Friedel Tibbling (born 7 September 1994) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Sarpsborg 08 in the Eliteserien. He has made one appearance for the Sweden national team. Born in Stockholm, Tibbling jo ...

and Josip Radošević. His performances during these games were praised, and he subsequently won the Brøndby Player of the Month award for November. On 12 January 2020, Frendrup signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract with Brøndby, running until 2023. He continued his strong performances in the second half of the season and was named Superliga Talent of the Month for June 2020, as well as Brøndby Player of the Month for June and July. At the end of the season, head coach

praised Frendrup as being one of the key players of the Brøndby team during the last half of the season.

2020–21: Danish champions

Frendrup continued as a starter in midfield in Brøndby's

campaign. He marked his 50th appearance in all competitions 20 December 2020 as Brøndby beat

Horsens Horsens () is a city on the east coast of Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 61,074 (1 January 2022) and the municipality's population is 94,443 (), making it the 8th largest city in De ...

2–1 to go on winter break in first place of the league table. As the season reached its conclusion, and Brøndby pushed for its first league title in 16 years, Frendrup was sent off in a crucial game against AGF on 20 May 2021. Leaving the pitch in tearful fashion, he eventually saw his team win 2–1. When returning to Brøndby Stadion after the match, Frendrup and the other players were cheered on by fans. Frendrup was sidelined with a suspension for the last game of the season against Nordsjælland, but could see his team win the Danish Superliga title after a 2–0 win. Frendrup made his European debut on 17 August 2021 in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

play-off first leg against Red Bull Salzburg, which ended in a 1–2 loss. On 24 October, he scored his first goal in the domestic league, helping the club to a win in the

Copenhagen Derby The Copenhagen Derby is a Danish football rivalry between Brøndby and Copenhagen. Matches ''As of 28 October 2021'' Abbreviations *DSL – Danish Superliga *DC – Danish Cup *RL – Royal League Total This gives a total of: Other stati ...

against

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 ...

Genoa

Frendrup signed for

club

on 30 January 2022, penning a four-and-a-half-year deal. He made his debut for Genoa in a 0–0 away draw against

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

on 13 March, during which he started at

right-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 ...

International career

Frendrup was included in the squad for the

2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as 2018 UEFA Under-17 Euro) was the 17th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (36th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football champ ...

. He played all three of his team's matches as a starter but the Danes failed to advance from the group stage. He gained 13 caps for Denmark under-19, obtained between 2018 and 2020. He wore the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

's armband twice. On 3 September 2021, Frendrup gained his first cap for the Denmark under-21 team in a 1–1 friendly draw against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Style of play

A right-footed midfielder, Frendrup has been described as an all-rounder with relentless energy. He has excellent ball-winning abilities, and has been noted to fill in at different positions, including left-back and right-back. He has been likened to former Brøndby midfielder

Christian Nørgaard Christian Thers Nørgaard (born 10 March 1994) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Brentford and the Denmark national team. Between abortive spells with Hamburger SV and Fiorentina, Nørgaard came t ...

Career statistics

Honours

Brøndby *

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 ...

: 2017–18

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frendrup, Morten 2001 births Living people People from Holbæk Municipality Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Denmark youth international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Holbæk B&I players Brøndby IF players Genoa C.F.C. players Danish Superliga players Serie A players Serie B players Expatriate footballers in Italy Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Sportspeople from Region Zealand