Nicklas Strunck Jakobsen (; born 17 August 1999) 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 ...

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

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Found ...

Youth career

Strunck started his career with

Ølstykke Ølstykke Stationsby, commonly known as Ølstykke, is a town in Egedal Municipality, serving as its municipal seat. Until January 1, 2010, Ølstykke was an independent city, but today it has merged with Stenløse and forms the urban area of Øl ...

, but after being demoted to the second team, his father, Kenn Strunck Jakobsen, decided to transfer him to Stenløse BK, where he himself had once played on the first team as a senior. Strunck played for Stenløse in two years, before joining Frederikssund, where he also played for two years. As an under-15 player, he joined

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 ...

. He won the U17 Talent of the Year award in 2016 by the Danish Football Association in 2016.

Club career

Nordsjælland

Strunck got his first senior call up on 11 February 2018, where he sat on the bench for the whole game against

SønderjyskE SønderjyskE is a Danish sport corporation. They have a football team (SønderjyskE Fodbold, based in Haderslev), two handball teams (SønderjyskE Håndbold, one male based in Sønderborg, one female based in Aabenraa) and an ice hockey team (S ...

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 ye ...

. He made his debut for

only five days later at the age of 18. Strunck started on the bench, but replaced Mikkel Damsgaard in the 91st minute in a 2–1 victory against OB. Strunck was officially promoted the first team squad for the 2018–19 season. Strunck signed a contract extension in July 2018 until 2021.

Groningen

On 11 August 2019, Strunck was signed by Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

club FC Groningen for a reported fee of around €500,000. He moved to Groningen on a four-year contract.

Esbjerg

After no appearances for Groningen, Strunck was sent on a one-season loan to Danish 1st Division club

on 5 October 2020 for the 2020–21 season. On 4 June 2021 Esbjerg confirmed, that Strunck had signed a permanent deal with the club until June 2025. On 11 July, he was appointed

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

of the club, before controversial manager

Peter Hyballa Peter Hyballa (born 5 December 1975) is a German professional football manager, who last managed AS Trenčín. He also served as manager at clubs in Germany, Namibia, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland and Denmark. Before his career as a manager, ...

gave the captain's armband to 19-year-old Mads Larsen on 24 July.

References

External links

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Nicklas Strunck Jakobsen
at DBU {{DEFAULTSORT:Strunck, Nicklas 1999 births Living people Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Association football forwards Danish Superliga players Eredivisie players Danish 1st Division players Danish 2nd Division players FC Nordsjælland players FC Groningen players Esbjerg fB players Denmark youth international footballers People from Egedal Municipality Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Sportspeople from the Capital Region of Denmark