Jesper Lindstrom: Who is the Eintracht Frankfurt and Denmark attacker?
Winner of the 2021/22 Rookie of the Season award and UEFA Europa League, it's been some year for Jesper Lindstrom. bundesliga.com has the lowdown on the young Eintracht Frankfurt and Denmark attacker...
Age: 22
Club: Eintracht Frankfurt
Position: Attacking midfielder/ forward
Country: Denmark (eight caps / one goal)
Key stats
Born on 29 February 2000 in Taastrup, a suburb of Denmark's capital of Copenhagen, it's at hometown club Taastrup FC that young Lindstrom spent the early stage of his youth career. He then moved to BSI and Vallensbæk IF before joining Danish giants - and his boyhood club - Brondby as a 12-year-old in 2012. Lindstrom went on to make 65 appearances in the famous yellow of Brondby, scoring 15 goals and adding 15 more assists for the club, whilst lifting the 2020/21 Danish title.
Translation: A 2019 in which several dreams have come true, but also with bumps on the road. Looking back on 2019 with joy and forward to 2020 with the bit between our teeth, determined to achieve more!
Frankfurt won the race to Lindstrom's signature on a five-year contract in the summer of 2021. The 5'10" Dane featured in all eight of Die Adler's first eight league games and struck his first Bundesliga goal in the 2-0 win at Freiburg on Matchday 12, sparking a superb spell of form that saw the Dane score four goals and provide three more assists in the final six matches of the Hinrunde. It helped Frankfurt chalk up six wins out of seven games between Matchdays 11-17 as they moved from 15th place to sixth. Amongst that run, Lindstrom ended 2021 by scoring in each of the final three games of the year.
Lindstrom had to wait until Matchday 24 for his next league strike, but five goals and four assists across 29 league appearances represents a good return for a debut campaign. He also played a significant role in Eintracht's unbeaten Europa League campaign, featuring in nine of their 13 fixtures group stage to final, providing four assists along the way. A worthy winner of the Bundesliga's 2021/22 Rookie of the Season award, he's picked up where he left off in 2022/23, with eight goals and two assists in 22 matches in all competitions prior to the 2022 World Cup.
Watch: Jesper Lindstrom - 2021/22 Rookie of the Season
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Having earned 14 youth international caps, Lindstrom made his senior international debut in Denmark's 2-0 win over Scandinavian rivals Sweden in November 2020. He has since earned eight caps for his country, including two at the 2022 World Cup, and scored his first Denmark goal in a 3-1 win over Serbia in March 2022.
Plays a bit like: Julian Draxler
Lindstrom describes his game as such: "In general I like to play up front but can also play on the wings. I’ve got a strong shot on me from distance and I like to link up play in the penalty area."
A man that also loved to run at defenders and sank them to the floor with a drop of the shoulder was Draxler. The former Schalke and Wolfsburg midfielder - who won the 2014 FIFA World Cup with Germany - takes up very similar attacking positions to Lindstrom, drifting between the lines and making it exceedingly difficult for opposition defenders to keep tabs on his movement.
Did you know?
Lindstrom is not the only man to make the move directly from Brondby to Frankfurt, but he is the first outfield player to do so. Bundesliga goalkeepers Lukas Hradecky (2013) and Frederik Ronnow (2015) both also swapped the Brondby Stadium for the Deutsche Bank Park and each spent three years with Frankfurt before moving to Bayer Leverkusen and Union Berlin respectively.
What they’re saying
"Jesper is very young and came from a different league. The Bundesliga is a tougher league than the Danish league, you have to get used to it. It’s normal, and everyone in the club and the team knows that. Jesper has already made significant steps forward... you can see that he's an outstanding footballer and has very good technique." - Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp
"You can see that he has found his feet in the Bundesliga. He has more confidence now because he's performing well." - Frankfurt head coach Oliver Glasner
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