Crystal Palace And Denmark Defender Joachim Andersen Is Investing For The Future

Joachim Andersen doesn’t need to look far for advice on investing.

Jacob, the father of the Crystal Palace and Denmark national team defender, is a successful entrepreneur credited with leading a turnaround of a well-known Danish plastics group.

From the moment the younger Andersen began to pursue a career in professional soccer, both father and son have had an eye on the future.

“I’ve always been educated, especially by my Dad, to think about what you want to do after your career,” Andersen tells me in an exclusive interview.

“Now we have a chance to make some clever investments so you can have as much money as possible after your career. That’s always been my goal since I started to earn some serious money in my career. That’s always been in my mind.

“We are in a lucky position to be able to earn a lot of money and to be able to save for a life afterwards. Football is a short life – 15 or 20 years is normally your career.”

In 2008, Andersen Snr rescued Nordic Houseware Group from insolvency. One of its two manufacturing businesses, Plast Team, now makes more than 45 million plastic articles each year, including for storage and cleaning. The other, Room Copenhagen, is licensed to produce lunch boxes and drinking bottles for brands including Lego and Star Wars.

Andersen sold part of the business in 2018 but remains a shareholder and vice chairman of the board. He is also owner and chairman of Vendsyssel FF, a club which plays in the second-tier Danish 1st Division.

In a time when soccer players are investing in everything from art to oat milk, Joachim Andersen has a diverse portfolio.

He is invested in the stock market via different funds and has stakes in various tech companies. They include AirHelp, an app that helps passengers file compensation claims for flight delays and cancellations, and Bellabeat, the first health tracker app made specifically for women. Andersen is also an investor in Han Kjøbenhavn, a Copenhagen-based clothing brand.

“For me, the most important is the financial return. Of course, I like to mix it up a little bit. For example, the clothing brand is something that I’m really interested in. I like fashion a lot,” Andersen says.

“I’m trying to create a platform to have the best possibilities in the future.”

Andersen’s career on the field has benefited from careful planning. Aged 17, he left his family in Denmark and moved to The Netherlands to join the FC Twente youth team as he considered it his best chance to develop as a player.

After playing in the Dutch top division, Andersen moved to Sampdoria in Italy’s Serie A.

“I thought it was a good move to go to Italy because I could really learn that defensive side of the game. I grew so much in that area under my manager, (Marco) Giampaolo,” he says.

Moves followed to Lyon, in France, then a first taste of the English Premier League while on loan at Fulham. Though he could not prevent the club getting relegated, Andersen, who turned 26 last month, made a big impression. The 6-foot 4-inch center back was named captain, despite being 24 and on loan at the time.

Last summer, Crystal Palace brought Andersen to the Premier League on a permanent basis, paying Lyon an initial fee reported to be about €22 million ($23.5m). It is the largest transfer fee paid for a Danish player.

He joined a “new era” for the London club, which finished 12^th and reached the FA Cup semi-final in an impressive season. As well as Andersen, Palace focused on recruiting younger players including Michael Olise, Marc Guehi, Conor Gallagher and Odsonne Edouard, all aged 23 or under.

There was also a new manager, former Arsenal player Patrick Vieira, preaching an attractive, possession-based style of play.

“I thought that would be really interesting to try to build something new up and be a big part of that,” Andersen says.

“The second half of the season I think we matured a lot. I think we grew as a team and also individually.”

Vieira played a part in Andersen’s decision to return to the league he describes as “so fast, you always need to be on your toes”.

“He was also one of the reasons I wanted to join Palace. I knew him from Nice when he was manager there and I played in Lyon, so I knew his playing style and knew he wanted to play possession-based football,” Andersen says.

“I thought it was a good match and I had some good conversations with him before joining Palace. He’s really a good manager and I’ve loved working under him. I’ve learned a lot this year already.”

Andersen is currently with the national team for a run of Nations League fixtures. He played the whole match as Denmark won away at world champions France last Friday. The two nations will meet again later this year at the World Cup finals.

“The World Cup is a dream for every player. We think we can go far in the tournament and hopefully show everyone how good a team we think we are,” he says.

“If you believe in it, which we do, big things can happen.”

Qatar is a controversial host of the tournament and players from Denmark’s men’s national team have previously protested Qatar’s human rights record. Andersen’s international teammate, Thomas Delaney, has said “none of us think it’s a good idea” to play the tournament there.

“I don’t have so much to say about it because I’m a football player not a politician,” Andersen says.

“It’s a difficult subject. Everyone wants a normal World Cup but this is how it is and we can’t do anything about it.”

The World Cup will be the first tournament finals for Denmark since the European Championship last summer. Denmark reached the semi-final but the competition will be remembered for the Danish player Christian Eriksen collapsing during a match, having suffered a cardiac arrest.

Eriksen has made a remarkable recovery. He signed for Brentford and has returned to the national team squad. Andersen was a substitute the day Eriksen collapsed.

“Of course, it was awful what happened. I could see from the sideline that it was a strange situation,” Andersen says.

“Luckily he’s had a fantastic recovery and the way he’s performed in the Premier League has been amazing.

“Obviously in the moment we were really affected by it, the whole squad. We had some psychologists come and help the players who needed that.”

The incident also galvanized the squad, forming a bond Andersen believes can carry them to success.

“It gave us a little bit of togetherness through the Euros and we performed really well so that just shows how strong our team is. And with this togetherness we can achieve some big things,” he says.

“You realize that your life can be gone like that. It’s awful to think about it because he’s so fit, he’s so healthy and you can never imagine that something like this could happen.

“So you need to be grateful for every day. You need to enjoy playing football and enjoy life. You never know what’s going to happen.”