Christian Eriksen to Real Madrid: Worth the hype?

As one of the most interesting players in the Premier League, Christian Eriksen has always had his admirers. His move to Tottenham Hotspur was always seen as a bit of a short-term thing, before moving on to a true giant of the European game.

The former Ajax prodigy, though, has been at Spurs for six years – and is one of their best players in the Premier League era. This summer, though, it’s expected that the Dane will try out something new. Links to FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are abound. With 86 caps for his country and over 200 appearances for Spurs, he sounds like the perfect player ready to take that next move.

Is he, though, likely to succeed at the very pinnacle of the European game?

Eriksen’s contract winding down

At 27, now is the time to find out. Having achieved likely all he can in a Spurs shirt, Eriksen could do with a move to refresh his game. This season, he’s continued to be a key cog in the Spurs side, contributing 7 goals so far directly. Moving into the last year of his Spurs contract this summer, though, it’s likely that he’ll move on as Spurs will want to avoid losing a key asset for free.

Speaking on international with Denmark, he made some very interesting comments about the contract situation. He was quoted by BT as saying: “The Premier League clubs are starting very early to get players to sign new contracts. Therefore, my situation is unnatural. Two years is still a long time when you think of a football career, but in England it is normal to write a five-six-year agreement. That’s why my situation is different.

“The speculation about my future does not affect me. I don’t care about that completely. It’s newspaper news. It has been running ever since, I was 14 years old and was in trial at Chelsea. There are newspapers that write it.”

Would a move be right for the Dane?

The words above, then, show little interest in discussing a move or in shutting down the likelihood of a move. For this reason, we could easily see Eriksen leave Spurs in the summer. With chairman Daniel Levy one known not to take needless financial hits, he might see selling the Dane as preferable to losing him for free.

However, one thing that has often plagued the ex-Ajax man throughout his career has been a lack of pace. Alongside the need to play in a position not used so regularly in football today, the number ten/attacking midfield role, and it would be hard to see him fitting in perfectly into the present structure for either Madrid or Barcelona.

Links to Juventus, where there is a likely shuffle in the summer in midfielder, would make more sense. However, while his athleticism has been called into question in the past, it would be hard to say that Eriksen lacks quality. He is, without doubt, one of the best players in his position in the world. His biggest suffering, though, might be the tactical shift that makes his position at the top end of European football a less common occurrence.

That might be the sole reason that he stays at Spurs in many ways. With no team really able to accommodate him as Spurs do, he might prefer to remain the protagonist instead of just another member of the cast. On pure talent alone, though, Eriksen could play for any club on the planet.