Jannik Vestergaard
Kasper Schmeichel’s decade-long praise of Leicester City helped Jannik Vestergaard decide the club was the right place for him.
Jannik Vestergaard said: “I’m very happy, very motivated. I’ve had a very warm welcome, both from coaching staff and the players, of the ones I’ve seen so far, so I’m very excited. Now it’s happened, the way it happened, I’m very happy with it and I’m really excited to get going. It’s a special club that’s done very well over many years and I think the project is very, very exciting, even from the outside looking in. To be a part of it is a big thing for me. Kasper and Ryan (Bertrand, Vestergaard’s former Southampton team-mate), I know very well, and I get along with them off the pitch, so that’s going to be very easy. Just from my first impression of the guys in the dressing room, they’re a good bunch of guys, and I’m sure I’ll settle in very quickly. He (Schmeichel) hasn’t had to sell it to me for the last couple of weeks because he has been going on about this club for all the years I’ve known him. Every time we’re with the national team, he has something good to say about his club and its people. It’s not been a sales pitch deliberately, but he’s always spoken very highly of everything in and around the club. He’s been here for 10 years now, so that speaks for itself. He only has good things to say.”
Vestergaard has known he was a target of City manager Brendan Rodgers for the past 18 months, since the club tried to sign him in January 2020. While at 29, he immediately becomes one of the more senior players in the City squad, he still feels Rodgers can improve him.
Jannik Vestergaard added: “I’ve had a talk with him. I spoke with him when I got here. I am a fan of how his teams play and how Leicester have played the last couple of years. I believe I have qualities that can help the team and I just look forward to evolving and becoming a better player under his guidance. I’m 29 but I’m not, I hope, at the end of my development. I’ve never felt better so I think it’s a great pairing. Winning trophies is something that every player dreams of and I’m no different. I’ve not had the luck yet to achieve anything like Leicester have just in recent weeks and recent months. I’m not even talking about the title the club won some years ago, so that is a big motivation for me, but I’ll be working on the small stuff every day to try and help the team. What this club has proven is that it’s a team effort, it’s not any one particular player, it’s a team effort and I’d like to be a part of that team.”
