On Episode 314 we recently discussed a Danish wonderkid who it’s safe to say has been enjoying his breakthrough at Bröndby IF in the Danish Superligaen, quite timely seeing as his fellow wonderkid and compatriot Rasmus Højlund had just completed a £70m move to Manchester United after his own breakout season at Atalanta last year. Let’s take a closer look at the 21-year-old who has rapidly shot to fame across European football commentators this season, and discuss if he is worthy of your time in Football Manager accordingly.
Though coveted by FC Nordsjælland as a boy, Mathias Damm Kvistgaarden signed for Lyngby before later opting to join the Brondby youth academy due to the apparent close relationship between his family and then Brondby manager Thomas Frank. Despite the latter’s subsequent move to Brentford, Kvistgaarden continued to impress at Brondby and he was rewarded with his senior debut in 2020 before properly breaking into the first-team squad in early 2022. Though not as burly and physically imposing as some of the more traditional Danish strikers (see Nicklas Bendtner, Youssuf Poulsen and Jonas Wind to name a few) - Kvistgaarden showed that age is just a number amassing 5 goals and 3 assists in 4 league games including a hat-trick against the aforementioned Nordsjælland at the end of what was largely a disappointing season for Brondby who finished 5th having won the league just two seasons previously.
By the end of that season Kvistgaarden had a tally of 7 goals and 4 assists across 21 appearances for Brondby, the majority of which came during an outstanding run of form in the latter half of the season as Brondby contested the Championship round of the Danish league. Widely regarded for his speed, explosiveness, comfort on the ball and calmness in front of goal, he has become a key player for Brondby this season starting all 5 of their opening league games scoring once and providing two assists to put Brondby in 3rd place in the early stages of the new campaign.
More recently (and most importantly after we recorded the episode), Kvistgaarden already looks set for a big move away from Denmark with Scottish giants Celtic the favourites to bag his signature if they meet the £6m price tag set by Brondby - as stepping stones go Celtic would be an ideal club for Kvistgaarden to prove his worth and take another step forward into the limelight if Brendan Rogers can get him playing to his full potential.
In FM23 it’s fair to say Kvistgaarden isn’t yet as highly rated and arguably rightly so as he only really began to show his goalscoring ability and potential after the winter update was released - that said he would be a bargain signing for a lower league club with promising all-round physical, mental and technical attributes that should rapidly increase if given the right coaching and development (the makings of a good Pressing Forward with that Natural Fitness 👀). If he continues his good real-life form he will surely see a big attributes boost in FM24, but why wait when you can say you saw him first?
Thanks for reading - let us know if you have had any interesting experiences with the lad and if you would like us to review any other potential wonderkids as part of our new “Adventures in Wonderkid-land” segment - drop us a line in the comments below or @5StarPod on Twitter 👌.