Copy linkFacebookXPinterestEmailShare this article 0Join the conversationFollow usAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleNewsletterSubscribe to our newsletterBeneath gathering rain clouds and surrounded by thousands of hectares of windswept heathland, FourFourTwo is staring at a 33-foot statue of Vladimir Lenin.We're not in St Petersburg or Minsk or any former Soviet nation, for that matter but Denmark's Jutland peninsula, as it begins to drizzle with rain. It's so wild and remote that old Vlad is one of the few faces we've seen since arriving this morning. Much like the Russian revolutionary carved in bronze, suspended in mid-air and lying flat on his back, just like at his Moscow mausoleum we're beginning to wonder what the hell we're doing here.We like to imagine that Lenin is contemplating all the terrible things he did in life, explains Birgitte Damgaard, the proprietor of the land the statue now calls home. Birgitte's father, a local textiles tycoon and art collector, vowed to rescue the statue after watching television footage of it being toppled by Latvians during the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was brought more than 500 miles first by truck, then by ship, she tells FFT, after we stop by for a look. He's been lying here, staring up at the sky, for more than 30 years.We're a few miles outside the town of Herning, although our own reasons for being here are more straightforward we've come to witness a football match between local side Midtjylland and league leaders FC Copenhagen. At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a complete mismatch.From the capital, Copenhagen are Denmark's most successful club, with a record 16 league titles. Midtjylland, meanwhile, were only founded in 1999 following the merger of two second-tier rivals, and hail from a town with fewer than 60,000 inhabitants. You may like Bournemouth's history makers on their European bow FourFourTwo spend a week inside Harrogate Town with manager Simon Weaver Around the World in 80 Clubs: Easter Island (a), the club with a drug lord in midfield, squirrel costumes, a derby on board a ferry, plus more equally bizarre football stories from across the globe Yet the latter have rapidly grown into one of the country's most formidable sides, claiming four league titles in the past 12 seasons. Last term they won the Danish Cup, and beat both Celtic and Nottingham Forest in the Europa League. When we arrive, they trail only Copenhagen in the domestic league, heading into their table-topping clash. How have they managed it all?"Good morning, Mr Bond"We wave goodbye to Lenin and Birgitte in search of answers, driving through eerily quiet farmland outside Herning, to what appears to be a bunker from 007 adventure GoldenEye. Grey and austere, the building doesn't instantly strike you as welcoming it turns out we couldn't be more wrong.Get FourFourTwo NewsletterThe best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.We call this club the miracle from out of nowhere, beams Midtjylland's bespectacled chairman Claus Steinlein, who shakes our hand enthusiastically before welcoming us into the warmth of the club's Dream 99 training complex. Allow us to show you why.Opened in 2023, Dream 99 boasts a network of pristine football pitches, as well as a spa and gym. Steinlein leads us to a mural depicting the history of the club; a collage of black and white photos resembling newspaper cutouts. It's time for a history lesson.Midtjylland were formed from a merger between Herning Fremad and IFS, he explains, pointing out a photo of the day the clubs came together the suited, smiling chairmen shaking hands. The name honours the Jutland province. Indeed, Midtjylland means Mid-Jutland' in Danish. What to read next Everyone thinks Brighton and Brentford are bulletproof - Premier League history says otherwise 'Fans threw a severed bulls head onto the pitch in protest. It only motivated us more Ex-Bundesliga man reveals craziest tales from time representing Germany's most-hated club "It was a season where most of what we touched turned to gold" Matt Grimes and Gordan Strachan on how Coventry City ended their 25-year Premier League exile We vowed from the start to become the biggest club in Denmark, Steinlein adds. People told us we were crazy. We knew that if we were to prove them wrong, we'd have to be different.Steinlein himself saw a way to help the new club stand out. At that time, no Danish club had its own academy, he says. At least not with dedicated programmes. I wanted to be the first.Steinlein visited the academy of French side Nantes to learn what he could, returning with a blueprint for success. He asked the board to invest a massive chunk of its fledgling budget around 800,000 and, to his initial shock, they agreed. There was just one problem.Nobody wanted to send their kids here, laughs Steinlein. Children here grow up wanting to play for Brondby or Copenhagen, rather than Midtjylland. Convincing people was the first battle.A breakthrough came via Midtjylland's own kit man, who agreed to bring his 12-year-old son with him when taking the job. It helped that his son was Simon Kjaer, Steinlein says. Simon went on to make more than 100 appearances for Denmark.Kjaer made a handful of first-team showings after graduating from the academy in 2007, before being sold to Palermo for 4m a huge sum for a young Dane at the time. Steinlein's academy received a huge financial and reputational boost. That gave our project the lift-off it needed, he says.Midtjylland began painstakingly forming partnerships across the region, more than 100 amateur sides regularly sending their best and brightest for trials. In exchange, Midtjylland provide equipment and tickets to first-team games. It's about inspiring the next generation, adds Steinlein.Neither are Midtjylland's operations limited to the best Danish talent. We're led into an office to meet Jonas Dal, who heads the club's Nigerian academy.Every year, more than seven million children are born in Nigeria, compared with about 50,000 here, so the pool of talent is naturally much larger, says Dal, who was once held at gunpoint during a visit to Lagos, but plays a key role in the Midtjylland project. We bring over the most promising players. We have to be patient with them, because the weather and culture in Denmark are all very new to them.Right on cue, we meet Rilwan Hassan, who joined Midtjylland from the Lagos academy in 2010, before spending close to a decade playing for the club. He's now a coach with the academy. It was so cold, he recalls of his arrival as a teen. But it was a massive opportunity. I was going into the unknown, but I quickly found out that this club was striving to be the very best. Everybody was pulling in the same direction.Many of Midtjylland's academy products, either from Nigeria or closer to home, are lured to the club with the promise they'll be sold if a bigger side comes in for them. Indeed, selling players has become a key aspect of Midtjylland's model. If Liverpool or Barcelona come in for one of our players, that's perfect, says Steinlein. It means they've performed well and we can profit. Everybody wins.Following their formation, Midtjylland were immediately promoted to the top flight, before cementing themselves as consistent top-five finishers. Yet while results and youth development were impressive, they were beginning to struggle financially. Player sales barely covered the growing cost of operations, especially with European qualification hardly guaranteed each season.We'd wanted to become the biggest and best team in Denmark, but we were still some way off that, winces Steinlein. That soon changed, though. The man who would help them take that next step was an Englishman with a physics degree, already making a name for himself at Brentford.Benham BallIn June 2012, Matthew Benham had taken control of the Bees, then in League One, having made millions as the impresario of Smartodds a company providing statistical analysis on sporting events to professional gamblers. That data also gave Benham extraordinary insight into how football games are won and lost, where and how goals are most often scored, and which players were being undervalued by the market. In short, a recipe for success.That same year also saw Benham invite a Danish author to give a presentation to his staff. Benham had become fascinated by Rasmus Ankersen's book The Gold Mine Effect, which looked into cultural anomalies, such as why Jamaica consistently produces the best sprinters. Ankersen was equally impressed with Benham.At the time, Brentford were third in League One, and there were a couple of games to go, the Dane would later recall. I said to him, What are the chances of you guys getting promoted?' When you ask that question, you expect an emotional yes or no, but he just said, There's a 42.3 per cent chance.' That was when I knew he was a guy who was thinking very differently.Benham and Ankersen, the latter a promising player at Midtjylland before injury sent him down a different path, became firm friends. In 2014, the Dane convinced the data guru to invest in a second football club, with Benham paying �6.2m for a majority stake in Midtjylland. He brought with him his legion of statisticians, sports scientists and coaches. It was about to go turbo.This club now has tools to evaluate teams and players with much more accuracy using data, said Ankersen, who was swiftly installed as chairman by Benham. The model we're using could be applied in any country.Midtjylland's strategy was transformed overnight. Set-pieces then became a fundamental part of the way we played, Steinlein tells us on the balcony of the training complex, which overlooks the first-team's pitches. They still are. We boast one of the tallest teams in Europe. We hire the best set-piece coaches and, when it comes to scouting, things like long-throws are key attributes. The approach has been successful.In Benham's first year, Midtjylland were crowned Danish champions; their first major trophy. The team finished with a goal difference of plus 15 from set-pieces. We were finally the best club in Denmark, grins Steinlein. A dream come true. Benham's stats and our focus on set-pieces were key.Next, Steinlein leads us into the main communal area of Dream 99. Above the only coffee machine in the building, where footfall is at its highest, a chart denoting Midtjylland's historical success from set-pieces adorns the wall. The 2015, 2018, 2020, 2024 and 2025 campaigns are highlighted as being particularly prolific the Wolves won the league four out of five of those years.That one time we didn't win the title still bothers us, laughs Steinlein. We want our players and staff to be hurt by that, too. Topping this chart needs to be their motivation.Benham sold his stake in Midtjylland in 2023 to better focus on Brentford, though the two sides retain a close partnership. Today the club is owned by fashion tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen, Denmark's richest person, with an estimated worth of more than �12bn.Ankersen has also departed, though his influence is still felt. A school called Guldminen, named after his book, was built into the Dream 99 complex. It aims to nurture both the best young sporting and academic talent in Denmark. FFT learns that students are given free rein of the building, meaning it isn't unusual for first-team players and schoolkids to share meals.We have a word for the environment we've fostered here: sammenhold,' says Steinlein. It literally translates to unity club', but it means so much more than that. It's about every person, from the kids to the first-teamers, coaches and cleaners, feeling part of something bigger. We are one entity. That's what sammenhold is, and it's our way of life.Overwhelmed by the scale and passion behind the Midtjylland project, FFT waves goodbye to the dream factory and makes our way over to the MCH Arena for tonight's crucial showdown against FC Copenhagen.Playing his cards rightInside the 12,000-capacity stadium, opened in 2004, FFT catch up with fans who are noisily drinking beer out of plastic cups and watching Brondby's early fixture on a big screen. Ahead of kick-off, we chat to lifelong Midtjylland fan Thomas Schouv Jacobsen. My father is from Ikast, one of the two clubs that merged into Midtjylland, he says. Supporting this club since the start has been an extraordinary ride. The jump from winning a few silver medals to actually taking our first ever title in 2015 was indescribable. Seeing my father's face when we scored the decisive goal in the decisive match against Copenhagen is something that I'll never forget.Midtjylland's record against title rivals Copenhagen is certainly impressive.Going into this game, the latter have won just twice in their past 14 meetings, with Midtjylland winning seven. Tonight, however, there's a fear that the league leaders might be too strong, especially given that regular Midtjylland defenders Rasmus Kristensen, Magnus Jensen and Martin Erlic are all out injured.We've had terrible setbacks in defence this season, Jacobsen laments. But, come May, we should have a very good chance of taking the championship. I think we have the best squad and the ability to come out successful.FFT also catches a moment with a Copenhagen fan. We're massively important to Danish football because we have the biggest fanbase and play European football every year, says lifelong supporter Kevin Willendrup.We're the flagship club. Our games against Brondby are by far the biggest in Denmark. There isn't the same level of hatred between the Midtjylland and Copenhagen fanbases they've become extremely good in a very short space of time. Along with us, they're favourites to win the league every season. It's great that another team has emerged with so much quality.Yet there's no doubt in Willendrup's mind who'll emerge victorious tonight. Copenhagen will win here for the first time in a long time, he says. We're on an incredible run under Bo Svensson and we're starting to look like a championship-winning team.As fans around us drain their beers and head inside, FFT does the same. We emerge onto the terraces to a magnificent sight. It's a record crowd, as flags swirl from the melee behind either end of the field. To our right, the home fans bellow into the evening sky and beat war drums. Off to our left, the white-clad Copenhagen fans are making their own thunderous racket.Pitchside for the warm-ups, we see some familiar faces, including former Bournemouth beanpole Philip Billing, now at Midtjylland, and the ex-Cardiff targetman Andreas Cornelius, who is among the visitors' line-up. Curiously, Midtjylland's warm-up routine involves pain-staking set-piece practice; coaches repeatedly whipping vicious free-kicks into a packed box of giants.As the players head inside to make their final preparations, we brush past former Everton and Real Madrid hard man Thomas Gravesen, who has presumably been loaned to a Danish TV outlet by the poker tables of Las Vegas. Should be a good night tonight, guys, he winks. This is one of the biggest games of the season.Top BillingThe players emerge before kick-off to a deafening roar the tifos, flags and rhythmic beating of drums providing an epic backdrop before getting the game underway beneath the floodlights.Copenhagen swiftly take charge but their dominance doesn't last. In the 12th minute, Midtjylland win a free-kick high on the left, not far from the corner flag. As Billing fizzes it in, FFT remarks that it's silly he isn't in the box himself given his size. He quickly shows us what we know, planting a ball squarely on to the head of onrushing Nigerian forward Friday Etim, whose effort crashes into the net to make it 1-0. Recorded wolf howls are played over the PA system as the roof comes off the MCH Arena.Copenhagen dust themselves down and settle back into their rhythm, knocking the ball around menacingly, but they're unable to find a way through as Midtjylland's makeshift defence, marshalled by the imperious Andreas Maxso, clear everything.Such low-block defending inevitably leads to mistakes, however, and one arrives just after the break, as wing-back Kjell Watjen fells Copenhagen skipper Thomas Delaney just inside the penalty area. The referee points to the spot and former Southampton star Mohamed Elyounoussi slots in an equaliser. The Copenhagen fans go wild.The visitors take their possession up a notch. Robert Silva slaloms down the left and into the Midtjylland box, but his cutback is prodded away before the rebound is fired wide. Surely it's just a matter of time before they score again.Then the unthinkable happens for the league leaders in the 62nd minute. Under very little pressure, Copenhagen goalkeeper Diant Ramaj passes straight to opponent Etim, who rounds the shot-stopper and shapes to pull the trigger, only to find his path blocked by recovering defenders.As an entire stadium holds its breath, Etim squares the ball to Denil Castillo, arriving in support. The Ecuadorian fires low and hard into the Copenhagen net, and Midtjylland are in the lead once more, courtesy of a horrific error. Clearly shaken, Copenhagen never recover their rhythm. When the final whistle blows half an hour later, it's pure ecstasy for the Wolves supporters.FFT rush onto the field to join the Midtjylland players as they celebrate in front of the frenzied home end. Arm in arm, players and coaches bounce in front of the melee, as we grab a word with Billing. It's amazing when a result like this comes off, he yells above the bedlam, with a huge smile on his face.We knew they'd play nice football, but that we could win it with our set plays and our physicality. We had to cope with a lot of injuries today, so the fact we came out of this game with a win is massive for us.When the players are finally separated from their adoring public, we're invited to join them inside. The dressing room is packed as victorious manager Mike Tullberg delivers a rousing speech in front of players, board members, staff and children. This must be what Steinlein meant by sammenhold. I'm proud of you today, guys, he says, singling out Maxso and his fellow defenders for an extraordinary performance. There's a long way to go but we've given our ambitions a huge boost.Castillo, scorer of the winning goal, is also singled out in surprising fashion by the boss. You've recently surpassed 100 games for us and what a way to cap it off, Tullberg enthuses. You keep playing like that and you won't be here for another 100.The whole room then erupts into an obscure song a tradition that also sees players dancing and banging their lockers to the beat (watch the video above). It's a joyous scene. Afterwards, we head into chairman Steinlein's personal office, resembling a wood-panelled smoking room. The likes of Kenny Dalglish and Louis van Gaal have been guests here before us.Drinks begin flowing and, at some point, FFT is only vaguely aware that the night is coming to an end. When we finally head back out into the cold Scandinavian air, it's with a sense that we've witnessed something truly spectacular a wonder from nowhere.With this result, there are just two points between Denmark's leading sides one of them a traditional giant from an illustrious European city, the other a motley crew of dreamers and disrupters who refuse to accept the status quo.It's the sort of revolution Vladimir Lenin, now lying flat on his back on a rain-soaked heath in our rear-view mirror, might have approved of.TOPICSSimon KjrPhilip BillingThomas DelaneyMohamed ElyounoussiMidtjyllandCopenhagenFC CopenhagenDenmarkBrentfordEd McCambridgeSocial Links NavigationStaff WriterEd is a staff writer at FourFourTwo, working across the magazine and website. A German speaker, hes been working as a football reporter in Berlin since 2015, predominantly covering the Bundesliga and Germany's national team. Favourite FFT features include an exclusive interview with Jude Bellingham following the youngsters move to Borussia Dortmund in 2020, a history of the Berlin Derby since the fall of the Wall and a celebration of Kevin Keegans playing career.
