The upcoming quarter-final in the cup tournament has a special significance for FC Nordsjælland’s head coach, Johannes Hoff Thorup. Hoff Thorup started his coaching career in AB.
In an interview, he shared his thoughts on his time at AB, the transition to coaching and how the club has helped shape his career.
It all started with AB
Although Hoff Thorup started his coaching career at the club, he initially began his AB time with a teenage dream of becoming a footballer.
“It was a very short period, but I probably was there as a 14-15 year old. I was out playing in (ed. AB) for a short time. It wasn’t for me. There was too long a transport time and it just didn’t fit in. So my playing career was very short. There wasn’t much there.”
After a short detour from football, including various jobs, military service and travel, Hoff Thorup decided to pursue his coaching career. He sent applications around, including to AB, and after a positive conversation with Morten Nagel and Jakob Bødker, he started his coaching career at the club.
“I got into a kind of trial period, where I was allowed to go and sniff a little bit of what it meant to be a football coach. Here I had to spar people around the club. One of them was Tonny Trix (ed. formerly. AB coach). It was probably in the spring that I started at the club and from the summer we agreed that I would come in as an assistant coach for the U13 team.”
In AB, Hoff Thorup was surrounded by many like-minded and talented coaches, and together they helped to make each other better.
“There was a pretty strong setup with coaches at that time. There was Kasper Kurland, who has been the U19 coach here (ed. FCN) for many years. There was Thomas Nørgaard, who is now the coach in Sønderjyske, who at the time coached the U17 team, and who later became head coach of the first team. And then there was Patrick Birch Braune, who coached the U14 team, who also later became head coach of the first team. There were just a lot of coaches who had good ideas and thoughts,” says Hoff Thorup.
“We had many exciting meetings where we challenged each other and where we tried to make a plan for how our team should play so that we could best develop the players. It was a great environment to get into, where there were many talented people who really spent many volunteer hours at the club.”
AB became for Hoff Thorup a place that put him on the right track. He had no qualifications as a coach, but the club funded his first coaching education.
“I am deeply grateful that they received me then. I had nothing that in any way qualified me to be a football coach. I had no coaching education or anything. They took me in and paid for my first coaching education, and got me really on my way and getting started.
A new opportunity
When the opportunity to coach FC Nordsjælland arose, Hoff Thorup was in doubt due to his strong connection to AB.
“When I got the opportunity to go to North Zealand, I was actually very much in doubt, because I really liked being in AB. It was a really, really good place, so I didn’t just want to say yes to the first and best offer that came from North Zealand. I actually ended up asking them to hold back a bit.”
“I really wanted to be in AB, and I wanted to help develop the club. And then they pushed a bit, and I ended up being convinced that it was the right step for me to take. But it was not an easy choice for me to just make,” Hoff Thorup elaborates.
As head coach of FC Nordsjælland, Hoff Thorup is now facing AB this week. To the question of how he reacted to the draw, Hoff Thorup replied.
“First of all, I think it was fun. I had hoped that it would be AB because of the relationship I have with the club. And by the way, there are quite a few here in North Zealand who have. So I think there were quite a few who, in addition to the sporting, also thought that it could be quite fun to meet AB. Then it is also no secret that from a sporting perspective, AB was a good team for us to draw.”
A packed fixture schedule
In the first half of the season, Hoff Thorup and FC Nordsjælland have played both Superliga, Conference League and cup football, and this has meant a lot of rotation in the team, and he expects that in the two quarter-final games as well.
“It will be a bit with the same approach as we have had all autumn. I think when we finish the last European game, we will hit 30 games in the autumn. We have never tried that before, so the approach throughout the autumn has been to look at which players should have a break and who has been ready. We have hardly at any time fielded the same team in two games in a row, because we have had to rotate a bit in the squad, and we will also do that before these AB games.
“But on the other hand, we will also go about it completely as usual. We know that these cup games can be difficult. So it’s definitely not a game we’re going to take lightly, and we’re going to prepare as we always do. Even with the rotations and with the substitutions in the team, which there will naturally be when you have played a lot of games.”
Leading up to the two games this week, Hoff Thorup hopes that the club and its fans would appreciate their common history.
“I hope that everyone appreciates that AB is a club that has helped a lot of talented people on their way, and I don’t talk so much about myself. It is a club that has played a role in the careers of many players and coaches. I think that’s strong for a club that is surrounded by several other clubs that are maybe a little bigger. So it’s not because they lack competition, so I hope there’s a sense of pride in it for the club’s fans.”
The first quarter-final match against Hoff Thorup’s FC Nordsjælland will be played on Wednesday 6 December at 18:00. Tickets can be purchased on FCN’s website.
Tickets for AB’s home game on Saturday at 15.30 can be purchased right here.
