Alcohol, parties, casino games and problems with the law killed off the talent of an Arsenal promise

Nicklas Bendtner was one of the last great talents in Danish football. The striker was recruited by Arsene Wenger when he was still a youth Kjovenhavns and took him to the lower categories of Arsenal.

After a loan in the Championship with Birmingham, Nicklas had good seasons with Arsenal scoring 15 and 12 goals, respectively, but injuries ended up weighing him down. Back and forth between London, Sunderland and even Juventus to pass through Wolfsburg, Nottingham Forest and Rosenborg until hanging up his boots in 2018.

With appreciable talent but marked by various ailments and a different character, Bendtner went on to become a cult player. Idol not only for football reasons and even because of the occasional joke, he publishes daily ACE from Spain.

Alcohol, partying, certain problems with the law and also a complicated relationship with gambling. As he admits in an interview with the BBC, the Dane had a bad night at the casino, but this was the only place where he found the same excitement as on the green.

“I had many injuries on the field, I couldn’t find the adrenaline I needed, the one that only playing in front of 60,000 people can give you. There was nothing remotely comparable. The only time I felt this competitive was when I went to the casino. The more you play, the higher the adrenaline will be. I lost $541,000 once, but I managed to recover and by the end of the night I was only down $22,000,” he admits.

Lesson learned

The experience of seeing himself with $541,000 less, yes, marked him. “It was a terrible situation and when I got back to the hotel and then home I thought about it a lot and realized it was the end of my game nights. He didn’t want to be just another footballer who had lost all his money because he didn’t know how to use his brain”, he says. A ‘blow’ that helped him learn and that cost him almost $572,000. (D)