Christian Eriksen’s agent has revealed why the midfielder rejected Wrexham’s offer this summer before signing for VFL Wolfsburg.
Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen was approached by Championship team Wrexham following his contract expiration with Manchester United.
Erik ten Hag signed Eriksen for free from Brentford as his second signing as United boss in 2022, before starting him as a false nine in his first Premier League game against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Eriksen went on to make over 100 appearances for the Red Devils, showing consistent talent and maturity in his play, providing the United squad with an experienced international to learn from.
Finding a new club after United was always going to be a challenge for Eriksen, as he still has the talent to play in a top league, but hadn’t been a regular for United for some time.
While Wrexham have completed a historic three consecutive promotions, seeing them grow from a small, non-league club to a globally recognised sports brand, Eriksen won’t have wanted to drop to a second-tier club.
The reason behind Eriksen’s rejection
Following the takeover of Wrexham by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, a Disney documentary was created to follow the new American owners navigating the world of English football.
Wrexham’s chief executive, Michael Williamson, revealed on That Wrexham Podcast that the Disney Documentary was a key factor in Eriksen’s rejection of what would have been an ‘insane‘ transfer for the club to complete.
“I reached out to the agent [Martin Schoots],” Williamson told That Wrexham Podcast. “And what was really interesting in the first call is the reaction was, ‘We don’t want his story to be in a documentary, because we’ve had plenty of opportunities for a documentary for his story’.
“He thought we were calling not because of his footballing capabilities, but because we wanted a documentary story [about Eriksen].
“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. I didn’t even think about that’. Obviously, I’m aware of it, but that wasn’t the reason we were calling.”
“We were calling because he could potentially be an interesting footballer,” Williamson added. “We were looking for players that could play for us in the Championship, difference-makers that could help us be competitive on the pitch.
“After I explained what our actual objectives were, trying to build a competitive squad and that I wasn’t even thinking about it from a documentary perspective, we had a great conversation.”
Williamson said the idea of signing Eriksen was ‘kicked around’, but the midfielder wanted to continue playing for a ‘first-tier club’.
United can learn from Wrexham documentary
The Wrexham takeover has been one of the most successful rebrands in football history. The club was bought for around £2 million in 2021 and is now worth nearly £150 million, according to the BBC.
The documentary has exposed Wrexham as a brand to international viewers, making it one of the most recognisable clubs in the world despite being a Championship team.
Reports from The Athletic this summer suggested that Rúben Amorim rejected an Amazon Prime, access all areas style documentary due to it becoming an unwanted distraction to an already struggling United environment.
Read more: Nottingham Forest star solves Rúben Amorim dilemma after superb display in Man Utd’s 2-2 draw
Amazon’s offer was significantly more than £10 million, which would have made it the largest payment to a club for an “all or nothing” documentary.
Amorim stuck to his decision, which could prove beneficial to the United team, who may face similar challenges to the Wrexham and Eriksen situation if a documentary were agreed upon.
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