In the lush green garden of West Ham United’s Rush Green training ground, Casper Ankergren is describing the dusty beginnings to his career.
For the back-story to Ankergren’s own lengthy and successful journey as a professional is an inspirational tale in its own right - and is one of the human stories that make football a pleasure to write about.
It was one which stretched almost two decades and saw him ply his trade across different parts of Europe.
When Ankergren joined local club Køge Boldklub in the Danish 1st Division just over a quarter of a century ago, he was not sure that becoming a professional footballer was going to happen.
It was perhaps one last gamble to be 100 per cent sure that he was either in or out of the profession, and when he was not between the sticks, he delivered pizzas on his scooter in the small Danish port town of Køge and worked in a nursery at an after-school club.
But in 2000, at the age of 20, his life was changed forever when he completed a move to multiple Danish champions Brøndby IF.
The sacrifice and compromise of his ensuing years delivered three major trophies with the Copenhagen club, and helped take him to the top of the sport, having won the Danish Superliga and Cup double in 2004/05, while he remains a joint-record holder for the most clean sheets in a Danish Superliga season with 18.
Along the way the journey took in a rollercoaster three-and-a-half years at Elland Road during one of Leeds United’s darkest hours - where he played alongside popular figure Robert Snodgrass - and experienced the lows of relegation in 2006/07 to the highs of promotion and a famous 1-0 victory against Manchester United in the FA Cup tie of January 2010.
It saw him help Brighton & Hove Albion establish themselves as a major Premier League force, having been part of the squad which won promotion from League One to the EFL Championship and, in 2017, the Premier League - and later led the Dane to furthering his footballing education under the tutelage of Ben Roberts as one of Albion’s goalkeeper coaches.
Indeed, not a bad story for a man who once even considered joining the police when playing part-time at Køge Boldklub.
After hanging up his gloves in 2017 and making a successful switch into coaching at American Express Stadium, Ankergren has overseen the development of some of the Premier League’s best glovemen.
He doesn't quite know the true number of goalkeepers he's worked with off the top of his head but would place a conservative estimate at around 20, including 99-time capped Australia captain Mathew Ryan and Chelsea’s Robert Sánchez.
But perhaps most importantly in this current moment, he played an instrumental role in the rise of our new No1, Mads Hermansen, having worked with him for two years at Brøndby, where he spent the previous four years as Head of Goalkeeping.
Not only can the Hammers rely on the experience, composure and ability of Hermansen, Alphonse Areola and Wes Foderingham, but also on the Club’s talented Academy of Football young stoppers Finlay Herrick and Lanre Awesu, ensuring West Ham’s future is in very safe hands.
Here, we find out about Ankergren’s remarkable rise from humble beginnings, his passion for improving goalkeepers, why Graham Potter is the ‘best tactician’ he’s ever worked with and his and First-Team Goalkeeper Coach Linus Kandolin’s day-to-day roles at Rush Green…
Casper, tell us about your footballing journey from Køge Boldklub to the Premier League…
“I started at an even smaller club called Solrød FC, where I grew up, then the next step was for me to go to Køge Boldklub, which was a bit bigger. I was there as a youth player, and then I broke into the first-team fairly young, and then Brøndby ended up buying me, and at the time they were by far the biggest team in Denmark.
“I was only part-time [at Køge Boldklub] and was working jobs such as delivering pizzas on a scooter and also worked in a nursery at an after school club, and then finished university shortly after.
“It took me a while to make the transition from being part-time to going into a full-time job, where the expectation was very different. Suddenly I was playing with mainly Scandinavian internationals. It was hard, and the expectations and the level of training were very different.”
And you enjoyed a successful six-year spell at Brøndby?
“The first half season I played, we won the Danish Cup and finished second, so it was a decent enough start. Then they signed a more experienced keeper, and he played a season, and once I got back into the team again, we won the Danish Superliga title and Danish Cup double in 2004/05.
“It was almost as if I was playing a season, then he was playing a season, but luckily when I played we won a few things, which was nice.
“I still hold a joint record with a goalkeeper called Kamil Grabara for the most clean sheets in the Danish Superliga. That was under Michael Laudrup when we had him and John Jensen. They were the managers at the time, and it was a really good season.”
You moved to England to join Leeds United, initially on loan, in 2007. How was that, and how do you reflect on your three-and-a-half years at Elland Road?
“I was desperate to move away, to be honest. Brøndby had just signed another keeper (Stephan Andersen) from Charlton Athletic, and I had been in and around the national team at that time, so I knew I could end up on the bench, which I didn't want.
“I told the club that I wanted to leave, and luckily I was given the option to go on loan to Leeds. They were in the EFL Championship at the time and ended up getting relegated and were docked ten points at the end of the season, which soon became 15 at the start of the next season.
“It took a while [to make the move permanent] as Leeds were undergoing some financial problems, but when they got that sorted, they bought me, which I was really happy about.
“Even though it was the third-best league in England, I really wanted to go back to Leeds because I had a really good time, and I could see us going straight back up, but that was before I knew about the minus 15 points!
“After defeat to Doncaster Rovers in the Play-Off final at Wembley in 2008, we eventually got promoted back to the Championship in 2010, the same season we famously beat Manchester United in the FA Cup.
“What an experience, and what a day! I was so glad for the Leeds fans that we did it, and they still speak about it now, which tells you about its importance. I've got really good memories from Leeds.”
You played with Robert Snodgrass at Leeds. What are your memories of him, as he was a big character at West Ham United?
“He’s a character! What an incredible guy! He’s a fantastic person and footballer, and was absolutely crazy both on and off the pitch.
“He’s always trying to look to stitch somebody up, whether it's phoning them, because he can do impersonations of many different people. He stitched me up a couple of times just by phoning me.
“I've heard he doesn't live too far from Rush Green, so I hope he's going to come around and say hello!”
Then, you joined Brighton & Hove Albion, where you became a cult hero again, having spent eleven years there, and were part of the squad which won promotion from League One to the Championship and, in 2017, the Premier League. That would’ve been a special time for you?
“I was looking at different options but ended up going to Brighton with Gus Poyet and signed two days before the season started.
“The League One promotion campaign was special in many ways because we played excellent football, and the togetherness in the squad was unbelievable.
“It was a fantastic achievement because there were some big teams in League One that year, and I had a really good season, winning League One Player of the Month twice in the same season.
“I also kept 20 clean sheets that season, which is something I look back at with pride, and to be part of the promotion to the Premier League, even if I didn’t play, was fantastic, and I couldn’t have asked for a more fitting end to my career.
“I spent a long time there. A good club with good people. I had a really good time there.”
Bruno Saltor, who is also at West Ham as a First-Team Coach, was your captain at Brighton & Hove Albion. What was he like as a captain, and did you always envisage him having a successful coaching career?
“He's a very good professional, and he was a good footballer. I got on with him really well, and we always sat at the same table on our away days, and we always sat together anywhere.
“We became good friends more or less straight away because of his personality and being a great professional, and he ended up being my captain at Brighton as well.
“To be fair, I could see him being as successful as he has been because I think when he puts his mind to something, he is very good at it.
"No matter what Bruno decided to do in his career, he'd be good at it because that's the type of person he is. He's very strong mentally, and he's good with people.
“Obviously, he's got a great understanding of football, and as soon as he decided to become a coach, I knew he was going to do well.”
After retiring in 2017, you were taken in as part of Ben Roberts’ goalkeeping coaching staff at Brighton. Did you always want to pursue a career in coaching?
“The club offered me the role as assistant goalkeeping coach under Ben Roberts, who I've learnt a lot from. I started doing my coaching badges early.
“When I went from second choice to third choice at Brighton, I started doing my coaching badges. Even when I was still the third choice, still playing, I started taking sessions in the academy.
“Brighton were brilliant with me, and Ben was really good. I think he probably spotted my passion for coaching before I really knew because he was always telling me to go to the academy and work with the young keepers and learn as much as I could. He has been a mentor to me, and I owe him a lot.”
And you worked with Graham Potter for two years before taking the role as Head of Goalkeeping at Brøndby in 2021. Tell us about your experience of working with Graham and how excited you are to be back working with him?
“Most importantly, he's a good person, and I think that's really important as well. But he’s also the best tactician I’ve worked with.
"He's intelligent, good tactically, and he knows how to win football games. Just look at his career, what he's done over his career, where he started and where he is now.
“I love his story. I think it's such a great story, going from Östersunds FK in the fourth division in Sweden to the Allsvenskan was brilliant. You don't see those stories very often, and I think it's incredible what he and Billy [Reid] did.”
How much have you enjoyed your time here at West Ham so far?
“It was a very hectic start, with trips to southern Germany and the Premier League Summer Series in the United States, but I wouldn't change it because straight away you're in, you're on it, and you're together with the staff and with the players.
“That’s helped us get to know each other even more, even though I know the coaches fairly well already. It's been brilliant, and I can't say enough positive things about my first month here at West Ham.
“Everybody here wants to help you get a good start, so it's been a really welcoming start with all the staff and players, and that's been really good for me.”
We’ve got a new-look goalkeeping set-up, with both you and Linus Kandolin coming in. Can you tell us about your and Linus’ roles?
“Linus and I have got a really good relationship, and we know each other a little bit from before as well. The good thing about it is that I think we look the same way on what kind of environment we want to try and create for our keepers, which has been easy.
“To see them improve is just the best thing. That's probably what I love the most about coaching as well, to see the improvement in keepers.
“I love having the relationship, I love being on the pitch, I love coaching, and then of course I love winning games as well. It's a great feeling. But there's no big difference between mine and Linus’ roles.
“I might say, ‘This is what the day looks like. This is what we're going to do’, but besides that, it's just a nice partnership where we try and help each other and try and be spot-on with things.
“We try and involve ourselves as much as possible with the Academy. I think it's really important that we've got a good relationship with the Academy, and that's the good thing about being two goalkeeping coaches.
“I think it's important that they see us, that we're interested in the young keepers because they've been training with us a lot, so it's really important that we follow their development.
“And I’d like to think that in a short space of time we have kind of got it the way we wanted it to look, in terms of scouting, working with the Academy and plans ahead for everyone.”
We have a lot of talented goalkeepers here at West Ham. We’ve got some great younger goalkeepers, too, such as Finlay Herrick and Lanre Awesu. The future is bright, right?
“Absolutely. We’ve got a lot of experience within our goalkeeping group, and Mads (Hermansen), Alphonse (Areola) and Wes (Foderingham) have a lot of Premier League appearances between them.
“Then you've got Fin (Herrick), who did really, really well last year for the U21s and is a really talented keeper.
“You've got Lanre (Awesu), only 17, and he’s trained with us more or less every day and has really taken everything on board and works really, really hard and is a mature boy, and he's done really well. You wouldn't think that he's only 17.
“We’ve got different characters and different styles, but we've got a nice dynamic within the group, and it works really, really well.
“We want to create an environment that’s challenging, and the goalkeepers have a chance to develop and be given the best possible chance of success.
“It needs to be competitive, but with respect for each other, and the dynamic in the group has to be good for the individual to improve.”
Finally, Mads Hermansen has joined us from Leicester City. He’s someone you know very well, having developed him at Brøndby. How excited are you to have him here, and what can we expect?
"I've worked with Mads for two years before we sold him to Leicester City. He is still fairly young, only 25, but he’s got quite a lot of experience already. He's a Danish international, a very intelligent boy, and he’s good to work with.
“He’s got a good understanding of the game, is very good in position and makes good decisions, which is really, really important as a keeper. It's all about your decision-making. He's a very good shot stopper, and he's a very good professional.
“I'm looking forward to it. I think he's got something to offer, both as a human being and also as a footballer to this Club, so I'm really excited to have him here.”
