Frederik Alves is an often reserved character, but his face lights up when he remembers the day he heard of West Ham United’s interest.
It is 2020 and the COVID pandemic has all but locked football down, with games being played without crowds present worldwide.
The setting is the Scandic Falkoner Allé, a modern hotel and conference centre in the heart of Frederiksberg - a green and cozy district in Copenhagen - and Alves, who has just been relegated from the Danish Superliga with Silkeborg IF, is on international duty with Denmark U21s.
The clock is ticking down towards the 12noon closure of the summer transfer window, and when his phone buzzes to indicate an incoming call from his agent, he can’t resist immediately reaching for the device.
Little did he know that minutes later, a big lad with big ambitions from the Danish town of Hvidovre who had a big dream - to be part of a Premier League side - dared to believe it might become reality.
Alves was signed three months later and made the leap from the Danish 2nd Division to a West Ham side on course to break a number of Club records, including achieving its most points in a single Premier League season (65), eclipsing the 62 we collected in the final season at the Boleyn Ground in 2015/16.
“I remember it so clearly,” Alves beamed. “It was the deadline day of the summer transfer window, and it was 8pm in the evening, so four hours until the window closed, and then my agent called me.
“I knew that something could happen in those final hours, because Silkeborg IF just got relegated, and I needed to try to test myself at a better level, but once my agent told me West Ham were interested, I couldn't believe it, and it felt just too good to be true.
“It's the best league in the world, and for me, it was as if a childhood dream came true, and I was so buzzing and excited.
“It was quite a big step and a big difference [in quality].
“I remember when I did my medical in the November of that year, and David Moyes explained his plans for me, which were that I would start with the U23s.
“I knew when West Ham bought me, I was a young, unproven centre-back and was a project player.
“It wasn’t about playing and getting a lot of game time at the very start, but fortunately, I changed his mind with some positive training sessions at the start of my time with the Club.
“I was part of the first-team squad and was on the bench often. I think I proved that I was better than he might have thought, which I was very happy about.”
On the pitch, the now 25-year-old had risen to new heights, but off the pitch, the separation from loved ones in Europe had made the battle harder than most.
Loneliness troubled the Dane for the first time in his career.
The realities of the COVID-19 pandemic meant he was rooted in London, was unable to see family and his oldest friends, and faced the prospect of a Christmas alone.
That was until cult hero Pablo Fornals stepped up.
“The first friend I actually made was Pablo,” Alves recalled. “I remember due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I wasn't able to fly home and spend Christmas with my family.
“So on Christmas Day, he invited me to his home in London with his wife, and we spent the day together.
“It was a very warm welcome by him, and I’m really grateful to him and his family for everything they did for me.
“I had a very close friendship with Ben Johnson and Conor Coventry, and was also friends with Fabián Balbuena and Manuel Lanzini. Mark Noble was a very nice guy, as were Declan Rice and Jesse Lingard.
“I was close with the kit men, and I was friends with the chefs also, who made us breakfast and lunch every day.
“I also had a close partnership with Josh Ewens (Head of Sports Science) because we worked together every day on my body, and of course Player Care as, without their daily support, it would not have been the same experience for me at West Ham.
“It was just one big family for me at the Club, and I can’t thank everyone enough.”
It is hard to avoid the feeling that maybe, just maybe, Alves was the right player in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When Alves arrived in east London in December 2020, he joined a team at the peak of its powers, setting a daunting standard for other players to try to live up to.
It was one that finished the 2020/21 Premier League season in sixth place with 65 points - the Club’s highest points tally in a single Premier League season.
“It's difficult to get your debut when the team is doing so well,” admitted Alves. “It's difficult to get into the team, which was understandable, but I think I made the best out of it to be around the team and help the team as much as I could, and it was a very great season.
“The atmosphere was just very good in the team, and the chemistry was also top-notch.
“You come from a Danish league to the best league in the world and are playing against some of the best players in the world week-in, week-out.
“I was on the bench many times and was warming up beside Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani and Thiago Silva, which was just crazy for a young lad who came from a Danish league.”
Fine margins are so often the difference, not least in football. At London Stadium on 21 March 2021, they mattered greatly for Alves.
West Ham had raced into a 3-0 lead against north London rivals Arsenal, courtesy of first-half goals from Jesse Lingard, Jarrod Bowen and Tomáš Souček, but surrendered a three-goal lead to draw 3-3.
That was Alves’ sliding doors moment in Claret and Blue.
On a different day in a parallel universe where the match fizzled out somewhat, he would now be a West Ham top-flight debutant.
The little things indeed.
“It was probably my toughest moment at West Ham, and it’s one of the only things that I remember that was not so successful from my side, not getting my debut,” admitted Alves.
“He (Moyes) told me after the home game against Arsenal at London Stadium [in 2021], when we were 3-0 up and ended up drawing 3-3, that if we had the game under control in the second-half, he would have given me my Premier League debut.
“It was a very difficult moment, as we had the game under control, and I told myself, ‘Today has to be the day,’ but the game went out of hand in the second-half, and it ended up a disappointing afternoon for everyone associated with the Club.
“But every time I look back at my time at West Ham, it warms my heart, and I'm always happy for my time at the Club.
“I still follow the Club, and when we won the [UEFA] Conference League in 2023, I drove across the country to watch both of their games in Denmark (against Viborg FF and Silkeborg IF).
“What I've learnt is that my journey in east London was so beneficial for me.
“I've developed as a player. I don’t regret anything. It turned me into who I am, and it made me stronger. I wouldn’t change anything.”
But Alves is by no means the first, nor the last, to fall short in the Premier League and yet still reach the pinnacle of the sport in another country.
Upon his departure from east London in January 2022, he has spent the last three-and-a-half years at eleven-time Danish champions Brøndby IF, who are open in their desire to win titles and play in European football.
For Alves, that meant proving himself all over again - a process he is familiar with, having overcome trials at Brazilian Coritiba and Silkeborg IF - and he’s made 75 appearances for Brøndby, who are currently second in the 2025/26 Danish Superliga table.
During his time with Brøndby, he became best friends with our new No1, Mads Hermansen, having initially met at Denmark’s U21 camps.
He’s become a fundamental part of Frederik Birk’s team and now has another way of measuring priorities, too, as the Dane and his wife, Linea Alves Thidemann, recently announced the birth of their daughter, Etta.
“She’s doing really well, her Mum’s doing great,” smiled Alves. “She was born on a matchday, of course, but I still went to the game, and it was a very, very good day because nothing went wrong.
“It was all smooth, and we won the game 1-0 at FC Nordsjælland, which was an important result for us.
“For me, they (Brøndby) are the biggest club in Denmark.
“I learnt during my time at West Ham that I needed to have some playing time to develop, so moving to Brøndby was one hundred per cent the best choice I've made in my life, football-wise.
"I'm not the same player as when I left West Ham as I am now. I'm totally different, just more mature, and I've developed, and even though I had a great time at West Ham, I’ve also had a magical time at Brøndby so far, and it was the right choice for me.
“I knew Mads (Hermansen) before I came to Brøndby because we were on a U21s duty together with Denmark, and that’s where our friendship just started, and when I came to Brøndby, it got stronger, and we’re now best friends.
“I only have positive things to say about Mads.
“He's a very passionate lad. He's very professional also. He's just a very, very good guy off the pitch, and I just think that West Ham is privileged to have such a guy in the squad.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that the Club will benefit from him and also the other way around.
“He has so much talent and is still young, so I think he has much more to offer.
“I want to say to you guys on behalf of Brøndby that you should take good care of both Mads and Casper [Ankergren] because you just have a goalkeeper and coach that have a special connection, and I could see from my first day here that they work very well together.”
