Pierre-Emile Højbjerg


Pierre-Emile Kordt Højbjerg is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Southampton.
He played as a youth for BK Skjold, F.C. Copenhagen and Brøndby IF before joining German club Bayern Munich in 2012. He made his senior debut for the reserves that year and his professional debut for the first team in April 2013; at 17 he was the club's youngest player in the Bundesliga. He made 25 total appearances for Bayern and won a variety of domestic and international tournaments, also having loans at fellow league teams FC Augsburg and Schalke 04. In 2016, he signed a five-year contract for Southampton for an estimated £12.8 million fee.
Formerly a youth international at various levels from under-16 to under-21, he made his debut for the Denmark national football team in 2014.

Club career

Early career

While initially playing for BK Skjold and F.C. Copenhagen he moved to Brøndby IF as a junior player at age 14. He looks upon Zinedine Zidane as his role model. Aged just 5, Højbjerg began attending training sessions with his six-year-old brother at local club Skjold. He was deployed as a striker by Copenhagen. Starting from his debut, Højbjerg plays as a central midfielder and sometimes right wide midfielder.
In 2011, Højbjerg was honoured with the title "Danish under-17 player of the year". In 2013, he was honoured with the title "Danish talent of the year" by Spillerforeningen.

Bayern Munich

Højbjerg joined Bayern in July 2012 and, at the age of 17 years and 251 days, made his professional debut on 13 April 2013 in the Bundesliga against 1. FC Nürnberg, as a substitute for Xherdan Shaqiri and thus became the youngest player ever to play for the Bayern Munich first team in the Bundesliga. He finished the 2012–13 season with no goals in two matches played for the first team and eight goals in 30 matches played for the reserve team.
In December of that year, he was in the Bayern squad which won the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco, although he did not enter the field of play during the tournament.
On 17 May 2014, Højbjerg started the DFB-Pokal final for Bayern Munich, a 2–0 extra-time win over Borussia Dortmund. He played for a total of 102 minutes before being substituted in the first half of extra time for Daniel Van Buyten. He finished the 2013–14 season with seven Bundesliga appearances and two German Cup appearances for the first team and four goals from 14 appearances for the reserve team.
His first match of the 2014–15 season was the DFL-Supercup on 13 August, playing the first hour and then being substituted for Mario Götze, as Bayern lost 2–0 at Borussia Dortmund. On 8 January 2015, Bayern extended Højbjerg's contract to 2018. He finished the 2014–15 season with no goals from eight Bundesliga appearances, one German Cup appearance, and three Champions League appearances.
On 7 January 2015, Højbjerg was loaned to FC Augsburg, also of the Bundesliga, for the remainder of the 2014–15 season. He made his debut on 1 February 2015 against 1899 Hoffenheim. Højbjerg scored his first Bundesliga goal on 11 April against SC Paderborn 07 in a 2–1 loss. On 9 May, he assisted Raúl Bobadilla for the only goal as Augsburg won away at Bayern, who had already won the league by that point. He finished his loan spell with two goals from 16 Bundesliga appearances.
On 28 August 2015, Højbjerg joined fellow Bundesliga side Schalke 04 on a season-long loan. He played 30 games for the Gelsenkirchen-based club, including six in the Europa League, and at the end of the season he told Danish newspaper B.T. that the time had arrived to leave Bayern Munich and become a first-team regular elsewhere.

Southampton

On 11 July 2016, Højbjerg joined English club Southampton on a five-year deal for an estimated fee of £12.8 million. He made his debut in the Premier League on 13 August as the season began with a 1–1 home draw with Watford, coming on in the 55th minute in place of James Ward-Prowse. BBC Sport's Neil Johnston wrote that he "injected pace and urgency" into the Saints, "was not afraid to shoot and was hard-working". Although he played all five matches on the way to the 2017 EFL Cup Final, Højbjerg was an unused substitute in the match at Wembley Stadium, which Southampton lost 3–2 to Manchester United.
Højbjerg scored his first goal for the Saints in his 54th match on 18 March 2018, opening a 2–0 win at League One club Wigan Athletic in the sixth round of the FA Cup, the first match under new manager Mark Hughes. In December that year, Hughes' successor Ralph Hasenhüttl made him the Saints' captain. However in June 2020, Hojbjerg was stripped of the captaincy after publicly speaking about his desire to leave the club, with teammate James Ward-Prowse replacing him as captain.

International career

Højbjerg was born in Denmark to a Danish father and French mother. He was called up to the Denmark senior side for the first time in May 2014 for friendlies against Hungary and Sweden and made his debut against Sweden on 28 May, playing the full 90 minutes. On his third cap on 7 September 2014 he scored his first international goal, equalising as Denmark began their UEFA Euro 2016 qualification campaign with a 2–1 win over Armenia in Copenhagen.
In May 2018, he was named in Denmark's preliminary 35-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, although he did not make the final 23.

Personal life

Højbjerg was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and grew up in the Østerbro district of the city. He is the second of three children. Højbjerg was first introduced to football when he was five-years old. In April 2014, Højbjerg's father died of stomach cancer.
He lives in Winchester and receives frequent visits from his girlfriend Josephine who studies and lives in Denmark.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

No.DateVenueCapOpponentScoreResultCompetition
17 September 2014Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark31–12–1UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
221 March 2019Fadil Vokrri Stadium, Pristina, Kosovo242–22–2Friendly
37 June 2019Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark261–01–1UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

Honours

Bayern Munich
Southampton
Individual