Midtjylland’s summer sales built on mandatory English lessons that fuel its talent pipeline
Midtjylland, the Danish club, completed its most profitable summer transfer window this summer while relying on a development programme that includes mandatory English lessons for new players.
The club has earned more than €200m (£170m) in sales since 2018 and recorded its most lucrative window to date, with the departures of Franculino Djú to Trabzonspor and Darío Osorio to Crystal Palace on a loan with an obligation to buy set to generate around €62m (£53.2m). Those two deals were completed within 48 hours at the end of the transfer window, following the sales of Aral Simsir and Lee Han-beom to Club Brugge for a combined €25m. “I think hectic will be a good word,” says technical director Kristian Kjær of the recent months.
Midtjylland cites structured off-field education as central to that market success: newcomers attend English classes at least three times a week and the club views language acquisition as essential to on-pitch integration. “They are as important for them as it is to train,” Kjær says. With a squad containing 17 nationalities from five continents, the club also employs coaches from around the world to ease assimilation. “We’re not running Midtjylland as a Danish club; we are an international club,” Kjær adds, calling Djú and Osorio “poster boys for what we are trying to do.”
Osorio’s move to Palace includes an obligation for the Premier League club to pay £22.3m next summer plus up to £3.4m in add-ons, and followed Palace’s late-window pursuit of other targets. He made his first start for Palace in their 3-0 Carabao Cup win against Middlesbrough after earlier coming on against Fulham in the Premier League. Midtjylland’s scouts originally spotted the Chilean playing for Universidad de Chile and the club beat competition from RB Leipzig, Milan and Atalanta to sign him in August 2023 — the same month the Brentford owner Matthew Benham sold his controlling stake to the Danish businessman Anders Holch Povlsen.
Kjær described Osorio’s off-field development as part of the club’s integration work: “Darío prioritised the importance for him to start in a club and environment in Europe that could help him grow so one day he could go to the Premier League, which has been his dream since he was a small boy,” Kjær says. “His integration off the pitch was most important. Chilean football is not, and I don’t try to sound disrespectful, the most professional setup when it comes to nutrition and habits outside the pitch. Darío used to eat a lot of white bread for dinner and he couldn’t understand why he was not fully energised in the morning. That was one of the first things we did: look into his nutrition plan.”
Osorio finished his first season in Denmark with eight league goals and Kjær believes the forward had outgrown the domestic level: “Since then, we have seen him putting on layers and layers,” Kjær says. “Darío has been outgrowing the league for some time and he was by far, in my opinion, the best player by a distance. We are very happy to see him making the step and believe he has the quality to be competitive in the Premier League, not as a sub but as a starting lineup player.” Midtjylland also sold Djú, their top scorer last season with 17 goals.
To replace outgoing firepower the club signed David Martínez, a 20-year-old Venezuela international from MLS side LAFC for €7.3m, described in the report as a Danish record fee, and added teenagers Olashile Musa Lawal and Ikenna Udechukwu from its FC Ebedei academy in Nigeria. FC Ebedei, established in 2004, has previously produced players including Coventry’s Frank Onyeka.
There were late-window tensions as Palace pursued Malick Fofana before returning to Osorio when the Lyon forward chose Sunderland, and Kjær said the club had prepared for a drawn-out process: “We prepared both the agent and the player that everything can easily end up being in the last days of the window because English clubs are not that brave to bring in players from outside England, especially not from the not top five leagues,” he said. “It was a bit stressful, especially for Darío. But at the same time, mentally, he was also a bit prepared for that: ‘OK, I have to perform in the beginning of the season to keep myself in the shop window.’”
Bolstered by summer sales, the record signing of Martínez and youth additions from its academy, Midtjylland aim to contest the title they last won in 2024 after finishing runners-up last season to AGF.