Casper Ankergren leaving Brighton after 11 years to return to Brondby

Some sad news coming out the Amex with Casper Ankergren set to end his 11 year association with Brighton to return to Denmark with his former club Brondby.

Ankergren will become the Superliga champions’ new head goalkeeping coach, a big appointment for him personally and a step up on his role as assistant to Ben Roberts at the Albion.

The main reason for his departure though is to be closer to his family, who moved back to Denmark last October. It is yet another example of how the pandemic has forced people to re-evaluate their working life having been separated from loved ones for so long.

During his time with the Albion, Ankergren won a League One title, played a huge role in the goalkeeping production line as part of Roberts’ coaching team and single-handedly kept every coffee shop and tobacconist in Hove in business.

It was a stroke of luck which brought Casper Ankergren to Brighton in the summer of 2010. Sexy Pete Brezovan had been set to start the campaign as Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named’s number one until a fractured wrist obtained in training on the eve of the season ruled him out.

Ankergren was a free agent having been released by The Leeds United, where Poyet You Know Who had worked with him as assistant manager.

With Poyet The Dark Lord needing a new goalkeeper he could trust to partake in his possession-based brand of football, he brought in Ankergren on Friday 6th August.

Less than 24 hours later and having not trained with his new teammates, Ankergren made his Albion debut in a 2-1 win away at Swindon Town.

Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named told the BBC at the time: “With Peter Brezovan injured, we wanted to bring some experience to that position.”

“Neither (Michael) Poke or (Mitch) Walker make me feel 100 percent safe right now, so as a manager you need to make bold decisions. He also knows what it takes to get promoted from League One.”

That Ankergren certainly did, adding a second promotion to his CV after starting 45 of the 46 matches as Brighton romped their way to the 2010-11 League One title.

Ankergren won the League One Player of the Month award twice that season. The first time came in September when Brighton first topped the table.

The second followed five clean sheets in eight matches during Mad March, Brighton winning every single one of those games to set a post-war club record of consecutive victories.

It was arguably the best month that Brighton & Hove Albion have ever had and went a long way towards securing the title, which arrived with four games still to play.

Ankergren remained number one for the first half of the opening campaign at the Amex. A dip in form around Christmas 2011 saw him replaced by Brezovan and when Tomasz Kusczcak arrived on a free transfer from Manchester United in the summer of 2012, Ankergren’s first team career at the Albion looked over.

He remained with Brighton though, effectively playing third choice goalkeeper for the next five seasons until officially retiring in the summer of 2017.

Ankergren’s last appearance came as a substitute for the injured Niki Maenpaa in the Albion’s shock 3-1 FA Cup fourth round defeat at non-league Lincoln City.

That meant he played in the 2016-17 season, and so he technically counts as one of only three players to have been part of the League One promotion squad and the Championship promotion squad, alongside Glenn Murray and Lewis Dunk.

Casper Ankergren was already involved on the coaching side before he hung up his gloves. We have written countless times in praise of Roberts for his role in bringing through Robert Sanchez, Christian Walton and Carl Rushworth, but Ankergren has played his part too.

Rushworth in particular has heaped praise on Ankergren following an impressive start to life on loan at League Two Walsall.

He told The Argus of his relationship with Ankergren: “I speak to him every week on analysis. He will pick up some stuff from the game.”

“When they can, Brighton will come and watch my games as well and, if they can’t be there, they will watch my clips and watch the game online.”

Unfortunately for Rushworth and the Albion, Ankergren will no longer be doing any of that. He will be missed around the city as well, where you would often see him sitting outside a coffee shop working his way through 20 Marlboro Lights.

Ankergren was fond of a beer too. At the party in Vodka Revs following the 4-3 win over Dagenham & Redbridge which secured promotion from League One, he was not seen without a bottle of Carlsberg tightly grasped in each hand.

Double parking means nothing to the Danes – there were similar scenes on the concourse at half time of the Albion’s first visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, when he was spotted surrounded by beautiful women whilst sipping on two bottles having seemingly shunned the player’s section for the away end.

Casper Ankergren leaves Brighton with a career record of 77 appearances for the club. His impact though goes far beyond that as not only a title winning goalkeeper and a fine coach but a bloody good bloke as well.

Whenever he pops back for a visit, the Marlboro Lights, a Latte and two bottles of beer are on us.