PRISTINA (Ekstra Bladet): the Flag swayed in the background, like the full moon lit up over the national football stadium in Pristina.
With a powerful halsklud, long pants, and gloves, looked like the almost two-metre-high Philip Billing is far from one of them, who can’t wait in excitement to get fulfilled drengedrømmen: Landsholdsdebuten.
He reminded more of a football player who dreamed to warmer climes than five degrees and fiercely windy conditions.
But at the small, intimate stadium in central Pristina, Kosovo Philip Billing, like Joachim Andersen and Jacob Bruun Larsen Thursday, look forward to landsholdsdebuten against lilleputnationen.
the national coach has not just opened the door. He has almost insured that the three players get into a fight. 12.000 fodboldgale fans will be in place at the national stadium, which almost is squeezed in between the neighbourhood unit in Pristina.
– I’m a bit of a different type than the ones already here. I’m venstrebenet, big, physically strong and good with the ball both offensively and defensively, he believes.
For Philip Billing will be testkampen the start of a new journey, reminiscent of the one he already has been in Huddersfield.
Back in 2012, he was discovered by chance in a U17 match between Esbjerg and AaB. Talentspejdere from Huddersfield was around to look at the matches in Denmark, but fell suddenly on the long, ranglede midfielder.
I had no contract with Esbjerg, was invited to the first in Huddersfield and decided to say yes to the offer, the club came up with. There was also a contract offer on the table from Esbjerg, but since I had already decided to travel to Huddersfield, explains Philip Billing, who has a Danish mother and nigerian father. But for him it has never been a theme to play for Nigeria.
– I have never heard from the nigerian federation and would reject them. I’m Danish, and my family is Danish, he explains.
Philip Billing was well wrapped by the final training ahead of his landsholdsdebut Thursday. He is expected not to play from the start against Kosovo. Photo: Lars Poulsen.
For him it was a big dream to become a professional, just as landsholdsdebuten come to mean something special.
– I think it has benefited me to go abroad at a young age, where I have learned it all from scratch. Some feel more secure on home ground, but if you are prepared mentally, so it’s about to take on the challenge. It may well be, you do not feel particularly welcoming at the start. For it is a competition, where those with the strongest mentality to survive, he explains.
the Contract with Huddersfield is to expire next summer. But after the season do you expect a new challenge.
– I need to try something new. The Premier League is fantastic, and I love the English fodboldkultur. I know there is interest from others in the Uk and abroad. Where it all ends, must the time display, explains Philip Billing, who doubt so much playing time in the season’s last seven games.
– I think the coach rates to those who need to continue playing in the Championship next season, explaining Billing, who a few weeks ago, was the victim of racism when a fan wrote the following to him: ’Leave our fucking club, I will never see you in a Huddersfield shirt once again, your useless wannabe black donkey’
I sent the message out, because it sort of must be stopped, ” explains Billing. Ago was a 16-year-old arrested for racist attacks.
Landsholdsfodbold – 21. mar. 2019 – at. 09:48 ‘Eriksen passes the Time’