Originally Posted by CCFCPhil
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Wales Online have an interesting interview with a Danish journalist on the evolution of Zahore:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/f...nneth-12628614
Some players don't take an easy route to the top.
And although Neil Warnock calls striker Kenneth Zohore his 'secret weapon' , the 23-year-old Dane boasts an illustrious past which suggests he'd always had the potential to become a class act.
From the Champions League to Cardiff City, via Fiorentina and the Belgian league, Zohore has come full circle.
Secret weapon? Far from it, Zohore's talents are well known in his native Denmark.
We spoke to Klaus Egelund , football reporter at Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, to find out Zohore's back story.
Just how good was he as a teenager? How highly was he rated back home? What made people sit up and take notice, to such an extent that a 16-year-old Zohore featured in the Champions League against Barcelona at the Nou Camp and had trials with Chelsea and Inter Milan?
And what does the future hold, now that Zohore has stepped up his game once more with Warnock's guidance?
Destined for great things
After spells in the BK Skjold and Kjøbenhavns Boldklub academies, Zohore joined 11-time Danish FC Copenhagen in 2009 and was immediately thrust into first team action, weeks after his 16th birthday.
He became the youngest player in the Danish Superliga at 16 years and 35 days old. And months later, he made his Champions League debut, coming off the bench at the Nou Camp against Barcelona. He later appeared against Chelsea, which prompted the West London giants to offer a trial.
Little surprise then, that the Danish media are fully aware of Zohore's auspicious talent.
"We had been hearing about Kenneth Zohore long before he made his debut for FC Copenhagen," said Klaus.
"He has been highly rated in Denmark for a long time."
Zohore quickly made an ill-fated move to Fiorentina in 2012, before loan spells back in Scandinavia with Brondby and Goteborg. A permanent move to Odense Boldklub preceded a spell in Belgium with KV Kortrijk, before Zohore's transfer to south Wales.
"He'd been held back by a few injuries and, although the potential was easy to see, the worry was that Kenneth was actually too big for his own good," added Klaus.
"He couldn't manage his physique at first.
"But at 23 it seems like he's grown into his body, because the worry was that he was going to tear himself apart with injury.
"He's at a club where they know how to go about him."
Lack of work ethic?
It's not usual for a 23-year-old player to move about so much early in their career, not in British football.
Yet Klaus explains why the culture of Danish football explains Zohore's chequered past. A combination of injury and apathy worked against the young Zohore, despite his evident abillity.
"His talent was so obvious that he didn't need to put in that much effort," explains Klaus. "Denmark is a small country and there is a tendency to not push young talents too much, due to the risk of losing them to other countries.
"It's common for young talents to shop around, going from youth set-up to youth set-up, like Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (now at Southampton) who went from Skjold to Copenhagen to Brondby in a short period of time.
We will often see Danish talents coming through and being a bit spoiled, not having the right work ethic.
"Players have to learn, because that culture comes back to punish them when they train with the grown-ups."
Klaus believes only now is Zohore learning that work ethic.
Comparisons with Bendtner
Often a figure of fun due to his outlandish outbursts and egotistical reputation, Nicklas Bendtner is actually a prolific international forward with 29 goals for Denmark.
To be compared with Bendtner — as Zohore often was — as a young Danish striker, is no mean feat.
But the comparisons didn't end with Bendtner's on-field exploits. Zohore, once described as a 'disgrace' by Warnock , was drawing a few critics in Denmark for his mentality.
"There were stories about Kenneth being a bit of a 'wise guy', I guess a similar reputation to Nicklas Bendtner," said Klaus. "Not a party guy but a big ego.
"But when I spoke to him, he always came across as an honest guy who wanted to work hard. Maybe he was growing into himself."
In any case, Klaus admits the move away from his homeland has benefited Zohore.
"There were too many 'backslappers' in Denmark, too many people putting him on a pedestal from a young age.
"That could have been a problem, and it's been beneficial for him to get out of Copenhagen."
Living up to that debut
"It's a big thing to play against Barcelona at 16," added Klaus. "Maybe it felt like he'd 'made it'.
"But the sky is the limit for this guy and Kenneth wasn't quite ready to make his breakthrough in Denmark."
The 2012 move to Fiorentina also came too soon for Zohore, but the interest from the Serie A side was rooted in Zohore's well-documented teenage aptitude. Physically and mentally, Zohore needed to mature before he could made a sizzling impact in Tuscany.
After those nomadic moves around Europe, there is no doubt both the Bluebirds and Zohore were rolling the dice with a loan move in January last year.
Cardiff were under a transfer embargo and could only sign loan players, while Zohore was spiralling into the last chance saloon. He'd missed too many opportunities and could ill afford to squander this one.
A perfect fit for Cardiff
Finally, at the age of 23, Klaus believes Zohore has grown up. The burgeoning striker is now able to manage his own fitness, work hard and use that bulk to devastating effect as Cardiff fans have seen with four goals in his last five games.
"I think he needed to be appreciated to make the most of his talent," added Klaus.
But what next? Zohore's contract with the Bluebirds runs until June 2019 so there is every chance he could forge himself cult hero status in south Wales. That is, of course, providing Premier League clubs don't come knocking.
"Will he be branded as a Championship striker? Will he try to make it in the Premier League?" Klaus asks.
"It looks like he's perfectly built for British football. Maybe Italy or Germany, it's hard to tell what comes next.
"But he knows there's a fine line between being in the right spot and also needing to move (his career) forward.
"I think he's focused on establishing himself at Cardiff and he feels the manager (Warnock) has faith in him."
