Football Player's Biography 7: Daniel Agger

Full name	Daniel Munthe Agger
Date of birth	12 December 1984 (1984-12-12) (age 26)
Place of birth	Hvidovre, Denmark^[1]
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)^[1]
Playing position	Centre back

Daniel Munthe Agger (born 12 December 1984) is a Danish footballer, who plays as a central defender for Premier League side Liverpool. He started his senior career at Danish club Brøndby IF in July 2004, with whom he won the 2005 Danish Superliga championship. Since his international debut back in June 2005, he has been capped 39 times and has currently scored 4 goals for the Danish national team. He is known for starting attacks from the back, long distance passing skills and venomous shot.

Club career

Brøndby IF

Born in Hvidovre, Daniel Agger began his youth career at Rosenhøj BK. At 12 years old he joined the youth team of Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF.
In July 2004, he was moved from the youth squad to the first team, following the departure of Swedish international defender Andreas Jakobsson. Daniel Agger quickly established himself not only as a first team regular, but as one of the key components in the team that won the Danish Superliga 2004-05 championship. Despite his relative youth, he played with great authority and class under the guidance of Brøndby team captain Per Nielsen, and after the first half of the season Agger was named 2004 "talent of the year" by Spillerforeningen (the Danish equivalent of the English PFA).
After the successful Superliga 2004–05 season, Agger was called up to the senior Danish national football team for the 1–0 friendly win against Finland on 2 June 2005, playing the full match. Agger spent the next national team match on the bench before playing the full 4–1 friendly win on 17 August 2005 over England alongside Per Nielsen, where he caused problems for the English forwards, most notably Wayne Rooney. He played the whole 90 minutes in the next two national team matches, before an injury sustained in the Danish Superliga 2005-06 season in September forced him out for the remainder of 2005. Only 20 years of age, Daniel Agger was awarded the Danish "talent of the year" of all sports on 6 December 2005.

Liverpool

2006-07 season

Agger was long linked to a transfer to a bigger club, and in the January 2006 transfer window, Agger was looking to join English Premier League team Liverpool, the defending UEFA Champions League champions.^[2] Daniel Agger did not travel with his Brøndby teammates for their winter training camp in January and on 12 January 2006 he signed a 4½ year contract with Liverpool. The £6 million transfer deal made him the most expensive footballer sold by a Danish club to a foreign club,^[3] as well as the most expensive defender Liverpool had bought, at the time. (Liverpool's most expensive defender is now Glen Johnson, who cost approximately £17 million from the English club, Portsmouth).
His first half season at Liverpool saw injuries limit him to 4 first-team appearances during Spring 2006. In May 2006, he played 10 games and scored 3 goals for the Danish under-21 national team, for which he was selected to play in the 2006 European Under-21 Championship tournament.
Agger played the full game as Liverpool won the 2006 FA Community Shield. Still adapting to the English game, he established himself in Liverpool's first team squad, competing with Liverpool vice-captain Jamie Carragher and former Finnish team captain Sami Hyypiä for the two starting places in the central defence. Agger scored his first goal for Liverpool on 26 August 2006 in a 2–1 win against West Ham United. Agger was allowed to run unchallenged toward the Kop-end goal and scored from 35 yards (32 m) out. Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez commented he was not surprised and that Agger has frequently scored such goals in training.^[4] The goal was named Goal of the Month for August by the BBC's Match of the Day,^[5] and later Liverpool's Premiership Goal of the Season.^[6] On 4 October 2006 he was given PFA's fan award for impressive and solid displays in September.^[1]
Agger scored his second goal for the club in a Football League Cup away game against Birmingham City with a volley from close range during the seven minutes of first-half stoppage time. His third was against Arsenal, scoring a header in a 4–1 victory played on 31 March 2007. In the first semi-final of the 2006–07 Champions League, Agger received some criticism as Liverpool lost to Chelsea 1–0, after Chelsea striker Didier Drogba managed to dribble past him before making the assist to win the game.^[7] In the second leg of the semi-finals, Agger answered his critics by scoring another curler from a smartly-taken Steven Gerrard free-kick from just outside the penalty area, and helping Liverpool keep a clean sheet as the team beat Chelsea 1–0 on 1 May 2007.^[7] He went on to play in the 2007 Champions League Final which Liverpool lost 2–1 to Milan.

2007-08 season

Agger started the 2007 pre-season in scoring fashion, scoring two goals in four games, including a left footed-finish against Hong Kong outfit South China. However, he suffered a metatarsal injury in September, again losing his place to Hyypiä. In January 2008, Agger began training and was attempting to regain match fitness, however a recurrence of the injury in his second metatarsal again ruled him out of action. After being examined by several specialists, it was reported on Liverpool's official website that Agger would miss the remainder of the season to undergo surgery on his foot.

2008-09 season

Agger returned to full training in the pre-season at Melwood and on 12 July 2008 Agger made his playing return as a substitute in Liverpool's friendly win over neighbours Tranmere Rovers.^[8] Agger stated after the match: "I am almost starting my career at Liverpool all over again".^[9] Agger was in the starting line up in Liverpool's first game of the season against Standard Liege in the Champions League qualifiers. The game ended 0–0. Agger then found himself sidelined the rest of August and much of September, and was not even included in the squad to face Manchester United. This led to rumours of a verbal exchange between Agger and Liverpool manager Benítez. However, Benítez insisted that there was no rift between Agger and himself.^[10]
After a month without playing, Agger returned to the starting line up against Crewe Alexandra in the Carling Cup. Agger played the full 90 minutes and marked his return by scoring the first goal from a free kick outside the box. Liverpool won the game 2–1.^[11]
Profiting in part from Škrtel's injury, Agger returned to the starting line up against Wigan for his first Premier League match of the season. Agger was, however, at least partly to blame for Wigan taking the lead when he lost the ball to Zaki after a pass from goalkeeper Reina. Agger redeemed himself by setting up Dirk Kuyt for the equaliser. Liverpool eventually won the match 3–2. On April 11, 2009, Agger scored the third goal for Liverpool from 30 yards against Blackburn Rovers. Liverpool went on to win 4–0. Agger celebrated, like the others who had scored in the match, by pointing to the sky in memory of victims in the Hillsborough disaster.^[12]
In May 2009, Agger signed a new five-year deal which if fulfilled, will see him remain with Liverpool F.C. until at least 2014.

2009-10 season

Agger underwent surgery for a recurring back injury in August 2009 and made his return on 25 October 2009 for the 2–0 win over rivals Manchester United at Anfield.
On 28 February 2010, Daniel Agger played his 100th competitive game for Liverpool, playing in the 2–1 home win against Blackburn Rovers. Agger played another 14 times in 2009–10, including scoring his 7th goal for the club against Benfica in the UEFA Europa League and also helped Liverpool reach the semi finals of the same competition.

2010-11 season

Agger appeared against Arsenal on 15 August 2010, but got concussed in the second half of the game and was later substituted. He missed the next few games. He also had other injury problems which kept him out until December. Martin Skrtel was preferred rather then Agger under Roy Hodgson and threatened to quit the club with Juventus reportedly interested in him. Since the departure of Hodgson, he has featured in most of the games under Kenny Dalglish, most recently against Chelsea on 6 February 2011, with Liverpool winning 1-0. He is said to be the best attacking starting centre back in the world and also one of the best at long range shooting as he has demonstrated previously.

Personal life

Agger selected Volbeat's The Garden's Tale as his choice for the "LFC Athens 2007 Playlist" in the build up of Liverpool's 2007 UEFA Champions League Final appearance.^[13]
Daniel's younger cousin Nicolaj Agger is also a footballer who plays for Brøndby IF.
In May 2010, Agger married girlfriend Sofie Nelson in Denmark. The couple wore matching white outfits for the wedding, before celebrating with a reception at the Nimb Hotel in Copenhagen.^[14] Daniel and his wife Sofie, have a son called Jamie.
Agger owns a pub with his uncle in Denmark.

Tattoos

Daniel Agger has numerous Tattoos including a Viking on his upper right arm, a large drawing of vikings and a graveyard that spans his whole back ^[15], including the year of his birth (1984) and the latin saying "Mors certa, hora incerta" ("Death is certain, its time is uncertain"), forming a memento mori. He also features an intricate band around his left elbow.