Nicklas Bendtner’s FC Copenhagen debut will take place behind-closed-doors because of fears of over-crowding due to ‘Bendtner-mania’.

Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner plays the ball during a training session with FC Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 4, 2019 - FC Copenhagen on September 4, 2019 announced the signing of Nicklas Bendtner who transferred from Rosenborg in Norway. Nicklas Bendtner previously played for Arsenal, UK, where he earned the nickname Lord Bendtner. In November 2018 Bendtner was sentenced to 50 days in prison in Denmark for assaulting a taxi driver. (Photo by Niels Christian Vilmann / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner plays the ball during a training session with FC Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 4, 2019 – FC Copenhagen on September 4, 2019 announced the signing of Nicklas Bendtner who transferred from Rosenborg in Norway. Nicklas Bendtner previously played for Arsenal, where he earned the nickname Lord Bendtner. In November 2018
Bendtner was sentenced to 50 days in prison in Denmark for assaulting a taxi driver. (Photo by Niels Christian Vilmann / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

According to the club’s manager, Ståle Solbakken, Bendtner’s first game for Copenhagen would have ‘blown up’ which is fair enough. But do they really think that his second game won’t just become his first game in the eyes of supporters?

Besides, when has a club ever signed a big-name player and then *not* wanted fans to be able to see him play?

It’s all very odd.

“It’s gone wild,” Solbakken told VG.

“I don’t think the marketing department has ever experienced anything like it. It is quite surreal. I think you have to go back to Preben Elkjaer in the 80s to find someone with the same cult-hero status.”

Denmark, it seems, is in the grip of ‘Bendtner-mania’ with his shirt selling out, some difference to his shirt at Juventus that infamously never sold one unit.

Bendtner hasn’t played since the end of April so wil turn out for the reserves against Brøndby. However, given who the opposition are, and the madness around Bendtner’s arrival, they have decided to close it to fans for ‘security reasons’.

“This game is against Brøndby and then it’s war,” said Solbakken. “It’s just not possible. We have to close it [for fans]. There would have been supporters from both sets of teams, meaning 3-4,000 fans for a reserve game. We can’t house them there. Our training ground would have blown up.”

I don’t know, perhaps move the game to the main Copenhagen stadium? Try to find a way to accommodate the fans who want to watch their side play?

Football without match-attending fans….it does seem to a future many in the game are keen on.

Bendtner, meanwhile, who famously said he wanted to become the best striker in the world, has scored a career total of 113 goals (with 49 assists) in 408 matches.