CHAPTER 20 — FREM
**Copenhagen — May 1991**
Frem's ground was in Valby, which meant Mikkel could walk to it.
That fact struck him as mildly absurd given the months he'd spent on trains to Odense and Silkeborg and planes to Manchester and Monaco — all that movement to find players, and one of the most interesting prospects he'd identified since September had been training twenty minutes from his apartment the entire time. He walked there on a Wednesday morning in the third week of May, the Copenhagen spring finally delivering on its promise, the streets warm and the trees fully committed to the idea of summer.
Frem BK were not a glamorous club. They were one of the oldest in Denmark — founded in 1886, with a history that included league titles and cup wins that felt distant from the modest present the club currently occupied. Mid-table Superliga, modest budget, the specific atmosphere of an institution that knew what it had been and was pragmatic about what it currently was. The kind of club that developed players for other people and had largely made peace with that reality.
Mikkel had called ahead — not to the club, but to a contact who knew Frem's administrative setup and could tell him the right person to speak to and the right time to appear. The right person was the club secretary, a woman named **Britta Sørensen**, who handled player administration and was apparently approachable if you weren't wasting her time. The right time was Wednesday morning before eleven, when the first team training session ended.
He arrived at ten forty-five.
---
Britta Sørensen was fifty-one, efficient, with reading glasses on a chain around her neck that she put on and took off with the regularity of someone who had been doing it for decades and no longer noticed. She met Mikkel in the reception area — not her office, which he took as a signal that this was a preliminary conversation rather than a formal one — and looked at him with the assessment of someone who dealt with agents occasionally and had developed a finely calibrated sense of when they were worth her time.
*"Trane Sports,"* she said. *"The Schmeichel agency."*
*"Among others."*
*"Laudrup too, I heard."*
Word moved. *"Yes."*
*"And you're here about Jacob Friis-Hansen."*
It wasn't a question. Either she'd been expecting this or she was simply quick. Possibly both. *"I am."*
She looked at him for a moment. *"He's nineteen. He has three years on his contract. We're not selling him and we're not losing him to an agent who's going to spend the next year unsettling him with talk of big moves."*
*"That's not my model,"* Mikkel said. *"I have clients at Odense who renewed their contracts through me. I have clients who've moved abroad when the timing was right — not before. If I sign Friis-Hansen I represent his interests, which right now means developing properly at Frem and not going anywhere until he's ready."*
Britta studied him. *"You say that."*
*"I say it because it's true and because my reputation depends on it being true. You can call Torben Mikkelsen at Odense — he'll tell you the Elstrup renewal was handled cleanly. You can call Brøndby's administration about Vilfort. I don't push moves that don't serve the player."*
A silence. She put her glasses on, looked at something on the desk beside her, took them off again.
*"He's in the changing rooms,"* she said. *"Session just finished. I'll tell him you're here — whether he comes out is his decision."*
*"That's fair."*
She disappeared through a door. Mikkel stood in the reception area and looked at the framed photographs on the wall — Frem teams from various decades, the shirts changing, the grounds changing, the faces all carrying the same expression of people who played football because they loved it and hadn't complicated the equation beyond that.
Five minutes passed. Then the door opened and Jacob Friis-Hansen came through it.
---
He was taller than Mikkel remembered from September — or perhaps just more present without seventy metres of football pitch between them. Nineteen years old, still damp from the showers, a kit bag over one shoulder, and the specific expression of a young player trying to decide whether to be flattered or suspicious by the attention of someone whose name had been in the newspaper.
He settled on cautious. Which was the right call.
*"You watched the Frem-Brøndby match,"* he said.
*"In September. You had a difficult first half and a good second."*
*"I know."* He said it without defensiveness — just accurate self-assessment, which was its own kind of encouraging sign. *"The manager moved me inside at half time. It suited me better."*
*"I noticed."* Mikkel gestured toward a pair of chairs in the corner of the reception area. *"Five minutes?"*
They sat. Britta Sørensen had disappeared back to wherever she'd come from, which meant she'd decided the conversation was acceptable to have rather than one she needed to monitor.
Friis-Hansen put the kit bag between his feet and looked at Mikkel with the direct attention of someone young enough to still find the situation genuinely interesting rather than routine.
*"Why me?"* he said. *"I'm in a Frem side that finished ninth last season."*
*"Because ninth last season doesn't tell me what I need to know about you. The sixty-eight minutes you played against Brøndby tells me considerably more."*
*"What does it tell you?"*
Mikkel thought about the scout report — eighty-four potential, four stars, the pace and crossing ability that at nineteen was already better than players five years older. He said instead: *"That you're three or four years away from being the best left back in Denmark. And that nobody seems to have noticed yet."*
Friis-Hansen looked at him for a moment. Not flattered — assessing, the way young people who've been told they're talented since childhood learn to assess compliments, checking for the part where it becomes transactional.
*"And you want to be the person who noticed,"* he said.
*"I want to represent you properly when the time comes. That's not the same as promising you'll be at a big club by next summer — you won't be and you shouldn't be. You need two more years at Frem, probably. Maybe two and a half."*
*"That's not a very exciting pitch."*
*"It's an accurate one,"* Mikkel said. *"The exciting pitch is the one where I tell you Bundesliga clubs are already asking about you and you need to sign with me today before the opportunity closes. That pitch isn't true. I don't make it."*
Something shifted in the young player's expression — the specific relaxation of someone whose guard drops when they encounter something they weren't expecting.
*"Schmeichel,"* Friis-Hansen said. *"He was at Brøndby."*
*"He was."*
*"And now he's at United."*
*"From July, yes."*
The nineteen-year-old looked at the floor for a moment, then back up. *"My contract runs until 1994."*
*"I know. There's no urgency on either side. I'm here because early relationships matter — when the right moment comes I want to already know you properly rather than introducing myself when everyone else is."*
*"And if I sign and nothing happens for two years?"*
*"Then you're at Frem developing as a footballer with someone in your corner who's paying attention. That's not nothing."*
Friis-Hansen picked up the kit bag, stood, and looked at Mikkel with the evaluating quality of someone who hadn't made a decision but was close to one.
*"I need to think about it,"* he said.
*"Take your time."*
*"I'll call you."*
*"The number's on the card."* Mikkel handed him one of the new cards — proper ones now, the Gammel Kongevej address, the direct line. Friis-Hansen looked at it briefly, put it in his jacket pocket, and nodded once.
He walked back through the door he'd come from without looking back, which Mikkel had learned was not rudeness but the specific focus of young athletes who were always moving toward the next thing.
---
**⚙ SYSTEM UPDATE**
*Contact Made: Jacob Friis-Hansen (Frem)*
*Status: Considering — will call back*
*No contract yet*
*Reputation Unchanged: 467 / 1000*
---
**⚙ SCOUT REPORT — Jacob Friis-Hansen**
*Position: LB | Nationality: Danish | Age: 19 | Club: Frem*
*Overall: 63 | Potential: 84 | Talent: ⭐⭐⭐⭐*
Pace 83, Crossing 76, Tackling 69, Positioning 71, Stamina 78, Decision Making 67.
*Agent Status: Unrepresented | Contract Expires: Summer 1994 | Wage: DKK 54,000/yr (£5,238 / $8,640)*
*System Note: Overall up 2 since September. Development progressing. Long contract means patience required — but the trajectory is correct.*
---
He walked back to the office through Valby, the May morning warm enough that he took his jacket off and carried it. He thought about the conversation — the way Friis-Hansen had relaxed when the pitch didn't arrive, the question about Schmeichel which was really a question about whether this was real. It was the same pattern as every young player he'd approached: suspicion first, then a specific kind of test, then either the door opening or closing.
The door was open. Not through yet, but open.
Astrid had coffee ready when he arrived, which she'd timed from his estimated return — she'd started doing that in week three without mentioning it, the kind of operational attentiveness that made the difference between a good administrator and a great one.
*"Frem?"* she asked.
*"Waiting,"* he said.
She wrote it in the pending column of the tracking sheet she'd developed. It sat there between *Elstrup renewal — initiate Q2* and *Schmeichel commission — begins July.*
The call came four days later. Friday afternoon, the end of the working week, which Mikkel had come to understand was when young people who'd been thinking about something all week finally resolved it.
Friis-Hansen's voice was direct and slightly formal in the way of someone who had rehearsed the opening. *"I spoke to Britta. She said the way you handled Elstrup at Odense was professional."*
*"She checked,"* Mikkel said.
*"She checks everything."* A pause. *"I've decided yes. Same terms as everyone else, you said."*
*"Fifteen percent of anything I negotiate. Nothing until I earn it."*
*"And you won't push me somewhere before I'm ready."*
*"Not somewhere. Not before you're ready."*
*"Alright."* Another pause, shorter. *"Send the contract to Britta. She'll look it over before I sign."*
*"I'll have it there Monday."*
He put the phone down and told Astrid, who updated the tracking sheet from pending to active without comment, then looked up.
*"How old is he?"* she asked.
*"Nineteen."*
*"And the potential?"*
*"High."*
She looked at the sheet for a moment. *"You keep signing them young."*
*"The good ones are always young,"* Mikkel said. *"Until they're not."*
---
**⚙ SYSTEM UPDATE**
*New Client: Jacob Friis-Hansen (Frem)*
*Contract: 2 years | Commission: 15%*
*Total Active Clients: 8 (Schmeichel, Elstrup, Vilfort, Sivebæk, Laudrup, Tøfting, Nielsen, Friis-Hansen)*
*Funds Unchanged: DKK 454,300 (£44,067 / $72,688)*
*Total Monthly Commission Income: DKK 18,840 (£1,827 / $3,014)*
*Monthly Operating Costs: DKK 28,300 (£2,745 / $4,528)*
*Net Monthly Position: DKK -9,460 (£-918 / $-1,514) before transfer income*
*Schmeichel commission begins: July — DKK 3,250/month added*
*Reputation +10 → 477 / 1000*
*System Note: Eight clients. The roster now spans three categories — established players, European transfers, and long-term development prospects. This is the intended shape of the agency.*
---
The week ended quietly. The Nielsen deal had completed formally, the Laudrup pre-agreement was being drafted by PSV's legal team, and Schmeichel was finishing his final weeks at Brøndby with the focused professionalism of a man who had decided to leave nothing unfinished before he left.
On Friday evening Mikkel sat at his desk after Astrid had gone home and looked at the list. Eight names. A year and two months ago there had been none.
He thought about what was coming. July — Schmeichel to United, commission begins. The 1991/92 season — Brøndby's European campaign, Laudrup's final year before PSV, Tøfting pushing for a regular first-team place, Friis-Hansen developing quietly at Frem. And underneath all of it, steady and getting closer: June 1992. Sweden. The tournament that nobody in Denmark was taking seriously yet except the people who had read enough history to know what was coming.
He pulled out the notepad and wrote the date at the top of a clean page.
*June 1992. 13 months.*
Then below it, the names of the players he expected to be in that squad who were his clients.
*Schmeichel. Laudrup. Vilfort. Elstrup.*
And below those, a second column — players he didn't represent yet but intended to before the tournament.
He wrote four names. Then thought about it and added a fifth.
The window was still open. Not for much longer.
---
At Frem's training ground Britta Sørensen reviewed the Trane Sports contract on Monday morning with the thoroughness of someone who considered protecting young players from exploitative representation a minor civic duty. She found nothing objectionable — the terms were standard, the commission structure transparent, the exit clauses reasonable. She told Friis-Hansen it was fine to sign, which he did that afternoon in her office with her watching, the kind of administrative supervision that would have felt patronising from a less trusted source but from Britta Sørensen felt simply like competence.
Friis-Hansen told his roommate — a Frem youth player two years younger — that evening. The roommate asked who Trane Sports were. Friis-Hansen said they were the people who did Schmeichel to United. The roommate was quiet for a moment and then said that seemed like a good sign. Friis-Hansen agreed that it probably was.
At Brøndby the news filtered through with the particular speed of a dressing room that had become attuned to Trane Sports-related developments. Thomas Helveg heard it before training on Tuesday and thought about the conversation he'd had three weeks earlier with a teammate about the agency. He thought about it through most of the morning session, which his positional coach noticed and said nothing about, waiting to see if it resolved itself. It did — by the afternoon session Helveg had decided something and his concentration was back.
After training he asked the kitman for the Trane Sports office number.
---
**⚙ SYSTEM UPDATE — END OF MAY 1991**
*Funds: DKK 454,300 (£44,067 / $72,688)*
*Monthly Operating Costs: DKK 28,300 (£2,745 / $4,528)*
*Total Monthly Commission Income: DKK 18,840 (£1,827 / $3,014)*
*Active Clients: 8 (Schmeichel, Elstrup, Vilfort, Sivebæk, Laudrup, Tøfting, Nielsen, Friis-Hansen)*
*Incoming: Thomas Helveg (Brøndby) — asking for office number*
*Schmeichel commission begins: July*
*PSV pre-agreement: Being drafted*
*Reputation: 477 / 1000*
*System Note: Approaching 500 reputation. Inbound interest now generating itself — the agency is pulling clients rather than only pushing for them. This is the inflection point.*
---