Jonas Rasmussen interview (Part 1)

Friend of the website and member of Arsenal Denmark Simon Hansen recently interviewed young Arsenal star Jonas Rasmussen. Below is the first part of the interview, in it Jonas talks about:

• His feelings when he first joined the club
• Making his debut for the u-16s
• The pressure of playing for a club like Arsenal
• The differences between the u-16s and the u-18s
• How his new team-mates made him feel welcome

 

His full name is Jonas Hebo Rasmussen, and he was born in 1991. Son of former Hvidovre player Kim Rasmussen, he is the latest Dane to play for Arsenal, and is following in the footsteps of his fellow countrymen John ‘shoot’ Jensen, Sebastian Svard and current star Nicklas Bendtner.

Arsenal.dk spoke to Jonas on the telephone for a conversation about his early impressions of life at Arsenal, as well as being able to play under pressure, which is vital if you’re ever going to play for the Arsenal first team.

Jonas signed for Arsenal last summer, when he had been mulling over various offers for his signature

Of course there was a lot of pressure on Jonas but he was determined to prevail and  admitted that “  of course I would like to have a contract”.

Jonas had just returned home from a training trip with the Danish youth national team, when the offer of the training stay with Arsenal suddenly came up, and he had only known of the club’s interest for 2-3 weeks.

The young Dane doesn’t work to be oppressed by the pressure at the prospect of to have replaced Hvidovre with the English great club, and the 16-year-old aggressive player admits himself, ” I like to play under pressure, when there are lots of people watching.”

Jonas certainly made an impression on the scouts. They were impressed with Jonas’s ability to cope under pressure. In addition, he suggests another reason for why the scouts decided to bring him to London was his physical strength.

Jonas also thinks that it takes great mental strength to strike through in a great club like Arsenal, where all the players are of such a high quality.

“Therefore you have to always show that you are better than your competitors and you have to achieve every time, also for training, and you need a great deal of mental strength”, it says well-considered answers, when the conversation falls on the mental aspect, which is also essential to beat in through in the hard competition environment, which is found in a great club.

Jonas seems to have settled in well at in the club, and he pronounces, “I haven’t been unsatisfied with my stay at Arsenal”, even though the career in the club started in an unfortunate way, when his permission to play first arrived in October about 2 months after the move

It however remained disappointing for the young midfield player, when he during the training, – shortly after he otherwise had been given a green light to play – he picked up an injury, and sat out most of October.

“Thus it of course was an unfortunate start play-related, but it just was great to be at the club the first few months”, Jonas reports inspired about his first time in the club, and leaves that impression that it maybe anyhow isn’t so bad to be 16 years and new in Arsenal. However, he says that the start of the season was incredibly frustrating for him as he wasn’t allowed to play because of licensing issues.

Jonas can reveal that he apparently wasn’t the only one, who had had problems with being allowed to play, and mentions amongst others the left-back Armand Traore, who also faced similar problems, when he first signed for the club in 2005.

The Dane got a distinguished debut, when he finally became ready to play. Jonas scored just five minutes into his debut and got off to a flying start in Arsenal’s colours.

“The whole team played a good game, and the opponent was possibly one of the weaker teams in the league”, he said, when Jonas talked about making his debut for Arsenal against West Ham in an under 16 game.

About the debut says the more former Hvidovre-player also that he – maybe surprisingly – “I was not particularly nervous before the match. I knew most of the players already from the pre-season trip to Italy.’’

Jonas has now featured five times for the u-18s, and he thinks, there is great difference at u-16level, where he is one of the oldest ones on the team, and therefore also one of the players that takes more responsibility. It is in stark contrast to the u-18s where he is one of the youngest in the side.

“The difference at the two levels is mainly that the players are physically stronger, quicker and better at U18 level”, he says when comparing under-16 and under-18 levels. Jonas feeler itself that he is biting himself firmly about the u-18 team, and in hoping to be involved in the u-18s remaining games this season as they fight for a play-off berth.

In addition the young talent reports, “It was easy to fall into the playing style, like all Arsenal’s teams play like”. Furthermore he received a favourable reaction from the team, where he can tell of that there is a good team spirit. In addition he states further, ” that Arsenal picks up many young foreign players for the club, thus there was other youngsters at the club, who had been in the same situation as me, when I came for the club”. In addition Jonas can tell about that the first team players have also accepted him as one of them, as have the other young players, when they train at London Colney.

With thanks to Arsenal Denmark

Watch out later this week for the second and final part of Jonas’s interview