Fredgaard bares all on his Cats spell – and what went wrong...
There’s a special place in Sunderland history for Carsten Fredgaard - the youngster signed by Peter Reid after Sunderland fought off competition from across Europe. We tracked down the man nicknamed ‘The Chocolate Fireguard’ to relive his short, but unforgettable, spell on Wearside.
He may have just celebrated his 44th birthday, but Carsten Fredgaard isn’t ready to call time on his playing career just yet.
“A few retired professional footballers and friends of mine started a team called FC Graesrødderne,” he tells us.
“It’s all about the love of the game, going back to our roots.
“The team has actually been promoted four years in a row now, so suddenly the competition is not so easy.
“But we play football and drink cold beers, so it’s not too bad.”
Former Chelsea winger Jesper Grønkjaer and Andreas Laudrup - son of Michael - are teammates, with the club having climbed to the sixth tier of the Danish pyramid.
They remain an amateur side - the club’s name roughly translates to ‘The Grassroots’, and all the players hold down others jobs - but it fills a void, and present san opportunity to reflect on what was, and what could have been in their professional careers.
And for Fredgaard, those thoughts often centre around the summer of 1999. A summer when, as Europe’s elite cast their eye over a young Danish prodigy, Peter Reid came calling.
Fredgaard’s agent, Søren Lerby, was inundated with enquiries about the youngster, who had helped Lyngby FC to an unlikely UEFA Cup spot with a stellar goal return.
International recognition was imminent, and Fredgaard had his choice of moves.
“I spoke to a few clubs from Belgium, Germany and England,” he said.
“Sunderland, in the end, were willing to make the fee to Lyngby FC a little higher than the other clubs.
“Everything went fast and the deal was done.”
The deal was agreed in March, but the Danish season ran until June and, as part of the terms of the deal, the youngster was not allowed to move to Wearside until the campaign was completed.
That saw his first game at the Stadium of Light come in pre-season, with the winger given a half-hour run-out against Italian side Sampdoria in Kevin Ball’s testimonial.
27,000 fans turned out to pay their respects to the Sunderland skipper, and it was an atmosphere unlike any Fredgaard had previously experienced.
“It was quite amazing and a little frightening,” he said.
“I had been there once before watching the team play, but to finally play there myself was very exciting.”
Fredgaard didn’t pull up any trees on his debut, but was given another chance on the opening day of the 1999/2000 season.
As Sunderland headed to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea, the Dane took a place on the bench - before playing the final 30 minutes of the 4-0 defeat.
It proved to be his first, and last, Premier League outing.
Fredgaard was then limited to cup outings, playing in both leg sofa Worthington Cup clash against Walsall.
It was in the second of those games, a 5-0 win at the Bescot Stadium, that Fred ga a rd finally showed glimpse soft he quality that saw Sunderland swoop for his services.
He added to a fine assist with a brace of his own, including a well-taken second. A weight was then lifted. “I saw highlights from that game recently, actually,” he said.
“It was a very fun and nice evening for me and the team mates.
“I was desperate to show that I could actually play ball and it was a relief to score two goals and play a good game.”
But any hopes of kicking on were quickly erased.
Fredgaard played once more for the Black Cats against Wimbledon in the same competition - before being farmed out on loan, to little success, to West Brom and Bolton Wanderers.
By this time, Fredgaard’s stock on Wearside was falling. The nickname‘ Chocolate Fire guard’ was firmly established, as he fell further and further down the pecking order before FC Copenhagen paid £500,000 for the wideman.
He said: “I left everything behind and moved to a new life in Sunderland, so I was very frustrated and disappointed that it did not work out better.
“I came from an amazing season in Denmark, scoring 16 goals and making a lot of assists. My team qualified for the UEFA Cup so I had hoped that Sunderland would be a great success story for me.
“It was hard to get in the team, hard to get used to the style of playing and the team was doing incredibly well.
“The team was quite amazing that season, Kevin Philips was crazy good.
“Just after signing me the club signed John Oster and then a little later KevinKil ban e for the same position, so it was not easy to get games and get used to the way of playing.
“I think it was a mix of me losing confidence a bit when it did not go the way I hoped for, and maybe also being given too few opportunities to play, show myself and learn.”
So are there any regrets on Fredgaard’s part? “No, not really,” he said. “I do not really regret the things I can't change anyway.
“Looking back, maybe I should have started in an easier league than the Premier League before moving to the highest level.
“But you’ve got to take the opportunities when they show up, you never know if you’ re going to get more.
“It was still a big experience for me to move to another country and play football in England.”
And reminders remain, as Fred ga a rd recently watched the second series of Sunderland ‘Til I Die.
“It was fun to watch,” he said.
“It woke up some memories and actually made a few people around me realise what kind of city and club I had been to.”