Quick Facts
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Mathias Jattah-Njie Jørgensen ([ˈjɶɐ̯ˀn̩sn̩]; born 23 April 1990), commonly known as Zanka, is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Bundesliga club Fortuna Düsseldorf on loan from Fenerbahçe S.K. and the Denmark national team.
He began his career at boyhood club FC Copenhagen, playing regularly in five Superliga seasons, before a move to PSV Eindhoven in 2012, where he spent two seasons in the Eredivisie before returning to Denmark after finding his chances limited. He joined Huddersfield Town in July 2017 for a fee of £3.5 million.
Formerly an international at under-16, under-17, under-18 and under-21 level, Jørgensen made his senior international debut for Denmark aged 18 in November 2008.
Club career
FC Copenhagen
Born to a Danish mother and a Gambian father, Jørgensen moved to FC Copenhagen from neighbouring club B.93, where he had played in first-team matches even at the young age of 16. He signed a three-year contract with FCK on 26 June 2007. Before signing with the Danish champions, he had visited Arsenal for a one-week trial.
On 21 July 2007, Jørgensen strained the inner ligament in the left knee in a reserve team match – less than a month after he moved to the club. On 9 September, he played again for the reserve team. His first team debut came on 26 September 2007 in a cup match against FC Fredericia. He substituted Oscar Wendt 5 minutes before full-time, in the match FCK won 3–1. Three days later he got his Superliga debut, this time replacing Hjalte Nørregaard about 15 minutes before full-time.
Only 8 days after his first team debut, Jørgensen was thrown on pitch in the extra time of the UEFA Cup first round second leg at Parken Stadium against RC Lens, after captain Michael Gravgaard had received a red card. He was substituted for Marcus Allbäck and played in the central defence together with Brede Hangeland, and they prevented any more goals for Lens, when they were 10 against 11.
On 19 November 2008, he made his debut for the Danish national football team in a friendly against Wales.
After Roland Nilsson became manager for Copenhagen he became captain for "The Lions". 22 February 2012 it was announced that Jørgensen would join Dutch club PSV Eindhoven on a free transfer during the summer transfer window.
PSV
Jørgensen was featured in an unofficial pre-season tournament, The Polish Masters, in July 2012 and scored his first goal for PSV in their game against S.L. Benfica on 22 July. However, he struggled to break into PSV's first XI and only played 14 matches for the club over the course of two years.
Return to FC Copenhagen
On 7 July 2014, Jørgensen returned to his former team FC Copenhagen for a fee of around 600,000 Euros.
Huddersfield Town
On 7 July 2017, Huddersfield Town confirmed the signing of Jørgensen from FC Copenhagen for £3.5 million on a three-year contract. Jørgensen made 65 total appearances for the Terriers in his two seasons with the club as they suffered relegation to the Championship after the 2018–19 season.
Fenerbahçe
On 10 August 2019, Huddersfield Town confirmed that the defender had joined Fenerbahçe on a permanent deal. The terms of the transfer were undisclosed.
On 31 January 2020, Jørgensen joined Fortuna Düsseldorf on loan until the end of the 2019–20 season.
International career
In May 2018 he was named in Denmark's preliminary 35-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Personal life
Jørgensen dated Hungarian model Enikő Mihalik.
Zanka wrote an article against homophobia in football for the Danish Football Player’s Association in 2016. In February 2017, following the monetary settlement that the players association had with the Danish national team, Zanka donated the 667,000 Danish crowns ($94,380) to help fund a new pro-LGBT+ campaign called “Fodbold for alle’ or ‘Football for all’ and visited schools to talk about the problem of homophobia.
Nickname
Jørgensen received his nickname, "Zanka", from the movie Cool Runnings, in which the character played by Doug E. Doug is named Sanka. The nickname was coined by Johan Lange in 2000, while both Lange and Jørgensen were playing for B.93. Lange would go on to be one of the assistant managers during Jørgensen's first spell at FC Copenhagen, and he would later serve as the technical director when Jørgensen returned to the club in 2014.
Career statistics
Club
- As of match played 29 December 2019
| Club | Season | League | Cup | League Cup | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| FC Copenhagen | 2007–08 | Danish Superliga | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | |
| 2008–09 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 10 | 0 | 30 | 0 | |||
| 2009–10 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 0 | — | 9 | 1 | 33 | 5 | |||
| 2010–11 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 11 | 0 | 37 | 1 | |||
| 2011–12 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — | 4 | 0 | 17 | 0 | |||
| Total | 92 | 6 | 3 | 1 | — | 34 | 0 | 129 | 7 | |||
| PSV Eindhoven | 2012–13 | Eredivisie | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 | 10 | 4 | |
| 2013–14 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 5 | 0 | 14 | 0 | |||
| Total | 14 | 2 | 3 | 1 | — | 7 | 1 | 24 | 4 | |||
| Jong PSV | 2013–14 | Eerste Divisie | 7 | 1 | — | — | — | 7 | 1 | |||
| FC Copenhagen | 2014–15 | Danish Superliga | 29 | 1 | 4 | 0 | — | 9 | 1 | 42 | 2 | |
| 2015–16 | 31 | 3 | 5 | 1 | — | 3 | 0 | 39 | 4 | |||
| 2016–17 | 33 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | 15 | 2 | 51 | 2 | |||
| Total | 93 | 4 | 12 | 1 | — | 27 | 3 | 132 | 8 | |||
| Huddersfield Town | 2017–18 | Premier League | 38 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 40 | 0 | |
| 2018–19 | 24 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 25 | 3 | |||
| Total | 62 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 65 | 3 | |||
| Fenerbahçe | 2019–20 | Süper Lig | 16 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — | 18 | 3 | ||
| Career total | 284 | 18 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 68 | 5 | 394 | 27 | ||
International
- As of match played 26 March 2019
| National team | Season | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denmark | |||
| 2008 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2009 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2010 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2011 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2012 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2016 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2017 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2018 | 9 | 1 | |
| 2019 | 2 | 1 | |
| Total | 22 | 2 | |
International goals
- Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first.
| Goal | Date | Venue | Cap | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 July 2018 | Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia | 15 |  Croatia | 1–0 | 1–1 (2–3 p) | 2018 FIFA World Cup |
| 2 | 26 March 2019 | St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland | 22 |  Switzerland | 1–3 | 3–3 | UEFA Euro 2020 qualification |
Honours
FC Copenhagen
- Danish Superliga: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2015–16, 2016–17
- Danish Cup: 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17
Individual
- Players' Talent of the Year: 2008
- Arla Talent of the Year: 2008
- Arla U-19 National Team Talent of the Year: 2008
- F.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year: 2017