Brentford’s Danish youth international defender Mads Roerslev has committed his long-term future to the Club. Mads, 20, has today, Friday 6 March, signed a new four-year contract. The deal includes an extra year that would keep him under contract at Brentford until 2025. After signing the deal Mads has been promoted from the Brentford B group to the First Team.
The new deal comes just seven months after Mads signed for The Bees. He joined from FC Copenhagen for an undisclosed fee in August. He came through the youth ranks at the 13-time Danish champions and made a First Team debut when he was just 17. He played five Danish Superliga games for Copenhagen and also had loan spells at Swedish side Halmstads BK and Vendsyssel FF before joining The Bees.
Mads made an immediate impact in West London and was named in the First Team matchday squad for the win against Queens Park Rangers in October. He has been in the 18-man group for every First Team match, bar one, since and made his debut as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers in November. Mads has made ten appearances for The Bees so far, contributing three assists from right back. He has played eight Sky Bet Championship games and started three of them, including away at Luton Town last week.
Thomas Frank, Brentford FC Head Coach, said: “We are very pleased that Mads has signed a new contract with us. He had made great progress since the summer and has shown the benefits of our B Team. He came in and got up-to-speed immediately by working with the B Team staff. When he came to train with the First Team, he was ready, tactically, technically and physically and he took the chances that were available.
“When he came here, we knew the quality he had but thought that it would take a while before he could step up but Mads has shown everyone what he can do when he gets the opportunity. He got thrown in to the mix and when he has started some difficult games – away at Sheffield Wednesday, Bristol City, Luton – he has held up every time. He has earned his place in the First Team group.
“He is very good offensively – he is a good crosser of the ball, very good one-on-one, quick and energetic to get up and down the pitch. And he is also good defending one-on-one. Mads is not the finished article and he knows that, but he works hard every single day to get better and I am looking forward to working with him to help him continue to improve.”
Neil MacFarlane, Brentford B Head Coach, added: "It's fantastic news that Mads has signed a longer-term deal with the club. He came in to the B Team after a spell where he needed to get his career going again. We helped him build up his fitness and his confidence. I've always said that relationships are two ways and Mads is the type of boy who gives everything every single day that he comes to the training ground. He's done fantastically well to gradually get in to First Team training and then into the First Team and every time he's been asked to perform for the first team he has done really well.
"Our job is to produce players and prepare them and make sure that they are absolutely game ready for when they go into the First Team, and I think with Mads that has 100 per cent been the case. With the way that the First Team have been going about their business this year and playing so well, he's gone into a team which is full of confidence, and with his confidence being high after his spell with the B Team, you've got a player who is playing at the top of his game and long may that continue."
Mads has also been a regular for Denmark at youth international level. He made his debut for Denmark Under-17 just past his 16th birthday and has played at every level up to Under-21, including in the last two UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers at that level. Mads was part of the Denmark squads for the 2016 European Under-17 Championships and the 2018 Under-19 Championships. He has played 37 games for his country overall and scored one goal.