Huddersfield Town signing Lasse Sorensen on Bojan, Peter Crouch and why he is the perfect type for Michael Duff

Lasse Sorensen is a quintessential Michael Duff type footballer and it is somewhat fitting – and telling – that the former Lincoln City player recently became his first signing in charge at Huddersfield Town.

Terriers followers can expect more of the same before the end of the summer window as Duff’s rebuilding job gathers pace.

Over many years, streams of Scandinavian footballers have headed across the North Sea to make their name in the UK – and pound for pound, they have been the most successful set of overseas players to be assimilated into British football.

Generally reliable on the pitch and popular in the dressing room, many have interesting back stories like Sorensen.

Danish player Sorensen hails from the rural town of Vejen – close to the seaport city of Esbjerg – and left home in his teens to join Stoke, then in the Premier League.

A Barcelona fan growing up, Sorensen found himself rubbing shoulders with one of his heroes in Bojan and other famous names such as Peter Crouch.

He admits it was a bit surreal at first – and despite being star-struck initially, he soon began to fit in. He would eventually take the field at first-team level with the Potters and set up Crouch’s final professional goal.

Sorensen, whom Town followers could get their first sight of in today’s opening friendly at Emley, told The Yorkshire Post: “I used to have pictures of Bojan hanging on my wall when I was younger.

“Obviously with all the others like Messi and (Andreas) Iniesta. But Bojan was massive for me, I was one of those kids who just used to love football with things on the wall and everything. And then I was training with one, it was a funny thing.

“Crouchy was good and a very nice guy when you think he’s a huge celebrity nowadays. Honestly in the canteen, you’d speak and sit next to him and I’ve not a bad word to say about him, he’s such a good guy. The same as on TV.

“It’s a massive change of life when you are 15 or 16 and you leave your family and go to another country and live on your own.

“But because I love football so much and it’s my passion, you forget all the things you miss out on. You are doing what you love and it’s fantastic and such a positive thing, so it takes the negatives away.

“I was 18 when I got into the first team, but in those two years beforehand in the academy, you were in and around all the big names.

“So that obviously helped and it’s good you can see where you want to get to. It is far away and takes a lot of work, but you think if you do well and perform and be a good person constantly, you can take your chance. I wasn’t lucky to play 400 games for them, but being around it, I got my taste.”

Like Crouch, what you see is what you get with Sorensen, whose ability to handle the move away from friends and family with relative ease is matched by his adaptability on the pitch.

A midfielder by trade, he was successfully converted into a right wing-back at Lincoln, where he became a big fan favourite.

He also took to life away from the pitch in the cathedral city and is now house-hunting and keen to acquaint himself in his new ‘home’.

A versatile player, Sorensen’s resourcefulness off it saw him return to the classroom last summer to start earning the qualifications he missed out taking when growing up – completing the equivalent of an A level in Danish literature. He now intends to write a new story at Huddersfield.

Sorensen added: “When you are a footballer, you have a lot of spare time.

“I love football and think a lot about it and I think it’s (studying) a good way of taking my mind off it. I didn’t do anything last year (season) as it was quite hectic.

“But I think I need to start at some time in the near future and I have got it all planned out.”

On first impressions of Duff, he continued: “We can all see it’s straight ahead with him.

"We’ve had a meeting (this week) and it was ‘this is what it’s going to be about, this is what I want, this is what I don’t want.’

“It’s the right way to do it because if we are all on the same line and wavelength, it’s so much easier to go and perform and do what we want to do.”

Duff's personable nature draws early parallels with Town's last arrival from Lincoln in HarryToffolo.

If he can be as successful on the pitch, no-one will be complaining.