Mads Albæk

Mads Albæk
	Albæk with 1. FC Kaiserslautern in July 2018
Personal information
Full name	Mads Winther Albæk
Date of birth	14 January 1990 (age 34)
Place of birth	Roskilde, Denmark
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	SC Weiche Flensburg 08
Number	90
Youth career
	Hvalsø
1996–2001	Gadstrup
2001–2004	Herfølge
2004–2008	Midtjylland
Senior career*
Years	Team
2008–2013	Midtjylland
2013–2015	Reims
2015–2017	IFK Göteborg
2017–2019	1. FC Kaiserslautern
2019–2023	SønderjyskE
2023–2024	Randers
2024–	SC Weiche Flensburg 08
International career
2006–2007	Denmark U17
2007–2009	Denmark U19
2009–2012	Denmark U21
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 9 September 2024

Mads Albæk (born 14 January 1990) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for German Regionalliga club SC Weiche Flensburg 08. He has also represented the Danish national under-21 team.

Youth career

Born in Roskilde, Albæk began his footballing career started in the small Zealandic club, Gadstrup IF. At the age of 11, he moved to play for Herfølge Boldklub. When playing for Herfølge's youth team, Albæk was on trial at SC Heerenveen from the Netherlands, and later on, he was tested by Tottenham Hotspur from England. His talent was discovered by the Danish Superliga club FC Midtjylland, who brought Albæk through the ranks of their youth academy.

Club career

FC Midtjylland

Albæk signed his first professional contract in January 2008, and was permanently promoted in the first team squad.^[1] However, he continued playing games for the U19 squad, while training with the first team. In the summer 2008, Albæk suffered from a twist in the knee and that resulted in an operation.^[2] Due to the injury, he debuted in February 2009 in a match against Esbjerg fB where he played the whole match.^[3] Albæk extended his contract in March 2010 until the summer 2014.^[4] He played 28 league matches in this season despite his young age.

Having established himself as a starter in the Midtjylland line-up, and he revealed in January 2013, that he would like to leave the club and take the step up.^[5] However, he wasn't sold in this transfer windows. Albæk was named as the player of the year 2012/13.^[6] With one year left of his contract, he left the club in the summer windows 2013.

Reims

Albæk had several interested club, but decided to join French side Stade de Reims in the summer of 2013.

He got his debut for the club on 17 August 2013.^[7] Albæk played the whole match and scored a goal in the 7th minute, helping his team win 2–1 against Lille. However, besides his good first match, the rest of the season wasn't so good. He didn't fit in and did only score two goals in 27 league matches.

Albæk suffered from a stomach injury October 2014, that resulted in an operation in December that held him out for some months.^[8] He went back from this injury in April 2015.

IFK Göteborg

In August 2015, Albæk signed a two-year contract with Swedish team IFK Göteborg.^[9] He played his first match for the club only 5 days later against BK Häcken.

According to a Swedish media, IFK Göteborg rejected a bid from MLS-club Toronto FC for Albæk in January 2017.^[10]