Udinese Finally Making their Mark in Serie A

After pulling off one of the biggest shocks of the 2024/25 Serie A season by escaping Napoli with a draw, Udinese stretched their unbeaten run to three matches and sent a statement throughout Italy’s top-flight. For the second straight home match, they not only beat their opponents, but they also scored three goals.

Jurgen Ekkelenkamp scored for the second straight match, putting them in the driver’s seat after 19 minutes, before completing his brace in the second half, whilst Florian Thauvin placed the icing on the cake at the cusp of extra time to secure a 3-0 victory vs. Empoli. It was the latest impressive result for a team that has now avoided defeat in seven of their last nine matches.

Last season, Le Zebrette came perilously close to dropping down to Serie B for the first time in three decades. Udinese, Frosinone and Empoli went into the final matchday with their fates hanging in the balance: Udinese would narrowly edge Frosinone 1-0 via a Keinan Davis goal to secure their top-flight status, whilst Empoli beat Roma to stave off the drop at the eleventh hour. It was a nervy finish for a team that went through three managers throughout the course of the campaign.

Nine months after that last-gasp escape, Udinese find themselves cruising in the mid-table positions. They sit 10th in the table, and with 13 matches remaining, they find themselves 13 points clear of the relegation zone. They have amassed 33 points from their first 25 fixtures — nearly as many as they registered in the entirety of 2023/24 (37) — and they’ve also won three more league matches this season than they did last season.

Udinese are clicking on all cylinders under Kosta Runjaić, who became the club’s new manager in the summer, and find themselves headed for their first top-half finish in 12 years, and one player who has proven crucial to their renaissance is Thomas Kristensen. After a promising debut campaign, the Danish defender has confirmed those positive sensations and emerged as a vital cog in Udinese’s stalwart backline, impressing both at center back and right back. He opened up about his time in Udinese in a recent RG interview, discussing various topics like:

-Making the unexpected move to Italy

“Between my injury and [Yann Aurel] Bisseck’s sale [to Inter], it wasn’t planned for me to leave that very summer. AGF wanted me to play another season, and it wasn’t in their minds or my mind to leave already. There were a lot of clubs that were interested in signing me, but Udinese wanted me really badly, and it was an opportunity that neither myself nor the club could say no to. It was a good match, and I’ve already played a lot of games at Udinese and shown a lot of good things in Serie A.

 

I knew of Udinese’s interest for a while, but in the end, it started to become really intense. It went from being not concrete to them making an offer. Suddenly, there was a deal to take care of and it became really intense. It wasn’t designated for me to leave the club, but AGF gave me the chance to go to Italy and see it myself.

 

They needed to sign a center back to replace me before I put my signature on the paper and signed the contract with Udinese. I went there and sorted out everything, but then the guy who AGF had planned on signing as my replacement told them that he was going to another team. That night, I was sitting here waiting to sign the papers. They ended up signing Mats Knoester from Ferencváros to replace me, and the situation turned around.”

-The main differences between the Danish Superliga and Serie A

“The main difference between Denmark and Italy is the quality of the players. You don’t have time to sleep. You don’t have time to make naive, stupid mistakes. You cannot give the strikers and the players here too much space. It’s a country that’s well-known for their defending, so it was a really good place for me to grow. I feel that after one and a half years in Italy, I’ve improved a lot defensively. It’s a great league with a lot of quality players, and the defensive aspect is especially very strong.”

-Adjusting to life abroad

“I live in Udine alone, which was a huge difference coming from Denmark where I lived with two of my friends and knew nearly everyone in the entire city. The toughest thing to get used to was suddenly being all by yourself without family close by, and to come home to an empty house.

 

It was difficult managing all this stuff by yourself when you don’t have that guy or girl to come home to and speak with. The only thing in your mind was preparing for tomorrow’s training session or next week’s game. However, this was also a good learning process for me because it made me focus on my career as opposed to other things.”

-Avoiding relegation by a razor-thin margin

“Staying up in Serie A was an unbelievable feeling. The difference between going down to the second tier and staying up is massive. It’s so important in a place like this, a club that can’t go down to Serie B. We all had a few beers afterward and celebrated together and then went on holiday. It wasn’t the best season, but it ended up being a really nice end to the campaign. I’m very proud of how we handled being under so much pressure. It was a really nice moment and a massive relief.”

–His relationship with Kosta Runjaić

“My relationship with Runjaić is good, I try to do what he asks of me. His style fits how I want to play, which is as an aggressive, wide center back who wants to apply the pressure and who’s not afraid to carry out a high line. I ran into some injuries which sidelined me from the squad for a little bit, but I’ve managed to keep fighting for a place, and I’m now having the game-time that I wanted to have after previously struggling for fitness.”

-Long-term goals

“Ever since I was a little kid, my dream has always been to play in England. Then, when I got a little older, my dream was to come to Italy to become a defender. If you want to improve as a defender, Italy is the best place to do it. They teach defending in the best way. Right now, I’m here in Udine, and I have a lot to improve on, and Udinese is a great place to improve as a player. There’s no rush, but I still have a dream of playing in England one day.”

By: Zach Lowy / @ZachLowy

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / NurPhoto