Southampton star Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg ready for relegation scrap after picking fights with older kids at school

AS footballing whacks in the face go, Southampton’s 9-0 decking at home to Leicester was the equivalent of a Mike Tyson knock-out punch.

But there was never any question of Saints’ determined skipper Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg throwing in the towel after that humiliating blow.

Hojbjerg is only one month shy of being the youngest captain in the Premier League

Because fighting back after being given a bloody nose — both metaphorically and literally — is what the Dane has been doing his whole life.

Be it on the football pitch or in the school playground, Hojberg has always tended to take on a difficult challenge, regardless of the risk.

Hojbjerg, 24, explained to SunSport: “If you ask my mother, as a kid I never took the easy fights. I faced them and it toughened me up. Sometimes I would get a whack in the face.

“I always wanted to play with the older ones. When you’re at a kid, the three or four years’ difference means a lot.

“Personality-wise, physicality-wise but also verbally I wanted to put them on the floor. But of course they struck back and I learnt my lesson.

“I’d come back the next day and in the end I got the respect in the school yard.

“I had so many meetings with teachers and the principal sitting in an office where they would ask me, ‘Why are you always facing up to the problems?’

“I didn’t see it as a problem. I saw it as a challenge. So when I come back to the Leicester game, giving up was never, ever an option.”

That courage is exactly what Ralph Hasenhuttl needs from his captain right now as 18th-placed Saints battle to avoid the drop.

Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish beats Hojbjerg by one month to claim the status of youngest club captain in the Premier League.

But the next youngest after the pair is 26-year-old Jamaal Lascelles of Newcastle — underlining how mature Hojbjerg and Grealish are for their age.

Hojbjerg learnt much about leadership and striving for perfection at the ‘school of champions’ Bayern Munich.

There he played alongside the likes of Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger and worked under Pep Guardiola.

It has paved the way for an ultra- professional approach to his career, which regularly sees him leave the training ground late due to yet another cryotherapy or gym session. He is not vegan as “a warrior needs his meat” but gluten free and ensures he always get eight hours of sleep each night.

And he has been known to ice his quads or use a trigger-point ball on his feet while watching movies in bed — much to his partner Josephine’s frustration.

Hojbjerg leads by example and clearly has never had an issue with telling those older than him what to do.

Yet he disputes the claim that he is a stickler for the rules around the training ground who calls staff and players out if any are transgressed, such as phone usage in the canteen.

Hojbjerg, who idolised Steven Gerrard as a kid and would love to coach himself one day, added: “I’m not a policeman.

“I’m never going to tell people whether to be on the phone or not on the phone.

“But if I see that we are losing a percentage on the pitch, I will 100 per cent stick my head in.

“I never really thought about telling older players what to do. That’s why I used to get a slap in the face!

“But if you really know me, you know that I want the best for the team.

“It’s 12-15 years of being a top pro and I don’t want to miss an opportunity because I was not ready or did not do the right things.

“I have the rest of my life to be fat. But not now because I’m very ambitious and I know I have the qualities to one day play with the best.”

One area where Hojbjerg is already excelling is in the size of a particular body part.

His chunky thighs — or “trunks” as he refers to them — are often the subject of Saints’ dressing room banter with team-mates claiming they are the biggest in football.

Hojbjerg, who was with Brondby at youth level, explained: “I’ve always had big thighs. I’m not working them to get bigger, I’m trying to get them slimmer, tighter. They cannot be too big. We didn’t have a car when I was a kid, we had bikes. In the middle of Copenhagen, you don’t really need a car.

“We always had a hill to the training ground in Brondby. Going home was fantastic, but going to training I could put my boots on immediately as I was already warmed up from cycling up it.

“I heard the coach say that I have very big hamstrings. That was a bit strange. Calves or quads maybe but who says, ‘Oh, you have big hamstrings!’”

Hojbjerg remains fiercely ambitious despite three years of battling relegation.

Yet he is more worldly wise now and understands the virtue of patience.

The 26-cap international added: “I was very impatient as a youngster. I thought by 20 I should rule the show.

“That’s not the case, you need to build up and take step by step.

“The last few seasons have been a reality check to everyone that we have to try to progress in every single area of the club.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk