Copenhagen's Carlos Zeca wins Player of the Year award ahead of Celtic game

By David Walton

February 26, 2020

Copenhagen midfielder and captain Carlos Zeca has won the 2019 3F Player of the Year award in Denmark.

The decision was published on the Danish football association’s official Twitter account. Zeca wins the award just over 24 hours from facing Celtic in a Europa League second-leg match at Parkhead.

He’s played 36 times for Copenhagen this season and, impressively, has only picked up seven yellow cards despite playing in a deep-lying role (Transfermarkt).

The decision also means that it’s disappointment for former Celt Erik Sviatchenko. He was also up for the award along with Brondby’s Kamil Wilczek and Copenhagen man Robert Skov.

It’s a timely boost for midfielder Zeca ahead of what’s sure to be his hardest game of the season at Celtic Park tomorrow night.

Zeca didn’t overly stand out in Denmark

When Celtic were creating chance after chance in the first half last week, Zeca was nowhere to be seen. Therefore, as good as he may have been domestically, there’s nothing for us to fear.

He did manage to halt some of our counter-attacks last week as Copenhagen pressed further and looked to stifle us in the second 45. However, it was hardly a dominant performance from the Copenhagen captain. Neil Lennon certainly won’t be pinpointing him as the main danger.

Celtic did struggle at times with Dame N’Doye’s power, however. Christopher Jullien and Kristoffer Ajer have struggled at times against target men this season. N’Doye is certainly that, and even though Jullien became more commanding in the second half last week, he needs to be at it from the start this time around.

Copenhagen captain Zeca (Jan Christensen / FrontzoneSport via Getty Images)

But Zeca will come to Parkhead tomorrow night with an added spring in his step. It should give him the confidence to express himself a bit more, and how he reacts to the award will be interesting.

Celtic, however, likely won’t pay much attention to it. Lennon knows he has a squad and in particular a midfield that can overwhelm Zeca and co tomorrow night regardless of what goes on in the build-up. Yet it’s unfortunate to see Sviatchenko miss out on the individual title with Midtjylland. There’s always next year though!

What did you make of Zeca last week? Did he impress you or did you think that Celtic proved they can have too much for him? Let us know in our discussion forum below.