Thomas Gravesen: Where Did It All Go So Wrong?

Some people blame Kira Eggers (Gravesen's new girlfriend). Some people say the blame lies with the press and the journalists. Some people even blame his agent but the fact remains that Gravesen has simply lost interest in the beautiful game.

Gravesen started his career in the small town of Vejle in 1995. He met the Danish league with a bang and there was a lot of fuss about him in his early years. In his debut season he carried Vejle to second place and a silver medal in the cup final.

After the following season he went off to the south of the border to join Bundesliga outfit Hamburg. He completed three seasons at the club before joining the premier league.

After taking part in Euro2000 with Denmark, he joined Everton. Gravesen played a key role in Everton's rise toward the top of the table during the 2004/2005 season, from his position as an attacking midfielder. His influential performances was deservedly noticed by most people across Europe and most of us had him down as one of the better players in the premier league.

Gravesen then shocked the football world by declaring he would be joining the mighty Real Madrid. His move to Madrid was followed by a media frenzy back home in Denmark. With that came a sway of arrogance and Gravesen, usually good with the press, began refusing interviews.

Gravesen wasn't happy though. He wasn't seeing any minutes on the pitch. His arrogance and allegedly new negative personality could be put down to one of two things.

Either, he was really proud to be playing for Real Madrid and now saw himself too big a celebrity to be talking to small time Danish journalists.

Or, he was ashamed of himself. After the huge fuss of him joining the biggest club in the world, it all came to nothing. He was just a bench player and coming on for the last few minutes of games. He was being introduced just to waste time at the end of games.

With all the euphoria came a huge reality check. Gravesen was nowhere near the quality the rest of Madrid team mates was displaying. Running round amongst the likes of Guti, Robinho, Beckham he looked embarrassingly off the pace and it was pretty obvious that he lacked one thing only: quality.

After his blatant lack of quality was exposed, Gravesen escaped to Celtic, who fought off interest from Newcastle to seal a reported 2M deal. At Celtic, he got off to great start. He scored his first goal against Old Firm rivals Rangers.

For a while it seemed like a great bit of business but soon his performances started to deteriorate. And with that went his confidence. According to Gordon Strachan, his last straw was Celtic's champions league tie with FC Copenhagen. A tie, if Celtic won they would claim top spot in the group and if not, would allow Man United to nick it. Gravesen was picked to play central midfield and control the play.

However, he displayed both arrogance and ignorance. He kept defying instructions and orders from the bench. For 90 minutes, he ran around pretty much doing nothing. Celtic ended up losing that game and even though it wasn't all that bad since they'd already qualified for the next stage, it meant United finished top of the group and Celtic second. Celtic then faced AC Milan as a result, when they could have gotten a much weaker side. They got eliminated and it was obvious something was wrong with Gravesen.

Gravesen was apparently given a last throw at the dice when Celtic played a friendly match. This was his chance to prove he was still an asset to the club. However, he just showed a complete lack of interest and the very next day he was released by Celtic.

Gravesen stayed without a club ever since and was reported to be "assessing his situation." In an interview with Channel 3+ in Denmark last summer, his agent Sivebæk confirmed that Gravesen was at the time weighing his options and taking a break from football.

The general perception in Denmark was that the man had simply lost interest in the game.

FC Copenhagen were willing to have him, on conditions. Vejle BK would have been another good option. To end his career at the club where it all started would have been favourable. Although, I doubt he would have joined a team that low in the Danish League.

At the end of the day it was a huge career decision that cost him so dearly. When he decided that he didn't want to settle for being the star at a relatively small club Everton, everything simply started going downhill for him.

What makes his story so sad is the fact that he is only 32 years old.

Gravesen retired from football on January 27, 2009.