Preston’s new Great Dane Emil Riis Jakobsen targets success with Preston

The Danish striker spent time with Derby County as a youngster, enjoying the challenge despite not breaking into the first-team.

With him having got more experience at Randers FC in Denmark and having become a Danish Under-21 international in the meantime, Jakobsen is ready to show his worth again.

“A lot of players have come from Scandinavia to play in England” Jakobsen told the Lancashire Post.

“We watch a lot of English football over there and a lot of boys have done well here.

“I enjoyed being at Derby, it was a great experience for me.

“Of course I wanted to go into the first team but that didn’t happen.

“I went back to Denmark to play football, got some more experience.

“A few months ago I signed a four-year contract at Randers but there was always the agreement to move on.

“The club wanted to make some money and I wanted to realise my dream of coming back to England.”

It was on Wednesday night that PNE struck a deal with Randers to sign Jakobsen for a fee in the region of £1.2m.

That made for a busy Thursday for the 22-year-old with him having a medical in Denmark before flying to Manchester Airport.

He had the second part of his medical over here and then the move was finalised – he’s signed a four-year contract.

North End applied in advance for him to have elite athlete status so that he didn’t have to quarantine on his arrival in the country.

Part of the medical was a Covid-19 test, with him also tested earlier in the week.

Jakobsen said: “My agent had been talking with Preston for a little while.

“I wanted to concentrate on football so I let my agent do the talking until something certain was happening.

“When Preston made their offer that is when I started to get involved.

“I’ve come to a good club who want to keep going and progress from what they did last year – they want to get promotion. Hopefully I can help the team do that.

“As a player I would say I’m quite pacey, good in the box and can score goals.

“As a striker you’ve got to work hard, I can’t just stand there and wait for the ball to come to me.”

Jakobsen hopes to play some part in tomorrow’s visit to Brentford.

He needs international clearance to be in the squad and PNE are hopeful that will come through in time.

Next week Jakobsen will head back to Denmark for international duty, he’s still eligible for the Under-21 side.