Jens Berthel Askou "It's about setting them free"
New Toulouse FC manager Jens Berthel Askou recently sat down with the club's website. Hear more from the new Violets boss and his learn his story with our latest.
One title as a player
Berthel Askou had a nomadic playing career -- the Danish defender began his career at Midtjylland's renowned academy, but, at a young age, he made the move to domestic rivals Silkeborg and then spent a season on loan at Holstebro.
Having moved around his native Denmark, it was time to move abroad and he went on to play in Turkey with Kasimpasa, before moving to Norwich City in 2009. After a season on loan at Millwall, Berthel Askou would then return to Denmark, ticking off a further four clubs - Vejle-Kolding, Esbjerg, Skive, and Thisted - retiring at the latter in 2017. He ended his playing career with over 300 appearances and one title, with Norwich, with whom he won the League One title back in 2010.
A nomadic managerial career
From League One to Ligue 1 McDonald's. Just as he did as a player, Berthel Askou has moved about plenty since turning his hand to management. He spent just one season as the first-team manager of Vendsyssel, just over a year as manager of Torshavn, and then 18 months at Horsens, with whom he won the title in the Danish second tier.
Berthel Askou was working his way up the ladder. Then came the stint at Goteborg, which once again lasted just one year, then a brief stint as assistant at Slavia Prague before then being named assistant manager at Copenhagen back in January 2025 and following that up with a spell at Motherwell before his appointment for Les Violets earlier this year. Now with a few weeks of preseason under his belt, hear more from the Dane
How has the first week of work gone?
"It has been a very, very good week, with a lot of enthusiasm but also a great deal of professionalism from the players and the staff. I am very, very pleased with the progress made during the first week. I spoke French in school when I was in 9th or 10th grade, and I also studied French in high school. So I had a little bit of a head start, but it's almost 25 years ago, so it's slowly coming back, and then I'm learning more and more every day. Hopefully in a couple of months from now, at least 6 months from now, I'll be more fluent in French."
How have you felt in connecting to the Club's philosophy?
"We shared some of the same values and ideas of how to work with people first and foremost, and how to believe in getting more out of a group, the identity of Toulouse and the idea of developing players into better players, into a stronger team. The whole idea is a young and dynamic group -- a club really, really focused on development and increasing the performance levels and being more competitive over time."
How would you describe your football philosophy?
"I'll try and say this as quickly as I can. Brave, dynamic, intense, hopefully exciting, and then the whole basic idea is to allow people the freedom to push their limits and to be creative within a good team structure where everyone knows what is demanded of them.... They have to see a team that works extremely hard together, but also with a lot of freedom to set their individual qualities and put them forward. For the benefit of the team with a lot of dynamic movement, tempo, acceleration, speed of play, speed of thought, and speed of movement."
ร 18h00, on vous envoie une interview "๐๐๐๐๐๐ฬ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐" de notre nouvel entraรฎneur Jens Berthel Askou !
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"I think it's important in any club and for any coach to try and lift the next generation of players forward. And there's a big tradition for doing this here. I think the way we want to play will also help the younger players to develop because it's a lot about setting them free and giving them room for making the mistakes and playing some football that they are used to playing in the academy. Just obviously at an even higher level."
What do you think will be the team's objectives for this season?
"Well, obviously there are several objectives. First of all, there's the end result that we need to see if we can take the next step as a club in the league and be even more competitive in terms of results over a season. But then we still need to produce players for the next level. We need to try and see if we can produce even more and even better players, make them better. And then we need to develop the game model and the style of play so we become, with the way we play, more competitive while we also excite people more, bring more people to the stadium."
Watch the full interview here
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