Born in Middelfart, Denmark, Christian Eriksen followed in his father Thomas’ footsteps when he started playing football in the academy of local side, Middelfart. Eriksen’s father was also one of the coaches at the time and in 2004 they helped the youth side finish unbeaten in the local youth championship for the third time in a period of four years.
The following year, he joined Odense Boldklub who competed in the Danish youth championships and within a year had helped the club to an age-group title. It was at OB that Eriksen first began showing signs of his technical ability, with his dribbling and free-kick techniques lauded by then-coach, Tonny Hermansen.
His form at youth level attracted the attention of a number of major European clubs, including the likes Chelsea and Barcelona. Eriksen ultimately underwent trials with both clubs as well as Real Madrid, Manchester United and Milan, but finally decided to move to Ajax, stating, “My first step should not be too big. I knew that playing in the Netherlands would be very good for my development. Then Ajax arrived and that was a fantastic option.”
Eriksen was called up to the Denmark national under-17 football team in July 2007, and impressed in his debut for the team on 31 July. In 2008, he scored nine goals in 16 games for the U-17s, and was named Danish U-17 Talent of the Year by the Danish FA. He was also one of four nominees for the 2008 Danish Talent of the Year award, which was won by Mathias Jørgensen.
He played 27 games for the under-17 team until February 2009. He played a total of eight games for the Denmark U-18 and Denmark U-19 teams during 2009. Eriksen was also called up for the Danish U-21 squad to the European championship in Denmark in 2011, the Danish team only participated in the group stage and Eriksen scored a goal against Belarus.
Eriksen received his first senior Denmark call-up in February 2010, making his debut in Denmark’s friendly match against Austria in March, to become Denmark’s fourth youngest full international, being the youngest debutant since Michael Laudrup.
On 28 May 2010, Denmark coach Morten Olsen announced that Eriksen would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He was the youngest player participating in the tournament. At the World Cup, Eriksen played two matches, against the Netherlands and Japan, but Denmark were unable to progress beyond the group stage.
On 9 February 2011, in a 2–1 friendly loss at home against England, Eriksen was named Man of the Match, and was praised for his performance by a number of prominent footballing figures, including Chelsea star Frank Lampard, Man Utd star Rio Ferdinand (on Twitter), manager Morten Olsen and several media experts in Denmark and England. On 4 June 2011, Eriksen scored his first national team goal to give Denmark a 2–0 lead over Iceland in their Euro 2012 qualifier. In doing so, he became the youngest Danish player ever to score a goal in European qualification, being nine days younger than Michael Laudrup when he scored his first goal in 1983.
In the build-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Denmark were drawn in UEFA Group E alongside the likes of Poland and Romania. Eriksen played a key-role during the nation’s qualification campaign during which time he scored eight goals to earn Denmark a play-off against the Republic of Ireland. The first leg of the play-off ended in a 0–0 home draw before Eriksen netted a hat-trick in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium in a 5–1 win to earn Denmark a spot at the World Cup. Eriksen’s treble took his tally to 11 goals for the qualification campaign, bettered only by Poland’s Robert Lewandowski and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo in Europe, and earned the praise of national team manager Age Hareide who stated that Eriksen was one of the top 10 players in the world.
In Denmark’s opening match at the tournament, Eriksen assisted Yussuf Poulsen for the only goal in a 1-0 win over Peru before scoring his first goal in the group stage in the 1-1 draw with Australia the following week