Jose Mourinho hails Spurs player who’s clocked up an ‘incredible’ amount of minutes

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Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho has singled Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg out for praise after the Spurs midfielder won the Denmark Player of the Year award for 2020.

Since joining Tottenham last summer, Hojbjerg has cemented his place in Mourinho’s starting XI, quickly becoming a manager and fan favourite thanks to his battling performances.

Hojbjerg has made 43 appearances for Spurs, including every minute of every game in the Premier League so far this season.

The 25-year-old also helped his nation to a second-place finish in their UEFA Nations League group, which included Belgium and England.

Presented with the trophy on Thursday following Denmark’s 2-0 win over Israel in their opening 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier, Hojbjerg claimed 46 percent of the vote to take the prize.

And Mourinho was delighted with Hojbjerg’s triumph, telling the Spurs media team: “He has been very good for us, an incredible number of minutes he’s playing.

“Denmark has a very good generation of players who go to their national team and they have six, seven, eight players in the best European countries.

“And for him to win, I believe for the first time, means, and we are very happy for him because with us he’s been great.”

Hojbjerg’s triumph marks the first time in eight years that the award has been won by anyone other than Christian Eriksen or Kasper Schmeichel.

He is the third Spurs player in history to be named Denmark’s Player of the Year, with Allan Nielsen having claimed the prize in 1996 and Eriksen winning in 2013, 2014 and 2017.