Anders Antonsen will no longer have his base in Copenhagen, Denmark. In a YouTube video on his channel, the Danish men's singles star addressed his fans to tell them he was moving to Dubai to build his own training setup.
Antonsen is the second Danish top-player to move to Dubai after Viktor Axelsen already did the same last year. However, Antonsen will not join his compatriot's setup, eager to build his own.
The announcement put an end to some speculations about his future.
"There is no bad blood between me and Badminton Denmark", said Antonsen in his video and explained: "I want to establish my own training setup. I want to build my own team of experts around me".
With his move, Antonsen will leave Badminton Denmark's elite programme. This means that he can no longer have a Badminton Denmark national coach as his head coach, receive financial support or use Team Denmark's experts on a daily basis. However, the 25-year-old will continue to have part of his training at the National Elite Training Centre in Brøndby and may be selected for championships such as the European Championships and the World Championships.
Badminton Denmark also confirmed the information yesterday, releasing an article on the federation's website. "We have never made a secret of the fact that we prefer to have all our best players together at NETC (National Elite Training Centre), as badminton is a sparring sport, but we respect his choice and have only one wish: that Anders does well going forward", said Jens Meibom, Elite and Sports Manager at Badminton Denmark.
"I am super happy and grateful for everything that I have received from Badminton Denmark and their training system, but I am just at a point in my life where I want to try something else", said Antonsen.
In the future, his primary base will be in Dubai but he will also spend some time in Denmark and other countries to train in different surroundings and explore different apporaches to badminton.
In his video, Ansonsen stated several reasons for his move, like the warmer climate, minimising travel time, better availability of sparring partners, and also tax reasons.
Watch Antonsen's full video
here.