Mikkel Ladefoged

Mikkel Riis Ladefoged (born 9 June 2003) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Lincoln City.

Career Club career Ladefoged is a product of Næsby Boldklub, where he spent his entire youth career. In March 2022, he was also promoted to the club's first team and finished the season as top scorer in the U19 division with 31 goals.

During the spring of 2022, Ladefoged trained with Danish 1st Division club Sønderjyske so that the parties could get a closer look at each other. On May 31, 2022, the club confirmed that they had signed Ladefoged to a two-year deal. On July 30, 2022, Ladefoged made his debut in a league match against Hillerød.

In the search for more playing time, Ladefoged was loaned out to league colleagues from Næstved Boldklub on August 30, 2023. Besides a knee operation that Ladefoged underwent after the fall season, he played 20 games in Næstved and became the club's top scorer in the 2023–24 season with 9 goals.

In early August 2024, Ladefoged was close to a move to Tromsø IL, which ended up collapsing. On August 29, 2024, Ladefoged was instead loaned out to Esbjerg fB until the end of the season.

Six months ahead of schedule, on 24 January 2025, Ladefoged left Esbjerg and instead signed a four-year contract with Swedish Allsvenskan club Västerås SK. However, Ladefoged was out for the first few weeks of his stay with an injury. On 13 August 2026, Västerås SK confirmed that they had agreed a deal with Ladefoged with a foreign club for a deal that represents the largest sale in VSK history. The transfer will take effect on 30 August 2026 and that Ladefoged will not play any further matches for VSK.

On 30 August 2026, Ladefoged signed a five-year contract with EFL Championship club Lincoln City for an undisclosed fee, a record transfer fee for Lincoln City, beating the previous record set by Andrei Coubiș the previous month. The fee is believed to be a total of £4.3m million including bonuses and a resale clause of around 20 percent. He made his debut on 1 September, coming off the bench in a 0–0 draw against Blackburn Rovers.

Career statistics