| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Mikkel Riis Ladefoged | ||
| Date of birth | 9 June 2003 | ||
| Place of birth | Næsby, Denmark | ||
| Height | 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) | ||
| Position | Forward [1] | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Lincoln City | ||
| Number | 11 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| –2022 | Næsby BK | ||
| 2022–2023 | Sønderjyske | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2022 | Næsby BK | ||
| 2022–2025 | Sønderjyske | 19 | (1) |
| 2023–2024 | → Næstved (loan) | 19 | (8) |
| 2024–2025 | → Esbjerg fB (loan) | 11 | (1) |
| 2025–2026 | Västerås SK | 29 | (19) |
| 2026– | Lincoln City | 5 | (1) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 19:11, 17 October 2026 (UTC) | |||
Mikkel Riis Ladefoged (born 9 June 2003) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a forward for EFL Championship club Lincoln City.
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 [2] and finished the season as top scorer in the U19 division with 31 goals. [3]
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. [4] On 31 May 2022, the club confirmed that they had signed Ladefoged to a two-year deal. [5] [6] On 30 July 2022, Ladefoged made his debut in a league match against Hillerød. [7]
In the search for more playing time, Ladefoged was loaned out to league colleagues from Næstved Boldklub on 30 August 2023. [8] [9] 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. [10]
In early August 2024, Ladefoged was close to a move to Tromsø IL, which ended up collapsing. [11] On 29 August 2024, Ladefoged was instead loaned out to Esbjerg fB until the end of the season. [12] [13]
Six months ahead of schedule, on 24 January 2025, Ladefoged left Esbjerg [14] and instead signed a four-year contract with Swedish Allsvenskan club Västerås SK. [15] [16] However, Ladefoged was out for the first few weeks of his stay with an injury. [17] 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. [18]
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. [19] [20] [21] He made his debut on 1 September, coming off the bench in a 0–0 draw against Blackburn Rovers. [22] His first goal came in the following game against Southampton. [23]
| Club | Season | League | National Cup [a] | League Cup [b] | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Sønderjyske | 2022–23 [24] | Danish 1st Division | 13 | 1 | 4 | 1 | – | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2 | |
| 2023–24 [25] | Danish 1st Division | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | ||
| 2024–25 [26] | Danish Superliga | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Total | 19 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 3 | ||
| Næstved (loan) | 2023–24 [25] | Danish 1st Division | 19 | 8 | 1 | 1 | – | 0 | 0 | 20 | 9 | |
| Esbjerg fB (loan) | 2024–25 [26] | Danish 1st Division | 11 | 1 | 3 | 2 | – | 0 | 0 | 14 | 3 | |
| Västerås SK | 2025 [26] | Superettan | 15 | 10 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 15 | 10 | |
| 2026 [27] | Allsvenskan | 14 | 9 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 14 | 9 | ||
| Total | 29 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 19 | ||
| Lincoln City | 2026–27 [28] | EFL Championship | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Career total | 83 | 30 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 35 | ||