Portsmouth sporting director reveals the family heartache behind Elias Sorensen's Fratton Park struggles

The striker endured an underwhelming five months on the south coast after being recruited in August 2024 to help plug the void left by Colby Bishop’s medical absence.

The 25-year-old had come to the Blues’ attention after plundering 23 goals during Esbjerg’s promotion from the third tier of Danish football in 2023-24.

However, despite scoring 23 minutes into his Pompey debut at Leeds, Sorensen failed to impress during 13 outings and was subsequently offloaded to Norwegian top-flight side Valerenga in January.

Yet Blues sporting director Hughes believes the failure of Sorensen’s wife to be granted a visa to join her husband in England was a contributing factor behind the forward’s disappointing stay.

He told The News: ‘Eli really struggled in terms of not being able to get his wife over here because of visa restrictions, that was really tough for him.

‘There was also a huge expectation on him - and he did nothing to quell that by scoring at Leeds. It just didn’t quite go for him here.

‘I don’t think there is ever a binary factor of this is the reason why it didn’t work, there are always a lot of bits to it. Eli struggled to settle, strikers breed confidence on goals, and he was also in a team which wasn’t performing particularly well at those stages.

‘There is a personal nature to these boys as well, if they are struggling off the field it’s going to be hard for them to be at their best when they are at work and I think that was certainly the case of Eli.

‘It was tough for him, his wife couldn’t get a long-term visa and he was on his own over here. These are the factors that people don’t always see.’

One goal in 13 appearances

Sorensen would total just 23 minutes of playing action during the last 13 Blues matches of his disappointing time on the south coast.

He was subsequently offered a lifeline by Norwegian Eliteserien side Valerenga, who paid an undisclosed fee, and would score on his debut against Viking in March.

The former Newcastle man now has two goals in five outings for his new club, who have employed him solely as a left winger so far.

Hughes added: ‘There was a big adaptation to coming over to the UK, it probably didn’t suit Eli’s style of play, but we felt we had to bring somebody in.

‘There was a point around the timing, where we signed Eli before it had been publicly announced about Colby. That was done deliberately.

‘If we had tried to sign a centre-forward when the world knew our star centre-forward was out for ad-infinitum at the time, it would have had a huge financial ramification.

‘So we tried to move early. We had done some work on Eli and there was a deal there to be done.’

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