discussing for many years." He made his debut for the team on 9 September where he started as an attacking midfielder against the Fredensborg BI M+32 team which ended in a 1–0 win. In June 2021, Bendtner announced his retirement from football in the Discovery+ programme Bendtner og Philine. In the episode, he stated that: "all your life you play football, and from one day to the next it ends", and added that he had "not been able to do some of the things I liked because of corona. I think I need to have a little more time to process that it's over now". International career Bendtner started his international career with three matches for the Denmark under-16 team in February 2004. During his third game he scored a hat-trick against Armenia. He then scored six goals in 15 appearances for the under-17s, and was named Danish Under-17 Player of the Year for 2004. Bendtner made his under-21 debut on 17 May 2006, at the age of 18, scoring both goals in a Danish 2–0 victory over Spain in a friendly match. He was the youngest player selected for Denmark's squad for the 2006 European Under-21 Championships, and replaced Morten "Duncan" Rasmussen in the Danish starting line-up. When Rasmussen came on to replace Bendtner during the match against the Netherlands, Bendtner told the press afterwards that the change was a mistake and that he was a better striker than Rasmussen. He received a reprimand, apologised to his teammates, and retained the starting position for Denmark's remaining group match before they were eliminated. On 16 August 2006, Bendtner made his first senior appearance for Denmark; aged 18 years and 212 days, he was the seventh youngest debutant ever. He started the match, a friendly against Poland, and scored after 32 minutes, helping Denmark to a 2–0 win. On 1 September, he played his second senior match for his country, as a substitute in a friendly against Portugal. He scored the final goal in a 4–2 win for Denmark. Although he still qualified to play for the U21s, Bendtner soon earned a starting place for the senior team; he scored two goals in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers. In the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Bendtner scored an 84th-minute goal against Portugal to make the score 1–1; Denmark went on to win 3–2. He scored again in the reverse fixture against Portugal which