The ‘new’ Haaland is here

In twenty years recently realized and a brilliant debut in the Italian league, which made him one of the great promises of European football, the Danish striker Rasmus Hojlund However, he is still far from being a star in his country, from where he left without leaving a mark thirteen months ago.

Højlund conquered Italian football in just half a year. Purchased last summer by Atalanta of Sturm Graz by €17 million, He has been the permanent owner for a few weeks and the half a dozen goals marked, as well as his power and speed, raised expectations and even generated comparisons with figures such as the Norwegian striker for Manchester City, Erling Haalandwhile there is much speculation about a possible multi-million dollar offer from the continent’s biggest clubs.

The young Højlund eruption (Copenhagen, 1983) has surprised even more so in Denmark, where few would have expected such a rapid evolution in a player who excelled in the lower categories but had a short and unspectacular stint in the Danish league.

Højlund arrived in Copenhagen, the team that has dominated Danish football for decades, in 15 years, coming from modest Hørsholm Usserød. He soon succeeded in the lower categories and, at the age of 17, in October 2020, he made his debut in the league.

The injuries up front they allowed him to enjoy some minutes off the bench. Two months later, they renewed him until 2023 and, the following summer, they gave him a first team record.

He gradually established himself as a rotation player, but in Conference League He left details of his goal-scoring ability, with five goals in ten games, between the preliminary phase and the group stage.

His signing for Sturm Graz The Austrian player in January 2022, at a cost of around two million euros, did not generate much attention, if there were any surprise comments in the Danish media due to the interest of a foreign club in a player who in nineteen games in league, mostly as a substitute, he did not score just one goal.

Hence his good performance in Austrian football and, especially now, in Atalantahas impressed more than one, even those who know him best.

“Oh An incredible journey. Maybe he was a little surprised by how fast he was”, recently admitted Elias Jelert, winger of Copenhagen and his friend since they met in the lower categories of the team. Words similar to his other teammate in ” Danish lion”, midfielder William Clem, highlighting that Højlund, despite having “everything”, not succeed in their country of origin.

“I think they never gave him a real chance. He only spent six months permanently in the first team,” his father, Anders Højlund, recently lamented, noting that he only had ten or fifteen minutes in the latter part of the games.

He father de Højlund, who has made a career of modest Danish clubs as a striker, also points to another factor: the style of play. The more integrated football of his club of origin did not benefit an attacker who stood out for his physical power and explosiveness, virtues bolstered by the more direct game on which Sturm Graz and Atalanta focused.

Højlund himself did not hide a certain resentment for what he considered lack of opportunities in the group from which he was formed.

“It’s great that I can show that, in eight months, I went from being a player they didn’t trust one hundred percent to being with me. the best Danish player ever and be part of the group”, he declared in September, when he made his debut with his country’s senior team.

The fact that Højlund is not yet a star in his country also has something to do with him Little presence in the national team. He was called up for the last two UEFA Nations League matches against Croatia and France, where he added an hour between the two coming off the bench, albeit without scoring.

But it didn’t make the list for world, despite the fact that none of the Danish forwards were on a good run. The coach, Kasper Hjulmand, who played with his father in the Danish B93 at the end of the 1990s, preferred to bet on the block that a year earlier reached the semifinals in the Eurocup.

Today, however, it is taken for granted that his name is next in Hjulmand’s list for the first qualifying matches for the next continental tournament, and there are serious options to start, in the absence of a reliable striker. And their good numbers in Italy are generating enthusiasm in a nation still disappointed by their team’s poor performance in Qatar, which was eliminated in the preliminary round.

Although Højlund is far from the status of, above all, Christian Eriksen or other references in Danish football such as Pierre Emile Højberg, Thomas Delaney or the “Barcelona player” Andreas Christensen, His name is associated with sports information the media in your country. And while the English league has traditionally developed its biggest following in Denmark, its games at Atalanta are now televised every weekend.

The Højlund saga also continues on Rasmus’s little brothers, the twins Emil and Oscar, both in Copenhagen’s youth team and international under 18: the first, another attacker; the second, a midfielder.