Rasmus Hojlund: The €50m bargain justifying Haaland hype

Sam McGuire

• 29 Mar 2023 11:12 BST
• 5 min read

Rasmus Hojlund dominated the international break.

The 20-year-old netted a hat-trick on his first start for Denmark in the 3-1 win over Finland and followed that up with a two-goal showing in the shock defeat to Kazakhstan. He’s found his groove over recent months after the summer switch to Serie A.

The Atalanta man has seven goals for the Serie A side since the turn of the year and his recent form goes some way to explaining exactly why the club parted with €17 million to sign the forward last summer.

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A few eyebrows were raised when La Dea made Hojlund their sixth most expensive signing ever. At the time, the then 19-year-old had only moved to Sturm Graz from Copenhagen in January for a fee in the region of €1.8m. The move to Austria had been successful for the powerhouse forward with him netting 12 times across 21 appearances.

It was a record sale for Sturm Graz, shattering the previous record of €6.5m. At the time, it was viewed as Atalanta taking a huge gamble during what quickly turned into a transitional summer. The Serie A side brought in over €100m in sales and spent just shy of that total as they brought in six permanent signings.

Now though, it looks to be a masterstroke.

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Haaland hype justified

Hojlund has been dubbed the ‘new Erling Haaland’ and the hype does appear to be justified. The 6ft3 forward has been linked with Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United and Real Madrid are all believed to be interested in the €50m-rated striker.

He might not be posting freakish numbers comparable to his Scandinavian compatriot but there are similarities in their brutish style. Hojlund combines pace with physicality in a way that allows him to dominate central defenders. He can play on the shoulder of the last man due to the burst of acceleration he has but he’s also comfortable dropping deep to hold up the ball, even with a defender on his back.

The youngster is intelligent in the penalty area too. His first goal against Finland epitomised this.

As he attacks the six-yard box, he holds his run to create a degree of separation between him and the defender. It allows him space to react to the cross.

He then darts across the defender to get his foot to the ball and is able to divert it into the net. It looks fairly straightforward but it takes a lot of discipline to not commit too early, especially at his age. If he attacks the back post too soon then the ball doesn’t reach him. If he is too eager, he can’t run onto the ball and it is a much more difficult finish.

It is all about the timing as a striker and with this goal, Hojlund showed he understands the importance of that.

Though he is left-footed, his last three club goals have all been right-footed efforts while he’s also scored a few headers. The variety in goals and efforts work in his favour as a finisher. He’s unpredictable in the penalty area. It is an oxymoron but he is consistently inconsistent in the best possible way.

A lot of teams are now in the market for pure centre-forwards. Liverpool signed 6ft2 Darwin Nunez in the summer and Manchester City added 6ft5 Haaland to their ranks. Arsenal tried to sign Dusan Vlahovic prior to bringing Gabriel Jesus to the club and held an interest in former Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham for a while if reports are to be believed. Bayern Munich wanted Harry Kane to replace Robert Lewandowski at the Allianz Arena after the prolific Poland international moved to Barcelona.

There’s talk that Goncalo Ramos could leave Benfica this summer with the 6ft1 centre forward really stepping up following the departure of Darwin in the summer. Napoli will have a task on their hands to keep Victor Osimhen at the club too with a host of top teams believed to be interested in the robust No9.

Hojlund is far from the finished article but the pool of players with his profile is small. It means more clubs are willing to gamble on him and the demand is greater than it perhaps should be for a player at this stage of his development. Clubs will take that gamble though because the risk is worth the reward. If the 20-year-old develops to reach the levels of any of the aforementioned strikers then he will prove to be a bargain, even at €50m.