Peter Wennberg laughs as he describes a recent under-11s training session where focus had drifted. Were his young charges going to treat the session as a laugh or take their opportunity seriously? He called a halt and asked where their priorities lay. “Then one of the boys, a sharp one, said: ‘What did Alexander Isak choose?’” Wennberg remembers. “After that it was easy for me. He’s raising the standards without even being here.”
Inside AIK Stockholm’s academy building, Wennberg gives a tour of the uncompromising facility that forged one of the world’s best strikers. Isak will be Newcastle’s best hope of breaking a 56-year trophy drought when they face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday. There is nobody quite like him: nobody who blends poise with unpredictability, rigour with boundless imagination, cool temperament with flashes of light. Talents from all walks of life have a home here, but this is no identikit production line.
