Even a footballer who runs the 100m in under 11 seconds can be surprised by the pace of his own progress. Rasmus Højlund began 2022 as a reserve for FC Copenhagen. In the 19 months since, he has completed three transfers with a combined value of more than €100m (£87m) and has now landed at Manchester United: a club he supported as a boy. It is, as he put it during a first interview with the club’s in-house TV channel, “a little bit surrealistic”.
Do not expect Højlund to be daunted. A big reason he fell for United in the first place was admiration for Cristiano Ronaldo’s unabashed ambition. Højlund recalled an interview in which the Portuguese, early in his first stint at Old Trafford, was asked to name the best player in the world and immediately nominated himself.
“I like this mentality,” said Højlund. “He just put it out there and said he wanted to be the best, and that’s the same mentality I go for. I want to be the best version of myself.”
United are gambling that Højlund’s attitude and athleticism will get him there. For now, they have a raw talent: one with bags of potential but who has not yet played a full season as a starter in senior football and who arrives with a back injury that caused him to miss the start of his first Premier League campaign. He finally made his debut for United in the 3-1 defeat at Arsenal before the international break, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute, and impressed.
This is no casual bet. The fee for Højlund was reported at £72m (€83.5m). It is a staggering sum for a striker who scored nine goals in Serie A last term. Yet he has rewarded those who showed faith in him so far. Sturm Graz were taking a chance when they signed the striker for close to €2m last January – the most they had spent on a player in two decades – after just three starts for Copenhagen. He scored 12 times in 21 games and was sold to Atalanta in the next transfer window for more than eight times that amount.
It was a busy summer for the Italian club, who made a handful of signings at similar price points, but previously they had paid a transfer fee higher than the €17m they spent for Højlund only twice in their history. Atalanta did not even plan for the Dane to start during his first season, but injuries to Duván Zapata and indifferent performances from Luis Muriel led to him being granted a run of games after the winter World Cup.
Højlund grabbed his opportunity with both hands, scoring in his first four games of 2023. He delivered a man-of-the-match performance in an 8-2 demolition of Salernitana – the first time Atalanta had ever scored so many in a Serie A match – and served up a spectacular off-balance finish in the Coppa Italia against Spezia.
A tall, Nordic, blond and left-footed forward with a surname that sounds a little bit like Erling Haaland’s, it was not long before inevitable comparisons arose. Atalanta’s manager, Gian Piero Gasperini, conceded some similarities in their explosive acceleration as he informed reporters of Højlund’s 100m time.
Even the most casual observer could see that new signing is blisteringly quick. His most dazzling moment at Atalanta might have been a chance he did not even score against Lazio, when he covered the distance from one penalty spot to the other in the blink of an eye, leaving a trail of opponents, only to be thwarted by the goalkeeper Ivan Provedel.
Despite missing on that occasion, Højlund is typically a strong finisher, his 0.16 expected goals per shot ranking fourth among Serie A players who played at least 1,500 minutes. He knows how to get into the right spaces, too, even if his high volume of touches inside the opposition box (5.14 per 90 minutes, third most in the league) also reflect Atalanta’s attack-minded approach.
Gasperini believes the striker’s unusual body type poses a challenge for defenders, a long torso meaning Højlund has a lower centre of gravity than you might expect of a player who stands 6ft 3in. That makes it easier to keep his footing when buffeted, while shorter strides make for quicker changes of direction.
Yet Gasperini was never shy in highlighting areas for improvement, saying that the player still needed to become more effective in the air and make better decisions around the penalty area. Højlund struggled to make his mark against Serie A’s best teams, with Lazio the only top-eight side he scored against.
He was quoted by Tuttosport as saying that a former United player, Chris Smalling of Roma, was the toughest defender he had faced. His observations about their tussle could be read as an acknowledgment of how much he still has to learn.
“He is an intelligent defender, agile, fast, physically strong,” said Højlund of Smalling. “I tried to win our duels using my physical strength but that wasn’t the winning move. I still need to find the right key.”
United know they are not buying the finished article. What they are getting in Højlund is a 20-year-old with significant raw potential who still boasts the same hunger to play and get better that inspired his father – Anders, who also played professional football – to convert the basement of the family home into an indoor pitch for Rasmus to practise on as a kid with his younger twin brothers, both of whom are on FC Copenhagen’s books.
Signing him at the price they did was a gamble, but no team betting on Højlund has regretted that decision yet.
