“I see parallels between myself and Erling Haaland,” said Rasmus Hojlund upon his arrival at Strum Graz at the start of 2022. This is clearly a man with the self-belief not normally seen outside LinkedIn.
“He is fast, left-footed, tall, has a good nose for goal and is a classy finisher,” he continued. “His mentality is also completely insane”
Whereas the vocal minority of LinkedIn users are self-serving egomaniacs you’d cross the street to avoid, Hojlund is able to back up his words with actions.
His form in Austria earnt him a move to Atalanta last summer, and the 20-year-old striker has scored eight goals in his first season in Serie A.
But it’s Hojlund’s style of play that makes the Haaland comparisons inevitable; the upright running style, the instinctive feel for the whereabouts of opposition defenders and finishing that suggests ice-cool Yazoo runs through his veins at the crucial moment.
All of these qualities were evident during his first international start for Denmark in their opening European Championship qualifier against Finland.
The Finns won in Copenhagen during Euro 2020, in a match marred by Christian Eriksen’s collapse, but their attempts at marshalling Hojlund on this chilly March night suggested they’d have been better off fielding 11 seals rather than footballers.
Hojlund’s first goal for his country was devastatingly simple; Alexander Bah raced into the chasm left by the pinnipeds in Finland shirt and whipped in a devastating cross into the penalty area.
Ghosting into the area like he’d borrowed Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, Hojlund was able to stretch out a telescopic limb and divert the ball into the net. Simple as.
His second was a textbook header, the kind coaches across the globe would’ve saved to their phones in order to directly inspire their young hopefuls on the training field, to edge Denmark ahead. They wouldn’t release their vice-like grip on victory for the remainder of the contest.
But there was still enough time for Hojlund to complete his hat trick and get journalists across Europe twitching to attack their keyboards in praise of his feat.
Good work from Mohamed Daramy, who danced through a succession of Finland defenders, allowed Hojlund to control his team-mates cross, adjust his feet and rifle home his shot in a manner that suggested a past life as a First World War sniper.