Haaland worth €180m
Henrik Larsson, Zlatan Ibrahimović, the Laudrup brothers – Michael and Brian, Peter Schmeichel and John Arne Riise are just some of the great players that have emerged from Sweden, Denmark and Norway down the years, but these Scandinavian countries’ ability to produce players at the very top end of the game, has been fairly sporadic. This could be changing.
The rampant Erling Haaland leads the way for a new generation of talent emerging from the Northern European region. Right now there is a combined market value of €722.5m from players from Norway, Denmark and Sweden, who ply their trade in the Premier League.
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As aforementioned, Haaland is at the top of the tree. His market value of €180m is hard to argue with, after scoring 36 Premier League goals in his debut season in the English top flight, as well as casually winning the treble – Manchester City were just the second English team to do this after their rivals Manchester United completed the feat in 1999. The prolific Norwegian striker already has 14 league goals this season, and could be in for another rise in value in the December Premier League market value update.
In second place is Haaland’s compatriot, Martin Ødegaard with a market value of €90m. The Arsenal skipper scored 15 Premier League goals from midfield last campaign, as well as providing seven assists, as the Gunners challenged Man City for the title. In third is Newcastle forward Alexander Isak, valued at €70m. He scored 10 league goals in his debut campaign in England, and already has 10 goals in 42 appearances for his nation Sweden. Up next, is Man United’s summer acquisition – Rasmus Højlund, valued at €65m. The Danish striker is yet to score a Premier League goal, but five in four in the Champions League, highlights why the Red Devils paid a fee of €75m to bring the powerful 20-year-old to Old Trafford.
Following Højlund, is a pair of Tottenham players in Swedish winger Dejan Kulusevski with a market value of €50m, followed by Danish midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, valued at €32m. Then it’s another pair of Denmark internationals – Crystal Palace centre-half Joachim Andersen (Market value: €30m) and Brentford centre-midfielder Mathias Jensen (MV: €28m). Completing the top 10 are two midfielders for teams struggling at the bottom end of the Premier League – Norway and Burnley’s Sander Berge (MV: €20m) and Bournemouth and Denmark’s Philip Billing (MV: €20m).
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Why do Scandinavian countries have an influx of talent right now?
Haaland, Odegaard, Hojlund, Kulusevski and Isak are all aged 25 or under, and worth €50m or more. Haaland could be perhaps the most prolific striker the Premier League has ever seen – he has the best goals per game record of any player to have played 38 or more games in the division, whilst Ødegaard is one of the most creative midfielders in the world and captain of an Arsenal team that came 2nd to the treble winners. With Isak and Holjund also among the most exciting strikers in world football, what is behind this Scandinavian talent factory, and is it a matter of time before we see these nations competing for the biggest prizes?
Football writer and broadcaster from Norway Lars Sivertsen revealed more to Transfermarkt about why we are seeing these talented young players from Scandinavian countries, “When you talk about market value, a lot of that will be carried by certain individuals, but there does seem to be a crop of young players from the Nordic region who are making waves in Europe, which is very exciting. I think opportunity is a very underrated thing, and what happens is when you have two or three successful players from a country or region, it sets a trend and grabs the attention of scouts and CEO’s at football clubs. For all the talk of golden generations, there’s a simple fact that Norwegian players will be given a chance because of Haaland and Ødegaard.”
Sivertsen also explained how the typical academy is set up in his native Norway: “We actually don’t have that many traditional academies in Norway, because we are a large country and geographically quite spread out. Frequently kids will be coached by volunteers and parents rather than full-time coaches, and it’s more of a hybrid system between casual grassroots clubs and academies where they try to provide challenges to their more talented players. In the case of Haaland, he stayed at Bryne until he was 16, and he got a little bit lucky. The father of a child two years older than him, Alf Ingve Berntsen had a UEFA A license. He would usually coach adults, but as he wanted to spend more time with his kids, he coached a young Haaland, meaning he had access to a much better standard of coaching than most teenagers in Norway.”
At this moment in time, the young talents from Denmark, Norway and Sweden aren’t correlating to the nations’ international results. Both Sweden and Norway have failed to qualify for the European Championships in Germany next summer. Sivertsen explains why he thinks these countries are currently struggling: “The thing to remember is it’s a team sport, and football is a weak link sport, it’s very difficult for a team to be much better than the weakest link in the side. In the case of Norway, when we have played decisive play-off matches in recent years, we’ve lined up with an unemployed player in the starting eleven. Norway are really struggling in the centre-half position at the moment.” Both Haaland and Ødegaard are yet to feature at a major tournament, and they may need the Norwegian Virgil van Djk to come along before they can parade their talents on the world stage.
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