'It's in his DNA' - How Rasmus Hojlund's family and first club prepared him for Manchester United

It was the boyhood dream which came true for Rasmus Hojlund a month ago.

August 5 marked the realisation of a dream which many have but few accomplish as Hojlund became a Manchester United player for £72million.

For many, the weight of expectation that comes with such a lofty price tag would be too much to handle but Hojlund has been preparing for this opportunity for years. In 2007, the striker joined Hørsholm-Usserød Idrætsklub (HUI) less than 30kms north of Copenhagen in the town where he grew up with his father Anders, his mother Kirsten and his twin brothers Emil and Oscar.

It was at HUI where he began his football journey aged four. Asked to recall his first impressions of Hojlund, the club's sporting director Christian Mouroux responded: "I was a coach at HUI above his age group but I was connected to his age group through my colleague who was the trainer there, which happened to be Rasmus’ father Anders. I spoke to Anders and thereby got to know Rasmus.

Hojlund fit to face Arsenal this weekend

"When Rasmus was a young player at the club, I would say that Rasmus was physically developed. He was slightly bigger, more grown than a lot of his peers and that was also why he played one age group above his own.

"I think that is what stood out with Rasmus but I can also say that back then when he was young, especially when he started football in the first formative years, Rasmus was not a particularly big talent. He was not better than the rest of the players, he was above average but he was not someone who stood out compared to the rest.

"As he grew and grew towards leaving HUI, he got better and better but he wasn’t, as I said, particularly good on the ball, he wasn’t superb on the ball, he wasn’t much faster than