At Rasmus Hojlund’s family home in the Danish town of Horsholm, a handwritten note for a class project at Vallerod Skolen when he was 10-years-old is framed on the wall.
At No.5 on a list of lifetime ambitions, Hojlund scrawled: ‘My goal is to play for the Danish national team and for Manchester United’. Within a decade, he had already done both.
Hojlund’s story is one of a young man fiercely driven to achieve his goals, declaring on his arrival at Manchester United last summer that he wanted to ‘become a world-class striker as soon as possible’.
Long before he honed the technical skills that would turn him into one of Europe’s hottest young centre-forwards, he was displaying the mental strength that has helped to transform his career at Old Trafford.
The first of Hojlund’s two goals in United’s 2-1 win at Luton on Sunday after just 37 seconds made him the youngest player in Premier League history to score in six games in a row, eclipsing Manchester’s other resident Scandinavian star, Erling Haaland, amongst others.
That’s seven goals in six league games for Hojlund now. Eight in eight in all competitions. Quite the turnaround for a player whose first 14 league appearances for United drew a blank in goals and assists.
It raised doubts over the wisdom of United paying £72million for Hojlund last summer, the year after he joined Sturm Graz from his hometown team FC Copenhagen for £1.5m before moving to Atalanta for £15m.
There was concern over installing Hojlund as United’s main striker at the age of 20 with little or no support from the perennially injured Anthony Martial. It was an immense burden to place on such young shoulders, even more so after his medical showed the early signs of a small back fracture that delayed his
Read on m.allfootballapp.com