Hojlund: Proving Doubters Wrong | International Football

Football is full of stories like these. A player who is still beardless starts to score a lot of goals at youth level, stands out for the same reason in his first “real” club, is signed at a young age by some European giant and then frustrates expectations and continues from loan to loan until the final sunset. And this could also be the story of Rasmus Hojlund. But the 22-year-old Danish striker is determined to prove that his story will be different. And this Sunday he scored both goals in Napoli’s victory (2-1) over Juventus, in the most important game of the 14th round of the Italian League, in yet another demonstration of his quality.

The classic between Naples and Juventus, interestingly Benfica’s next two opponents in the Champions League, pitted the second and seventh placed teams in Serie A face to face. Five points separated the two sides before the opening whistle, with a triumph for the Neapolitans leaving the Juventus men already a considerable distance away, while the opposite allowed the “vecchia signora” to believe that it was possible to fight for the top places in the table.

However, Hojlund made a point of leaving Juventus in difficulties very early on, with a goal in the 7th minute. And when his team suffered, after Yildiz (59′) restored equality, it was again Hojlund who appeared to resolve the match, scoring twice (78′) and fixing the final result.

There were two more goals in the career of the Danish “giant”, who already has four goals and two assists in the ten games in which he participated in Serie A. And if the analysis is extended to all competitions, the one who was considered footballer of the year 2023 in Denmark, already has 11 goals and three assists in 20 games — two of them aimed at Sporting, in the Neapolitans’ triumph over the Lisbon team in this year’s Champions League.

The numbers take on yet another expression when compared, for example, with those of Bryan Mbeumo, the Cameroonian who is, at the moment, Manchester United’s top scorer and who, in addition to being 26 years old, has seven goals and two assists in 20 games — and if the analysis focuses only on the Premier League, they do not reveal a very different performance to that shown by the young Dane pushed out of Old Trafford (five goals and one assist in 14 games).

In 2023, Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United agreed to pay Atalanta 77 million euros to keep Hojlund. He was given the arduous task of being the “goal man” of a team that was one of the worst in the history of the “Red Devils”. Meanwhile, Ruben Amorim arrived and made it clear that the Dane would have few opportunities in the team in light of Sesko’s arrival. This was followed by a permanent loan to Naples, who paid six million euros for the transfer with the obligation to pay another 44 million at the end of the season if they qualify for the Champions League.

And, for now, Hojlund is delivering (he’s the team’s top scorer) and proving Peter Schmeichel, former goalkeeper and respected figure at Man United, right: “Hojlund is a forward capable of scoring 25 goals per season if he is well served”.