Manchester United have made big moves thus far in the summer transfer window, spending over £170 million as Erik ten Hag continues his revolution ahead of his second season at Old Trafford. Mason Mount arrived from Chelsea earlier in the window for a fee of £55m and Andre Onana followedfrom Champions League runners-up Inter Milan for around £47m last month.
The largest outlay of the summer, however, was on the Red Devils’ latest recruit — Rasmus Hojlund. A decent centre-forward is something Man United have been missing for a while now and Ten Hag will be hoping the £72m man is the missing piece to the jigsaw as he aims to make his side more favourable in the Premier League top 4 odds and bring more silverware back to the Theatre of Dreams.
Not everyone will be familiar with Hojlund, his career to date and what qualities he will actually bring to Manchester United though. So, with the 2023-24 Premier League season rapidly approaching and anticipation building amongst the Red Devils’ fanbase to see their new striker in action, here’s everything you need to know about the Danish forward.
Career to date
Despite being just 20 years of age, Hojlund has had a good taste of senior football to this point. In fact, Manchester United will be the fourth club of his career. He started his playing days at his hometown side Copenhagen in 2020, making 19 appearances in the Danish Superliga but failing to find the back of the net before moving to Sturm Graz for around just £1m in January 2022.
Hojlund stayed in the Austrian Bundesliga for a mere six months, scoring nine times in 19 league appearances for Die Schwoazn before getting a more lucrative move to Serie A side Atalanta — who paid roughly £15m for his services last summer. It was in Italy that the 20-year-old started to attract the attention of Europe’s elite, scoring nine times in 32 league appearances.
International career
Hojlund represented Denmark at U16, U17, U19 and U21 level before making his senior debut for his country in 2022. He came off the bench in Denmark’s Nations League games last September, featuring for the final half-hour in both the 2-1 defeat to Croatia and the 2-0 victory over 2018 World Cup winners France.
The 20-year-old made his first start against Finland in Denmark’s opening European qualifier, marking the occasion with an impressive hat-trick and he followed that up with two strikes in the shock 3-2 defeat to Kazakhstan next time out. He fired a blank in the 1-0 win over Northern Ireland but found the back of the net again in a 1-1 draw with Slovenia — meaning he has six goals in as many games for his country.
Style of play
While his strike rate at club level isn’t exactly comparable tothe likes of Manchester City’s talisman Erling Haaland, and his nine goals in 32 appearances didn’t set the Serie A alight last season, Hojlund is the type of forward Ten Hag is looking for — with his knack for running in behind, link-up play, work rate off the ball and presence in the area (he’s 6ft3in) the key attributes to the Dutch manager’s philosophy.
For someone of Hojlund’s height, he has incredible pace and along with his build, the 20-year-old should be able to adapt to the rapid pace and more physical conditions of the Premier League relatively quickly — which will be a big boost for Manchester United as he needs to hit the ground running from the start of the season.
