Rasmus Hojlund is shining for Manchester United in the Champions League with Sturm Graz coach Christian Ilzer admitting he would love to still have the striker at his disposal.
The deadly Dane only spent seven months at the Austrian Bundesliga giants. But it’s safe to say he made quite the impression.
In the space of just a year-and-a-half, Rasmus Hojlund went from a little-known, cherub-cheeked, £1.5 million teenager to the £63 million leader of Manchester United’s attack, one of the planet’s next-best number nines arriving at Old Trafford via a spell at Atalanta.
Rasmus Hojlund breaks Manchester United record
Two of Hojlund’s former employers will go head-to-head in Bergamo tonight. Atalanta host Sturm Graz in the Europa League group-stages.
And, when asked by Tuttomercatoweb if there were any Atalanta players he would love to have in his own dugout, Ilzer chose not Teun Koopmeiners, Giorgio Scalvini or Gianluca Scamacca, but a man who shot to fame in black-and-blue before heading to England.
“Hojlund,” Ilzer says. “But he is already at Manchester United.”
With two well-taken finishes against Copenhagen, Hojlund is now the joint-top scorer in the Champions League group stages. He is also the fastest Manchester United player to reach five in Europe’s premiere club competition. Doing so far quicker than the likes of Eric Cantona, Wayne Rooney and even Cristiano Ronaldo.
‘It’s crazy’
“It’s crazy! It’s crazy. There aren’t many people who take such a fast path forward,” William Boving, who played alongside Hojlund at Sturm Graz, tells BOLD. “But it’s really good, and he’s taken the chances he’s been given.
“He is a big boy who makes good use of his gifts.
“(Sturm Graz) are impressed. They think it’s crazy, because they got a player from FC Copenhagen who first got his breakthrough in Sturm Graz, and the journey after that has been lightning fast and good.”
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