Rising starlets come and go all the time. Sometimes they make the grade and manage to carve out decent careers. Others fall by the wayside and fail to hit the heights they’ve been tipped to. The rarest of the rare, however, make it to the big time and manage to stay there.
Reaching the summit of world football is not an easy task, but charting the highs and lows of the lastest stars who promise to take over the world is an interesting prospect for many.
News of exciting teenager Alexander Isak opting to join Borussia Dortmund over Real Madrid might be an intriguing development in itself, but what’s really enticing about the transfer is that Isak has been widely tipped as being the ‘next Zlatan Ibrahimovic’. Even if he enjoys half the success evident in Ibra’s career he could be a great buy for Die Schwarzgelben.
So, let’s take a look at what he can offer, why he’s being compared to greatness already and see if there really is any merit in the hype.
Isak has a mischievous side to him
Back when he was plying his trade with AIK, Isak started his career with a bang when he scored a goal on his debut at just 16 years of age, rising to the occasion of getting introduced as a substitute as his side were cruising 5-0 against Tenhult.
Seven months later, Isak was playing up front on his 17th birthday in the Tvillingderbyt (Twin Derby) against Djurgardens IF, inner-city Stockholm rivals, alongside Eero Markkanen and he ended up scoring a brace – the first coming in the 15th minute after he expertly controlled a pinged through ball inside the 18-yard box before rifling home with his right foot past Andreas Isaksson in the home side’s goals.
What happened next is largely what has earned him the reputation of an audacious upstart as he trotted over towards the host fans, and proceeded to celebrate in front of them, arms outstretched, boring into the supporters with a bold stare, before being swamped by his jubilant team-mates.
It was his announcement to the rest of the football world that he had arrived and he was ready. Twenty minutes following the restart and Isak had his second of the match, completing a 3-0 victory.
Moreover, other voices have chimed into back-up his apparent quality, such as current AIK player Chinedu Obasi, as relayed by the Mirror:
Alexander is a great talent. He has enormous potential. I do not want to say too much, but he is extraordinary. He can become the new Zlatan Ibrahimovic. I hope he continues to keep his cool and keep working. Then he can go far.
Dortmund have an astonishing gaggle of young starlets ready to kick on and dominate the German Bundesliga, and perhaps even Europe, in a few years: players like Emre More, Ousmane Dembele and Julian Weigl.
Isak is the latest addition and could well be the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle they have been looking for; he could be the mature, fiery, arrogant element they need to conquer and destroy.
He is technically advanced for a teenager
For starters, he is quick – very quick. With the ability to burst past defenders with the ball at his feet for an extended dribble or to make darting runs in behind to accept nicely-weighted through-balls, he has the speed one would expect from a rising young star. However, it’s his sensible intelligence that really stands out.
He’s not just a quick player – he is spatially aware, knows how to carve out space with sumptuous touches or technical manoeuvres which he makes it look so simple. He knows when to conserve his energy and when to take a few steps back to free up space.
In 2016, he netted 10 strikes in 24 Allsvenskan appearances, picking up a single assist so as well as an inventive off-the-ball quality he also knows where the goal is.
Costing Dortmund around €10 million he could turn out to be one of the biggest bargain buys of the year – that’s if he focuses on improving his personal game, keeps his head down and manages to impress Thomas Tuchel.
After all, the Dortmund manager was apparently not involved in bringing the teenager on board, so Isak might have to work on squeezing his way into the Bundesliga outfit’s long-term plans. But a few training sessions and a persistent desire to showcase his own brilliance should ensure it takes next to no time before one of the most passionate set of fans start singing his name from the stands.
National team bow hints at more to come
In January this year, Isak netted his first international goal in the colours of Sweden as they came out 6-0 winners over Slovakia in a friendly in Abu Dhabi – marking the historic occasion of becoming the country’s youngest-ever scorer in the nation’s history at 17 years and 113 years.
In many ways, it has solidified the praise being sent his way. Any footballer with the right opportunities and some regular minutes can get lucky and score a few goals in a half-decent European league, but breaking a 100-year record as a country’s youngest marksman is something that hints at a more prophetic sort of player. He has already made history and only days after completing his international debut.
Isak’s achievements on the international scene are better than even Ibrahimovic’s, who made his Sweden bow at 19 and didn’t score until a few days following his 20th birthday.
The signs all point to a special player ready to unleash his incredible skills across the continent, because although he has been quite extraordinary so far, he needs a bigger stage and 2017 looks like it could well be his breakout 12 months.
It might see him emerge as not just the next Ibrahimovic, but an excellent player in his own right who will learn a lot, define himself as someone who can rattle the back of the net from an aerial position, a low-drilled bullet or after a characteristically quality dribble.
It might be too early for global domination, but this could well be the year he sows the seeds for it.
