Man United’s answer to Haaland? How will Højlund fit in?

Manchester United have signed Atalanta forward Rasmus Højlund for an initial fee of €75 million ($82m), with another €10m in add-ons.

The 20-year-old has been likened in style to Manchester City goal-machine Erling Haaland, but is the Denmark international anything like his new club rival? And how has he risen to attention so quickly?

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Where has he come from?

Having come through the FC Copenhagen academy, Højlund made his first-team debut at the age of 17 in October 2020. Despite building a reputation as a high-scoring forward for the U19s and impressing with the Denmark youth sides, the teenager struggled to make an instant impression at first-team level.

Across two seasons, Højlund started just two league games for Copenhagen and from a total of 19 appearances he netted no goals — though he did find the net five times in the Europa Conference League.

He moved to Austrian side Sturm Graz for a modest fee of €1.95m in January 2022, but they wasted no time in introducing him into the first team. Indeed, Højlund needed just 38 minutes to get on the scoresheet for his new club and then added a second in his Austrian Bundesliga debut, a 2-2 draw at WSG Tirol.

Flourishing as one of two strikers in front of a midfield diamond, the Dane followed up with goals in his next two matches and ended up with six from 13 games in his first half season. A mere five months into his Sturm Graz career an array of bigger clubs from Europe were alerted to his rapid rise and, after an equally impressive start to the new campaign where he scored three goals in five games, Atalanta moved swiftly to bring him to Bergamo for €17.2m — contextually a pretty large windfall for the Austrians given Kelvin Yeboah’s €6.5m move to Genoa six months beforehand was the previous departure record.

While Højlund took some time to adjust to the more competitive Serie A environment, he announced himself properly at the turn…