Why Alexander Isak is prepared for the highlight at Liverpool

When Alexander Isak was promoted to the AIK first staff on the age of 16, considered one of his coaches made a telling request.

“I stated to him ‘Hey Alex … I took you to the primary staff right here, so whenever you go to Actual Madrid or one other massive membership, you will take me with you,'” Peter Wennberg, who coached Isak at each youth and senior ranges throughout his time in Sweden, advised ESPN.

Virtually a decade on, Wennberg’s tongue-in-cheek demand seems prophetic, though it’s Premier League champions Liverpool — not Madrid — who’ve secured Isak’s signature for a British-record £125m switch payment.

It has been the switch saga of the summer season, with Isak basically forcing his method out of former membership Newcastle United after claiming “guarantees had been damaged” by senior figures at St. James’ Park. Such claims have been shortly refuted on Tyneside, however Isak’s departure started to really feel more and more inevitable and on deadline day, he was lastly unveiled as Liverpool’s new No.9.

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Isak’s controversial switch techniques have attracted criticism in some quarters and but historical past dictates the 25-year-old will not be averse to taking command of his personal future. Certainly, even in his most adolescence, the striker hardly ever handed up a chance to grab his second — as evidenced throughout his time at AIK.

“When Alex was about 16, each time he got here to our coaching floor and handed the coaches, he would simply say ‘Hello,’ after which go to the locker room,” Wennberg tells ESPN. “At some point when he handed us, I screamed at him to come back again. He stood there, and I stated: ‘Hey, there are seven coaches right here all planning to your future, and the one factor you do whenever you are available in is say ‘Hello.’ The place is the eagerness?’ He stated: ‘Okay, I hear what you are saying.’

“Then, the subsequent time he got here to coaching, he got here to us straight and stated ‘hey coaches, what have you ever obtained deliberate for me immediately?’ That is typical of Isak. He’s driving his future. He isn’t letting his future be in anybody else’s fingers. He’s driving it.”

Isak’s strong-willed persona suggests he’ll be keen to point out Liverpool followers what he’s all about as shortly as attainable. Having missed the vast majority of Newcastle’s preseason coaching regime, doing health work away from the squad whereas his future was resolved, the striker was an unused substitute in Sweden’s current draw with Slovenia, and was diminished to only one 18-minute cameo in opposition to Kosovo earlier this week.

The excellent type of fellow summer season signing Hugo Ekitike — who has already scored twice within the Premier League this time period since becoming a member of from Eintracht Frankfurt — diminishes the necessity for Isak to be match-fit instantly, nevertheless supporters shall be hoping to catch a glimpse of him in Liverpool’s conflict with Burnley this weekend.

“Once you practice with him, you are feeling his preventing spirit”

There are two flags seen in Isak’s Instagram bio. The primary represents Sweden — the nation of his delivery — whereas the opposite belongs to the East African nation of Eritrea, the birthplace of each of his mother and father. Although Isak himself was born and raised within the Stockholm suburb of Solna, his Eritrean roots — and his mother and father’ resolution to maneuver to Europe on the top of their nation’s civil struggle through the Eighties — have helped form his tenacious character.

Having began out taking part in soccer on an area patch of synthetic turf merely dubbed “the pitch,” Isak joined AIK’s academy on the age of six and shortly started to make an impression on his coaches.

“He stood out early from the age of eight or 9, however you would actually see how distinctive he was when he was about 15,” Wennberg says. “That is when you would see he had particular potential.

“It wasn’t simply his technical potential. You may see and really feel the eagerness in his eyes. His studying course of was distinctive. Once you practice with him, you are feeling his preventing spirit.”

For Wennberg, that preventing spirit was significantly evident throughout a cup sport Isak performed for AIK’s Underneath-19s, when he scored a objective straight from the kick-off to assist hearth his staff to victory.

“It was an area cup, so not a particular sport for us in any respect,” Wennberg says. “On the first whistle, he had the ball in the midst of the pitch and observed the goalkeeper was out of his space … so he simply kicked it straight into the objective.

“It wasn’t an necessary sport for him, however he was so sharp within the second and that for me is typical Alex. Most different gamers would method a sport like that just a little bit drained, however within the second when others could be a little bit lazy, he’s probably the most sharp one.”

It was no nice shock, then, when Isak was handed his first staff debut on the age of 16, and shortly turned AIK’s youngest-ever goalscorer after scoring in opposition to Tenhults IF within the Swedish Cup. The next 12 months, having established himself as one of many brightest younger abilities within the Swedish Allsvenskan, teammate Chinedu Obasi declared the ahead might be the inheritor to legendary Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored 573 profession targets for golf equipment akin to AC Milan and Manchester United.

“Alexander is a superb expertise,” Obasi advised Swedish newspaper Expressen. “I do not wish to say an excessive amount of, however he’s extraordinary. He can turn out to be the brand new Ibrahimović.”

Isak’s rising fame unsurprisingly led to loads of curiosity from throughout Europe, with Actual Madrid and Chelsea among the many groups chasing his signature. However finally it was Borussia Dortmund who got here out on prime, signing the striker for €9 million in January 2017.

“He does not even must do an excessive amount of for this expertise”

Having burst onto the scene for AIK, Isak hit a stumbling block when he arrived in Germany. With then-manager Thomas Tuchel publicly admitting he had little to do with the ahead’s signing, it shortly turned clear that Isak’s probabilities can be restricted at Sign Iduna Park. After failing to make a single Bundesliga look through the first half of the 2018-19 season, it was obvious Isak wanted a spark to reignite his profession.

“Our striker Fran Sol was leaving the membership, so we have been searching for one other striker to switch him,” Adrie Koster, who managed Dutch facet Willem II from 2018-21, advised ESPN. “We watched some movies of Isak and I stated to our technical director, ‘if you may get this man, it could be nice.’

“The earlier summer season, we had been on a coaching camp in Marbella and we have been taking part in a pleasant sport in opposition to Dortmund. We noticed Alex play in opposition to us after which we have been satisfied that he was the man who might exchange our striker.”

Isak joined Willem II on mortgage in January 2018 and shortly recaptured his high-quality type, scoring 14 targets and notching seven assists in simply 18 video games. In different phrases, he was straight concerned in a objective each 75 minutes.

“The primary time he got here into the staff, he stood out immediately,” Koster says. “When he performed, you instantly noticed that he had unbelievable abilities. We checked out one another on the bench and stated, ‘properly, this can be a excellent participant.’ All the things appeared so easy and simple for him that generally I used to be like ‘wow, he does not even must do an excessive amount of for this expertise.'”

After returning to Dortmund following the tip of his mortgage at Willem II, Isak joined Actual Sociedad on a five-year contract and there, his expertise continued to develop. The ahead scored 44 targets in 132 appearances for the Spanish membership and by the summer season of 2022, he’d achieved sufficient to persuade Newcastle to make him their club-record signing for a payment within the area of £63m.

‘Cool’ character key to success

It did not take lengthy for Isak to announce himself within the Premier League. There may be maybe some irony in the truth that the ahead’s first style of life within the English prime flight got here in opposition to Liverpool, when he scored an excellent objective in a 2-1 Newcastle defeat at Anfield in August 2022.

“It was a glimpse of what he can deliver to the staff,” supervisor Eddie Howe stated after Isak’s spectacular debut. “At the start, his general efficiency was excellent. I used to be happy with how he performed off the ball tactically. He gave us tempo in behind and confirmed nice composure and method.”

Isak’s mix of technical brilliance and scientific ending made him a direct fan favorite on Tyneside. There, he scored 62 targets in 109 appearances for Howe’s facet, together with the second in Newcastle’s Carabao Cup closing victory over Liverpool in March, which secured the membership’s first main trophy in 70 years.

“He is like an murderer, the best way he places probabilities away,” former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer advised BBC Sport earlier this 12 months. “However what I actually favored from speaking to him is which you could inform he’s nonetheless searching for methods to enhance his sport on the age of 25.”

For Isak, that want to push the boundaries of his personal skills was one of many elements that compelled him to push for a transfer to Liverpool this summer season. His strategies could have proved unpopular — and arguably, they irreparably tarnished his fame within the eyes of many Newcastle followers — however his dedication to succeed on the highest degree has been a constant theme of his footballing journey up to now.

“The best way he’s as an individual means he can take care of the circumstances,” stated Koster. “He is very cool and calm, comfy even when the strain is on. For instance, when he needed to take penalties for us, that was no downside for him. It was a objective even earlier than he’d kicked it. At any time when he had the ball, you knew it could be alright.”

When requested by membership media what he hopes to realize at Liverpool, Isak merely stated “I wish to win every thing.”

For Isak, the onerous work has already began. The ahead arrived for his first day of Liverpool coaching on Wednesday and took half in a session on the AXA Coaching Centre with the likes of Jeremie Frimpong, Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez. Within the coming days, he shall be launched to extra of his teammates as they return from worldwide responsibility, whereas supervisor Arne Slot will assess his readiness for Sunday’s journey to Burnley.

Whereas it might nonetheless be a while earlier than Isak is able to play a full 90 minutes, coaching movies posted to Liverpool’s social media accounts present him wanting extremely sharp, and Slot could really feel the striker might add an additional dimension to his assault off the bench at Turf Moor.

In fact, having now assumed the label of the most costly signing in Premier League historical past, the strain on the ahead to grasp that ambition shall be larger than ever. Nonetheless, if his profession up to now is something to go by, solely a idiot would wager in opposition to him getting his want.