Football is a sport that gives birth to idols and brings up the logic of comparisons, often without a sense of proportion. Endless tributes to all kinds of “Pele from Africa”, “Messi from the Balkans”, “Maradona from the Carpathians”, in a story that goes back and forth simply because the world of football loves idols, feeds on them and wants to live them as close to itself as possible, even through their… clones. It does not matter if along the way all sorts of newbie miracle workers go into oblivion. All of them will have a good story to tell their grandchildren at some point and all their lives they will wonder what went wrong in their career and they were left with the label “new Tade” without leaving a football legacy signed by their own name. .

The Rasmus Hoylund case began like this. His style, his haircut, his name, his origins, his football achievements have led many to call him “new Holland” or “new Haaland” as we insist on referring to the Manchester City superstar here in Greece, even though to the fact that two close alphas are pronounced in Norwegian with a “full” mk. If you ask in Oslo about Holland, you will hear countless stories, and if you tell them about Holland, everyone will wonder: “Who is this?”.

Be that as it may, this 20-year-old wunderkind, who began to drive the public crazy with his performances for Atalanta and the Danish national team, has a lot in common with the famous Norwegian striker. They do not have many years of age difference to justify the word “young” in this comparison, because … the prototype of the couple did not even have time to grow old. Rasmus Hoylund turned 20 last February and Erling Holland turns 23 in July. The difference is too small to include the word “young” in any attempt to compare the two.

Otherwise, they are very similar. They are both Scandinavian, blond, over 1.90 m tall, tall, of the same haircut, left-footed, move in the same areas in attack, with incredible speed and explosiveness, killing machines in the area and with a very large contribution in many parts of the game , apart from their main job, which is the goal.

They both presented themselves with a great hat-trick on their debut for the national team, which is unusual for 20-year-olds, but in fact, Hoylund is still far from even coming close to everything that is awesome and terrible that Holland has achieved in his career, even before he was 23 years old.

After all, the football stock market clearly shows the difference. The up-and-coming Dane has managed, thanks to his performances this year, to theoretically raise his market value above 35 million euros, an amount that, if offered to Atalanta, no one would even look at her, while the Norwegian is already considered the hottest promotion in the world. the world in terms of expectations and values. This is worth at least 250 million euros, more than Mbappe and Vinicius, who are currently considered the best in the football market along with him, based on the chain of “past, present and future”.

The fact is that Hoylund does not pay attention to the player with whom many have compared him. It’s not that he underestimated him, it’s by no means the case. He just doesn’t idolize it, doesn’t try to copy it, never goes for an autograph, maybe because he’s too close to making it… a poster over his bed.

Is there a player who made the dreams of Rasmus Hoylund come true? Yes, he exists and is a representative of the previous generation in terms of football, but biologically he can be his father as well, since the age difference between them is exactly 18 years! Who “bewitched” the 20-year-old Dane? Nothing to do with Holland. His name is Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro and he is a real idol in the eyes of the young Danish striker!

So when many people go to talk to him about Holland, Hoylund tells them about CR7. He admired him since childhood, he had a poster over his bed, he tries to imitate him and copy his own “chips”. He is his role model and his favorite player, whom he has been following since childhood, as he admitted many times in various interviews: “My idol is Cristiano Ronaldo. My father showed it to me when I was very young and he played for Manchester United. I followed in his footsteps at Real Madrid. I really like his mentality and the way he scores. I love his passion.”

All this, of course, is just a beautiful story. The main thing for Høilund is not to remain in the eyes of football fans as a “new Holland” or become a “Danish Cristiano Ronaldo”! He must write his story only behind his signature, under his own name! And it is true that he has made an impressive start to this goal, with achievements outstanding for young football players at this tender age.

His journey began with the Brodby youth team, from which he left at the age of 15 to travel and play professionally in Copenhagen. There, he became teammates with Carlos Zeca and jumped at every opportunity that presented him before he was 17 years old. Although he didn’t score in the Danish league because he usually played 15-20 minutes at the end of games, he didn’t stay long in Copenhagen. Sturm Graz were impressed with his 5 goals in 10 Conference League matches and signed him for €1.8m in January 2022, just a few months after his debut in the Danish First Division. His own contract has increased from 200 thousand to one million euros per year.

This investment turned out to be “golden” for the Austrian team. Højlund scored on his debut, scoring 6 goals in 13 Austrian league second round games, and before he could complete a full six months at his new club, the €1.8 million that Graz had given away to Copenhagen turned into… 17! Atalanta gave her so many millions of euros to buy him last August, with absolute certainty that if she didn’t make that impressive move quickly, she would either pay him multiple times in a few months or another team would overtake her. Of course, his own contract also increased from 1 million in Austria to 4.5 million euros a year.

Although he started quietly, scoring just 1 goal in his first 11 Serie A appearances, starting just 4 games, the water quickly got into the groove. Høylund was not upset that the Danish team did not get into the Danish team for the World Cup in Qatar, but on the contrary, changed the situation. He did some extra training at Atalanta’s training center with Colombian strikers Zapata and Muriel, he immediately won the starting shirt with the resumption of the championship, and from that moment everything turned into a beautiful story.

He scored a total of 12 goals for Atalanta and the Danish national team (5 goals in two official matches) in less than two months, comparisons with Erling Holland inevitably began, and his reputation skyrocketed. At the moment the odds for the next station in his career are plus or minus. Will it be one of the Real Madrid and Manchester United who have begun courting him openly, or perhaps another – surprise – club from the top echelon of European football?

Probably in the summer everything will be clear. This kid does not take steps, but only jumps in his career, with great speed and constantly moving up. He lingers a little in each of his teams and immediately changes the level, with multi-million dollar transfers. Transfermarkt writes that his market value has jumped to 35 million euros in a few months, but this is in theory. In real life, any team that rushes to buy him from Atalanta and remains “hot” as they are now will have to pay an amount that will reach or exceed 100 million! What can not be said about the player, whom only relatives and friends knew a year and a half ago…