On the eve of the 2023-24 season around Europe, it's time to ask: Who are we excited about watching this season?
We've got together 10 of the finest brains from across Europe that we think you should keep an eye on in the upcoming campaign. These aren't the best 10 players in Europe, nor are they 10 you've never heard of. There are lots of young players in this list and each writer was to pick someone they are excited about in 2023-24.
We will select two most noteworthy player in 2023/24 season every day. Read on to see who we've selected today.
Rasmus Højlund Man Utd
After his early-career spells at FC Kobenhavn and at SK Puntigamer Graz, last season Rasmus Højlund joined Atalanta, getting a chance to compete in one of the top five European leagues.
The 20-year-old Danish striker started the 2022-23 season still in Austria, and was involved in five goals in just five appearances in the Austrian top flight (three goals, two assists).
His impact in the Italian Serie A was also marked: he scored his first goal in his first start – his second appearance overall – on 5 September against Monza. He ultimately finished his first Serie A season with a total of 32 appearances (20 starts) and nine goals. That tally made him the second youngest player to score at least nine goals in the top five European leagues in 2022-23, behind only Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala (22 days younger than Højlund). And now, Højlund is a player at Manchester United.
It’s easy to see why the Manchester club are excited about securing his signature.
A 6-foot-2 striker who likes to stay close to the opposition’s goal, Højlund ranked third for touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes (6.9) among players with at least 1000+ minutes in Serie A last season, behind only Victor Osimhen (8.5) and Cyriel Dessers (7.3). Furthermore, only four of his 54 shots in Serie A were from outside the box, though just one of these was converted into a goal.
Despite his height he still needs to improve in the air. Thirteen of his 54 league shots last season were headed (seven of them from set-pieces), but none brought a goal. He also won just 33 of his 90 aerial duels (36.6%).
Højlund has already had a big impact on his national team. After making his debut for Denmark in September 2022 in the UEFA Nations League (two appearances as a substitute, against Croatia and France), he has started in each of his next four caps. These came in important European Championship qualifiers, and he scored six goals, including a hat-trick in the first of these – Denmark’s 3-1 win last March against Finland.
At the moment, he’s the joint-top scorer in the Euro 2024 qualifiers alongside Romelu Lukaku (six goals each) and he has attempted the most shots on target in the competition (11), recording the highest shooting accuracy (84.6%) among players to have attempted at least 10 shots.