Benjamin Šeško: The Salzburg striker following in Erling Haaland’s footsteps | OneFootball

Benjamin Šeško: The Salzburg striker following in Erling Haaland’s footsteps

17. Mai 2023 in ADMIRAL Bundesliga

“He inspired me so much. I like to watch him a lot and hopefully I’ll meet him one day,” said Benjamin Šeško in a recent chat with Lee Wingate from The Other Bundesliga. The man he was referring to? Zlatan Ibrahimović. But while the Swedish star may not have yet met his 19-year-old Slovenian counterpart, he will certainly have witnessed his talent.

Ibrahimović was not in the squad when his Sweden side took on Šeško’s Slovenia on Matchday 6 of the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League campaign last September. The Slovenians went to Solna knowing a point would keep them in League B at their opponent’s expense and they ultimately got the result they needed – a 1-1 draw. But this game will not be widely remembered for the result; rather, it is a moment of magic in the 28th minute that will live long in the memory.

Van Basten-esque

With Slovenia in possession in the Sweden half, Petar Stojanovic spotted Šeško peeling off the shoulder of his marker Joel Andersson. Without taking his eye off the ball for a second as it flew through the air, Šeško sprinted into the penalty area on the left and struck the most exquisite, perfectly timed volley from the tightest of angles that thundered past Sweden shot-stopper Robin Olsen and into the far top corner. The goal immediately went viral on social media. It didn’t take long for the comparisons with Marco van Basten’s sublime strike for the Netherlands against the Soviet Union in the EURO 1988 final to begin.

Was it the best goal he has ever scored? “Yes, of course. I think it was one of the best goals in football in general so it’s of course the best,” Šeško stated matter-of-factly. He has hundreds to choose from too – if you include his youth career in his native Slovenia. As a teenager in the Krško youth setup, he scored 59 goals in 23 matches for the U15s in the 2017/18 season. That earned him a move to Domžale, where he spent a single season before Red Bull Salzburg won the battle for his signature in the summer of 2019. But was leaving home for another country not a daunting prospect for a 16-year-old?

From Liefering to the Champions League

“Of course. It was quite hard at the start. I couldn’t speak English or German. There were some players who spoke my language. Not actually my language but Balkan languages,” explained Šeško, presumably referring to the likes of current team-mates Luka Sučić (Croatia) and Amar Dedić (Bosnia), whom he played alongside for Salzburg’s feeder club Liefering in the Austrian second tier in those early days. Perhaps those initial difficulties go some way to explaining Šeško’s modest return in his first season in Austria, with only one goal in 15 league games.

It did not take too long for him to settle in, however. Fast-forward 15 months from the end of that first season with Liefering and Šeško was lining up for the senior team against the likes of Sevilla, Lille, Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League, while also playing an important role on the domestic front as Red Bull Salzburg retained their Bundesliga and ÖFB-Cup double. Šeško quickly earned himself a reputation as an athletic, powerful and speedy striker with great movement and lethal finishing – attributes which soon drew comparisons with another Salzburg star of years gone by: Erling Haaland.

Talent recognises talent

“He’s a crazy player.  Maybe actually a little bit unreal too. So to compare me to someone like him is really hard, you know, because he is one of the best in the world,” Šeško explained. But as the saying goes, talent recognises talent. Three days before his thunderbolt against the Swedes, Šeško and Haaland went head-to-head in another Nations League game in Ljubljana. Haaland opened the scoring for the Norwegians minutes after the break. But Šeško had other ideas. The youngster first set up team-mate Andraz Sporar to equalise with 20 minutes to go, then scored the winning goal himself with nine minutes left on the clock. Slovenia ran out 2-1 victors. And Šeško won the battle between Salzburg strikers past and present.

“The Slovenian media asked him about me and he said some really good words about me as a player and how I’m going to do later. He really said good stuff about me,” said Šeško, who will follow in his fellow forward’s footsteps by moving across the border to Germany this summer – though Leipzig is his destination rather than Dortmund. Before departing, Šeško has unfinished business to attend to in Austria and will be aiming to add to his trophy haul of two Austrian Bundesliga titles and one ÖFB-Cup before the season is out.

Setbacks & successes

By Salzburg’s own very high standards, they suffered a big setback in February as they were knocked out of the ÖFB-Cup quarter-finals on penalties by domestic rivals Sturm Graz. There have been tough times for Šeško personally, too. Having played in all 16 Bundesliga matches before Christmas, the teenager was left out of the squad against Austria Lustenau on Matchday 17 – a week after the cup exit to Sturm Graz. With other forwards such as Noah Okafor, Fernando, Junior Adamu and Sekou Koita all given the nod, the Red Bulls ran out emphatic 4-0 winners in his absence. But Šeško was receptive to the feedback given by coach Matthias Jaissle. “I think it’s difficult for every player if he’s not playing and he wants to play… But I was not doing the stuff which I should do. What happened was that I accepted that stuff. Because it’s always about how we accept stuff. If you change something, you will start to play later on.”

And play he certainly has. Šeško marked his return to the fold with a goal in the 3-1 victory against WSG Tirol eight days later and has been an ever-present figure in the team ever since. He dazzled with a seven-minute hat-trick as the Red Bulls claimed a 4-2 victory away at Rapid Vienna at the start of March, then popped up with the all-important second goal in a pivotal 2-0 win away to title challengers Sturm Graz in mid-April and scored the winner in a narrow 1-0 triumph over LASK a few days ago. But the title race is still close – closer than it has been in many years. Is that simply because Sturm Graz have offered stiff competition? Or have Salzburg not reached the same extremely high level of previous seasons?

“I think they [Sturm Graz] are doing good of course. But I think Salzburg’s going to win the title like in previous years. Of course there have been some struggles. But I also think this is normal,” Šeško said, adding: “Everyone once in a while has something like this. It only depends on how you’re going to react and then you can see how the team really is. I believe that nothing’s going to stop us… I think we’re still going to manage it.” You would certainly be brave to bet against Red Bull Salzburg. If they win the league this season, it will be 10 top-flight titles in a row – a feat only previously achieved by 12 European clubs in history.

Memories of the Mozartstadt

Two days before Šeško speaks to The Other Bundesliga, his Salzburg predecessor and now admirer Erling Haaland broke the single-season Premier League scoring record, netting his 35th goal of the campaign in a routine win for Manchester City against West Ham United. Asked in a post-match interview how he would celebrate, Haaland teasingly revealed that he would go home and play video games – but he could not say which ones. “He probably plays something that’s really for kids,” laughs Šeško, who himself is an avid gamer in his free time. Call of Duty is his game of choice. He’s also a fan of basketball and likes to go for walks in the city. It is a city that he will be leaving next month. But he already has many treasured memories from his time in the Mozartstadt that he will look back on fondly once he has left.

“It’s always going to be the best memory, of course. Because this is where I started to grow, this is where I went from kid to adult. Generally, everything happened here. So the rest that is still to come will just develop me even more,” said Šeško, who believes he has already become a much better player under the watchful eye of Matthias Jaissle and his assistants over the past two years. “Especially in terms of physique, speed-wise of course and also the mental game in general: where to be, which things to do to put me in a better position. I think you train this in general in every team… But they do it really well, especially with me, and I’m really happy this happened.” No doubt the club will be happy too. According to media reports, Salzburg will make a sizeable profit on Šeško this summer. When it comes to spotting young players & turning them into expensive stars, few clubs on the continent can rival Red Bull Salzburg.

Redakteur: Lee Wingate (The Other Bundesliga)

Fotos: GEPA pictures