Why Nordic footballers are becoming all the rage in Portuguese football | OneFootball

What’s behind the rise in Nordic footballers making their mark in Portuguese football? Zach Lowy investigates, with the help of Portuguese football journalist João Pedro Cordeiro.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, Liga Portugal used to be considered the doorstep of Europe for footballers on the other side of the Atlantic. Portuguese teams would sign promising South American youngsters, develop them and get them accustomed to European football, before selling them for a premium. Óscar Cardozo, Radamel Falcao, James Rodríguez, Ángel Di María, Deco, Hulk, Mário Jardel, David Luiz, Ederson, Jackson Martínez, Pepe, Enzo Fernández…the list goes on and on.

However, ever since FIFA banned third-party ownership in 2015, Portuguese clubs have found themselves resigned to losing out on the best South American talents to Spanish or English teams. Instead, they’ve had to look at different, under-invested markets like Scandinavia to reinforce their teams with up-and-coming young prospects.

From Sporting captain Morten Hjulmand, Benfica’s jack-of-all-trades Fredrik Aursnes, and Viktor Gyökeres, who, after winning back-to-back Bola da Prata awards at Sporting, has made the move to Arsenal, we’re seeing more and more Scandinavians make their mark in Portugal. But just what exactly has changed? I spoke to Portuguese journalist and Nordic football expert João Pedro Cordeiro.

“If I had to guess, the problem was never exactly the scouting. Having spoken to people who are in the know; the players have been scouted for some years. It was more a decision-making “problem” than a scouting problem. But as the Scandinavian players started to make a bigger splash in the big leagues like Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands, Portuguese club directors became more convinced they could be a good target. Portuguese football was always very close to agent companies that operated mainly in South America, but the context changed, and those players who used to come to Portugal started going to other markets like Major League Soccer.

“I just think we came a bit too little too late because clubs like Midtjylland, Malmö, København, Nordsjælland, and Brøndby are already selling their top players for over €20 million, and it’s not easy to get them.”

Priced out of the South American market

Suddenly, Portuguese clubs have woken up to the fact that Scandinavian leagues – be that Denmark, Norway, or Sweden – are churning out readymade, young talent who have the physical skills and technical finesse to make an instant impact in the Primeira Liga. Whilst there are still a few South American footballers who make their way to Portugal to launch their careers in Europe, for the most part, the local teams have been priced out of signing them. Whereas 10-15 years ago, a player like Estêvão or Franco Mastantuono would have opted to go to Lisbon or Porto to jumpstart their development, they’re now making their start in London and Madrid.

Fredrik Aursnes has been a big hit for Benfica since arriving in Lisbon three years ago, here in action with Alexander Bah in the background (Photo: Arlindo Homem)

Portuguese teams, for their part, have responded by dipping into a cheaper market, one filled with raw prospects who can easily appreciate in value and earn them a lucrative profit. Last summer, we saw Casa Pia pay €50,000 for Espanyol’s Spanish-Swedish striker Max Svensson, whilst Porto paid €4.50m for Hammarby’s Deniz Gül, who, despite being born and raised in Sweden, represents the Turkish national team. Sporting, meanwhile, paid €19 million for Nordsjælland’s Danish striker Conrad Harder, who may very well end up being the heir to Gyökeres’ throne.

This summer, it has been more of the same. Benfica have completed the permanent signing of Swedish left back Samuel Dahl from Roma for €9 million (joining the aforementioned Aursnes as well as Alexander Bah and Andreas Schjelderup at the Estádio da Luz), whilst Braga have added Ivorian striker Mário Dorgeles from Nordsjælland for €11 million while also signing Celtic’s Swedish centre-back Gustaf Lagerbielke for €2.57 million. Porto, meanwhile, have responded to their disastrous Club World Cup display by splurging a total of €88.6 million on nine new recruits, none more expensive than teenage Danish midfielder Victor Froholdt, who has arrived from København for €20 million.

Scandinavian clubs’ new focus on development

“It all starts with the fact that Nordic clubs became much better at producing players than before; the facilities got better, pretty much all clubs have indoor fields and astroturf fields that enable them to train all year, as opposed to what was happening until the nineties,” added Cordeiro. “They’re starting to reap what they sow – the type of player and profiles that started being produced in the Nordic countries changed, and they’re now way more technical than before and more suited to play a part in modern football. They’re not the tall, physical guys with technical limitations anymore; if anything, they’re now physical monsters with good to great technical ability.”

“It’s hard to pinpoint a singular moment where Portuguese teams started to take Scandinavian football seriously – it was more a global trend that eventually caught up. The charisma of Zlatan Ibrahimović, Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard becoming global stars… I feel that changed a bit how the football world started looking at Sweden and Norway football-wise, as well as the great Danish campaign at Euro 2020 as well.

Global stars like Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard have helped changed the perception of Scandinavian footballers (Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images)

“I can’t point to one single event that changed everything, but there was also a cultural shift in Nordic football in the last decade as clubs became much more aware that producing players can be very profitable and started giving much more playing time to kids. The number of academy players and U21 players being used in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, is at an all-time high, and they have one of the youngest average ages in world football, according to CIES.”

Primeira Liga launchpad

Portuguese clubs are well aware of their place in the global food chain. They know that they can’t compete with English, Spanish, German, Italian, French or even Turkish or Brazilian clubs when it comes to offering mouth-watering wages and astronomical bonuses. However, they can offer players a steady launching pad to get their feet in the door, acclimatise to European football, before making the move to greener pastures. And for their part, teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, and Real Madrid are more than happy to wait and see regarding players who have not yet hit the heights, allowing these prospects to go from raw gems to refined talents, before paying a hefty premium for them just as they’re about to enter their prime.

Could the next Alexander Isak or Viktor Gyökeres or Erling Haaland be found in Portugal? Don’t bet against it.