Arsenal loanee Mika Biereth has enjoyed a flying start at Sturm Graz while emulating the early success of Manchester United’s new £64 million centre-forward Rasmus Hojlund at the Austrian outfit.
With his blinding blonde hair, his Scandinavian roots and his emphatic finishing ability, Mika Biereth was always likely to be mentioned in conjunction with a Denmark international who averaged a goal every other game for Sturm Graz before moving onto Atalanta and, then, Man United.
A well-taken finish on his Stum Graz debut did little to dampen those comparisons either, Hojlund also exploded out of the blocks at the Merkur Arena.
Biereth, scoring again during the 4-1 Europa Conference League hammering of Slovan Bratislava on Thursday night, now has two in his first three appearances over in Austria, the Arsenal-owned poacher picking up where his compatriot Hojlund left off.
Arsenal loanee enjoys flying start at Sturm Graz
“(Biereth plays with) conviction, power and force,” Sturm coach Christian Ilzer tells the Salzburger Nachricthen, paying special tribute to the London-born 21-year-old’s hold-up play.
“(He also) secured the ball really well. He showed that he also has an eye for his teammates.
“(Biereth is) Someone with a lot of self-confidence, like we already know from our Danish boys at Sturm. He knows what he can do. He knows what he wants. I think he will bring us a lot of joy.”
Biereth joined Arsenal from capital city neighbours Fulham back in 2021. He has been a regular source of goals at youth level, and is now making the step up to senior football. Before joining Sturm Graz in January, Biereth netted six times for Motherwell north of the border in Scotland.
Two goals in three games
“It was a very good game,” Biereth smiled after opening his Sturm account after just 53 minutes in the Austrian Cup (Krone). “The atmosphere was fantastic, the fans were loud and helped us a lot.
“It’s good for every striker to get going as quickly as possible. Of course, I want to score as many goals as possible, but you can’t be unhappy with a goal from a chance on your debut.”
“My great strength is being in the box, near the goal posts – and scoring goals! I don’t like running around at the back during the build-up game.”
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