Tottenham Hotspur’s new £8.5 million signing Lucas Bergvall is showcasing the ‘incredible talent’ which had the Premier League giants celebrating a major coup when they beat La Liga champions Barcelona to the Swedish starlet.
The 18-year-old midfielder was likened to Frenkie de Jong a few days ago, and the manner in which of he opened the scoring during Djurgardens’ 5-0 hammering of Nordic United in the Swedish Cup goes some way to explaining why.
Lucas Bergvall waltzed into the penalty area while barely breaking sweat, taking a clever pass in his stride before slotting home with consummate ease. The brilliance of Frenkie de Jong is in how the Barcelona playmaker makes the complicated look easy. And it seems that Bergvall – who could have joined the Dutchman at the Camp Nou before Tottenham Hotspur agreed an £8.5 million deal – shares that rather ethereal effortlessness.
Tottenham beat Barcelona to Lucas Bergvall
“He showed incredible talent today,” Djurgardens team-mate Albin Ekdal says of Bergvall, who will officially move to North London in the summer (Aftonbladet).
“He’s showing that he is worth the money that Tottenham bought him for, so it will be exciting to follow him and play with him for a few months before he flies off to Europe.
“He has a great future.”
Bergvall, not content with sliding Djurgardens into the lead, then led the Nordic United defence on a merry dance before a rabbit-out-of-the-hat assist straight out of James Maddison’s magic set. A sumptuous little flick, delivered with the outside of his boot, put his side 2-0 up.
The best was yet to come, however. You could have been forgiven for wondering if the legendary Kaka had applied a peroxide sheen to his flowing locks as Bergvall breezed from the halfway line to the penalty area, galloping through defenders like he was on one of those airport travellators, before sitting the goalkeeper down and rolling into an empty net.
‘Reminds me of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’
Call him the ‘Scandinavian Kaka’, the ‘Swedish Messi,’ one Allsvenskan reporter could not get another iconic attacker out of his mind as Bergvall put on a masterclass Frenkie de Jong himself would have been proud of.
“The last little feint reminds me of a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a classic goal once upon a time, TV4‘s Peter Backe says, referring to the Swedish legend’s famous ‘sent him for a hotdog’ solo effort for Ajax against NAC Breda 20 years ago.
“What an incredible player this can be,” adds an awe-struck former Tottenham defender Erik Edman. “The build-up to the third goal was also magical.
“Tottenham probably feel they are pretty happy with this deal right now.”
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