IF they’re not going to play them in the first team, the biggest clubs can only hold on to promising striking talents for so long.
It’s very, very hard for a young striker to emulate the likes of Marcus Rashford and break through at a top club. Manchester United have had many other young talents who had to leave, usually because they weren’t good enough at the age of 21 or 22 to play for United. There’s no shame in that.
One of those was Norwegian striker Joshua King who joined United as a 16-year-old youth team player from Oslo side Valarenga in 2008. United then were the reigning English, European and world champions and King shone in youth and reserve teams under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Despite that, seasoned watchers had their doubts. “I didn’t think he’d make it at United,” says his compatriot and former Premier League striker Jan Aage Fjortoft. “The step was too high and the odds went against him, but to be fair to him he had a lot of injuries and football’s about timing. Still, his time at United served him very well as he learned around so many great players.”
Plenty of those great players were in attack. King realistically stood little chance of breaking into a team with, at various times, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen, Chicharito and Daniel Welbeck ahead of him.
But the youngster impressed enough in pre-season 2010 that he was loaned to Preston North End, then Borussia Monchengladbach in 2011. He went to Hull City in 2012 before joining championship side Blackburn Rovers full-time in 2013. In between, he came on twice for United’s first team, first in a dead rubber Champions League match against Galatasaray and second in a cup match against Wolves…before Wolves were really good.
In 2015 King turned down the chance to stay at Blackburn and joined Bournemouth ahead of their first-ever season in the Premier League. Thanks to guidance and encouragement from manager Eddie Howe, he immediately became a regular.
King’s first season wasn’t full of goals – he scored seven in the league goal, including a winner against United which he celebrated with enthusiasm. He felt Sir Alex Ferguson could have treated him better at United.
He was more prolific the following season, scoring 16 times; last season he managed nine league goals. That may not sound much, but he’s scored more top-flight goals for Bournemouth than any of their current players.
Fjortoft thinks he has star qualities. “Joshua’s got this ‘John Carew at his best’ look about him. He’s quick and strong. When he goes forward he sprints with strength and not a lot of players have that, they’re either quick or strong. “He’s got a natural positive arrogance about him too which thebest players in the world have. That’s usually a strength, that ‘I don't care who I’m playing against.’ Joshua will never fear anyone.”
Norway will play against Spain away on Saturday in Valencia’s towering Mestalla in the first qualifier for Euro 2020. King will be up against Sergio Ramos. When this was put to him this week, his eyes lit up at the prospect of playing against probably the best central defender in the world.
Wasn’t he the slightest bit daunted?
“I play in the world’s toughest league, where things happen every weekend,” he replied. “He’ll just do what he’s used to, so I’ll do what I’m used to.” And that was that.
In the same interview King said that the only player who was stronger than him was Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, a player he described as “the strongest and best I have ever met.”
Van Dijk, like most good Southampton players, moved to Liverpool where he’s their best player.
Can King, who shares the same agent as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, also leave the south coast to play for a bigger club?
“He’s got so many abilities, but sometimes I felt he didn’t want to take the next step and he also had problems with injuries,” said Fjortoft. “When I worked with him for Norway’s national team, I said to him ‘Joshua, you have all the ability in the world, you just need to work on your shooting and finishing. I used to watch videos of Gary Lineker…’
King has taken his time to develop, but he got there and at 27 he’s looking the business.
“Joshua will think ‘I should have made it at Manchester United’ and he’ll want to prove people wrong after a little set-back in his career,” says Fjortoft. “He’s the best Norwegian player by far, the most successful and he deserves that. He’s turning into a very popular sportsman in Norway, yet he doesn’t have a Norwegian mentality. That’s why he’s really looking forward to playing Ramos.”
With 11 league goals so far this season, King is in form, having scored two in Bournemouth’s 4-0 win over Chelsea in January and another two on Saturday in the 2-2 draw against Newcastle. After that game, Eddie Howe said: “Josh is outstanding physically, technically and mentally – he has the complete package, a little bit of everything. He just wants more goals to show just how high his potential is.”
Whether Howe will be able to hang on to him with the big clubs sniffing around is another matter.
A £10 bet on Josh King to score first vs Spain returns £120
