Conrad Harder: The productive teenager from Sporting Lisbon that Haaland wants to emulate
A coffee van converted into a portable video analytics hub is returning to the FC Nordsjaelland (FCN) training base when the sudden thud of the football hitting the crossbar brings it to a halt.
It’s the very specific sound of Conrad Harder’s effort on goal, a missile that can be launched with his left foot, right foot or head – a sound that Manchester City will come face to face with on Tuesday when they take on his new side, Sporting Lisbon, in the Champions League.
On The Athletics When visiting Nordsjaelland in the summer, analysts linger in the middle of the field to observe this crossing and finishing match between Harder and reserve goalkeeper William Lykke, also 19, at the end of training.
𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 🔟✂️
𝐅𝐞𝐣𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 🔟🥳Conrad Harder 👏💥#sldk pic.twitter.com/D6dUQftGWP
— FC Nordsjælland 🐯 (@FCNordsjaelland) January 27, 2024
Former Chelsea and Ghana midfielder Michael Essien, now assistant manager at Nordsjaelland, is at a crossroads and there is hardly a delivery in the 20 minutes that is not devoured by Harder.
The Dane can do finesse, but when it comes to his preferred finishing style, it is harder by name, harder by nature. Even the under-10 team’s training was interrupted as the youngsters watched and gasped in disbelief.
There is no waiting time for the ball to drop. Harder takes every shot as early as possible. He hits volleys like he sees the ball like a watermelon, and when he’s in the air, his hangtime is reminiscent of a certain Portuguese forward.
“My idol was Cristiano Ronaldo… but then Erling Haaland came along,” says Harder The Athletics once the session is completed.
Conveniently, the teenager introduces Manchester City star Haaland himself into the conversation. As a tall Scandinavian striker with bulging thighs, wavy blond hair and a left foot with the power to surpass Hawk-Eye’s ball tracking technology, the comparison is inescapable. Harder, Haaland’s junior of five years, does not want the Norwegian international to become an albatross around his neck. “He’s a really good player and I’m watching his game to try to learn and move in this direction,” Harder said.
“People compare a lot, especially with (Manchester United’s Danish striker Rasmus) Hojlund, who is also scoring goals now, but I don’t want to be one of them. I just want to be my own (man). That’s the way I think.”
This conversation took place in July and since then the Danish striker has been embroiled in a transfer battle, rejecting Brighton & Hove Albion on deadline day to sign for Ruben Amorim’s Sporting for a fee of €20 million. m) transfer.
He has come off the bench in two of Sporting’s Champions League games so far and recorded his first goal and assist against Avs FS on his competitive debut. He added a brace against Portimonense in the Taca de Portugal last month.
From the sidelines, Harder looks gigantic, but up close his boyish appearance is startling. Nicknamed ‘Mosquito’ by Nordsjaelland teammate Mario Dorgeles because of his fear of those insects when he attended the Right to Dream academy in Ghana two years ago, he conveys the aura of someone who already sees himself as a leader in the team.
During FCN’s small-scale training matches with rotating substitutions, Harder’s competitive advantage is clearly visible as he complains about goalkeeping mistakes and harasses defenders like his life depends on it. He’s more of an all-round player than a pure scorer, but it’s clear he lives for scoring goals. That’s why some at FCN describe him as ‘goal horny’ – a Danish way of saying he’s not too happy when he doesn’t put the ball in the back of the net.
Harder in action against Fenerbahce in last season’s Europa Conference League (Sergei Gapon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Harder enjoyed his breakthrough year at Nordsjaelland, but such is his talent that it was curtailed by the deadline day transfer battle between Brighton and Sporting, with Italian side Napoli the other interested party earlier this summer.
Clubs had been aware of his talent for some time due to his goalscoring record for Nordsjaelland at youth level. He scored 15 in 18 games for the under-17s and 26 in 22 for the under-19s, but he still had to be patient before breaking into the first team.
Harder made his senior debut in the final match of the 2022-23 season and went on to make 33 appearances in all competitions in the latter – just nine from the start – scoring seven goals. In the opening weeks of this season he had started all six league games, scoring twice in a 2-2 draw against Midtjylland and producing a smart assist for what turned out to be the winner as they beat FC Copenhagen 3-2.
It was never the intention that Harder would move during the summer period. Brighton initially saw the coming summer as the ideal time to strike, but the arrival of Sporting forced them to take action earlier.
This would be Harder’s first season as a regular starter for Nordsjaelland, where he would be given space to develop and adapt to senior football. He even signed a new four-year contract in the summer, a move that underlined that intention, but money talks and once the €20 million threshold was crossed the club had to accept he was gone.
The route suggested by Brighton was for him to go out on loan before becoming a first-team player. To their advantage, they had evidence of a phased integration of Danish football into the Premier League when they signed Simon Adingra from FCN in the summer of 2022 before sending him to Belgian sister team Union Saint-Gilloise for a season. He returned as a more experienced player and is now an important part of the Brighton squad.
Although Viktor Gyokeres is Sporting’s main man, they were able to offer Harder a direct role in the squad and that ultimately influenced his decision. It was sooner than those who have overseen his development would have wanted him to take that step and there is a risk that such a leap so early in his career could be too much, but he backs himself and believes he can be a success will be in Portugal. . If that is the case, the riches of Premier League football will always be available.
Nordsjaelland have sold over £90 million worth of African talent developed at their Right To Dream academy in Ghana, but Harder was the last off the assembly line from their Danish academy, with Andreas Skov Olsen from Belgian side Club Brugge and Brentford duo Mikkel Damsgaard and Mathias Jensen all previously relocated for significant fees.
Adingra excelled at Brighton (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Harder’s decision to move to Sporting was not the first difficult decision he had to make. At the age of 14, he decided to leave FC Copenhagen and move to Nordsjaelland.
“I wasn’t developing as much as I wanted, so I wanted a new challenge and FCN was a good option for me,” Harder explains.
“I don’t know if there is a secret (in the way Nordsjaelland operates), but there are so many coaches around you working on the details all the time in every training, it certainly helps. It’s easy to get into the first team because you’ve learned the same playing style all the time.”
Harder may want to avoid too many comparisons with Haaland and Hojlund, but he does share an agent with the latter’s two younger twin brothers, Oscar and Emil, who play in Germany for Eintracht Frankfurt and Schalke respectively.
The people at Nordsjaelland always knew he was destined for great things. They just didn’t expect that day to come so soon.
Whether Harder is ready is another question, but he doesn’t come across as a teenager put off by a price tag or the shadows of looming Scandinavian strikers.
(Top photo: Maciej Rogowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
