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SkillCorner has partnered with Scouted Football, providing data and insights to support their writing on the best emerging talent in football.
In this piece, the Scouted team look at the recent trend of talent emerging from Scandinavia, and use our data to analyse some young players who might be next in line.
From Lucas Bergvall to Sverre Halseth Nypan, Scandinavia is a hotbed for the next generation of top-level talent. But how can clubs get to it first?
Scandinavian football is fun, which is why we love it. Allsvenskan (Sweden) and Eliteserien (Norway) games are exciting, the fan culture is vibrant, the leagues are generally young and diverse in their composition, and their status as a ‘summer league’ – starting in March and ending in November, circumventing the bitter winter months – gives them a much-needed edge on the rest of Europe.
Furthermore, the emerging generations of Scandinavian talent are among the most exciting in the region. Sweden for instance have a front six that features Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyökeres, Dejan Kulusevski, Anthony Elanga, Lucas Bergvall and Yasin Ayari; Norway have Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard ably supported by Antonio Nusa; and Denmark are consistently competitive throughout the international age groups, and Patrick Dorgu's €30m move to Manchester United showed that pipeline is translating into senior football. The vast majority begin their careers in their domestic divisions too, with their clubs affording them worthwhile opportunities in senior football at early ages.
Another feature that has given Scandinavian football an edge is the pathway they provide for African talent into Europe. That John Obi Mikel transfer from FC Lyn to Chelsea in 2006 remains the biggest sale in the history of both the Eliteserien and Allsvenskan at a reported €20 million, and countless more have made similar moves up the ladder since. It's a pathway that has come to the fore since the turn of the decade with the likes of Victor Okoh Boniface, Odilon Kossounou, Gift Orban and plenty more skipping through.
The most recent example is Malick Junior Yalcouyé. IFK Göteborg signed the 18-year-old from famous Ivorian academy ASEC Mimosas in February, he played 1,100 minutes across 14 appearances, then he was sold to Brighton & Hove Albion in July for €7 million. He went from a complete unknown to club-record sale with a move to one of Europe’s most exciting clubs in six months. Examples like this encourage others to follow suit, and I touch on one in this piece.
The takeaway is clear: Scandinavia should be a focus for all kinds of football clubs and scouts for all sorts of reasons. But we want to get into the weeds, as is our SCOUTED prerogative. So, we’ve done some digging to uncover the next generation of Scandinavian super-talents, and how clubs can spot them early.
In this article...
- Data-driven details on the jewel of Eliteserien, Sverre Halseth Nypan
- An electric-fast Ivorian winger cutting his teeth in Norway
- A hard-running connecting midfielder from the Allsvenkan
- The pressure-relieving metronomes running Denmark
- Why Scandinavia is a hotbed of value - particularly for the Bundesliga
But first, some housekeeping: for the purposes of this piece, I’ve gerrymandered Scandinavia to include Denmark. Natives on both sides of the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits will passionately argue that Denmark isn’t part of Scandinavia as it isn’t on the Scandinavian Peninsula – an argument I am sympathetic to – while outsiders would say it is due to their close historic, cultural and linguistic ties. Both are probably true, but whatever you think, Denmark is in Scandinavia for the duration of this analysis. And that’s that.
Also, from here on out, SkillCorner metrics will be capitalised to distinguish them from generic concepts when referenced - so ‘High-Speed Running’ here means a metric quantified in the data. Let’s begin.
Benchmarking the Scandinavian Leagues
First things first, let’s set out the Scandinavian stall and its standing within the European game. Many wouldn’t think Scandinavian football would be all that demanding, but it is. The games are quite end-to-end, with younger players making up a large percentage of the leagues.
The Scandinavian leagues are some of the most demanding in terms of High-Speed Running in Europe. Eliteserien ranks second-highest in that metric, even above the Premier League, and Allsvenskan is pushing it too. There is a significant difference between its physical demands to that of the Dutch Eredivisie, for example.
Compare them to the leagues they often sell talent to – Belgium, Netherlands and Portugal – and they hold up very well once again. That explains why the biggest and best in those countries try to get in on the best Scandinavian talent, but also why those even higher in the food chain are starting to undercut them as well.
To further that point, the complete breakdown of the Scandinavian leagues compared to Europe’s Big Five Leagues makes for even more interesting reading. Norway and Sweden run more than the majority, while Denmark is solid across the board. The telling point of difference comes in the explosive attributes – speed and sprints – which are indicative of the very best athletes, which the Premier League and Ligue 1 are known for.
What can we deduce from these numbers? The big takeaway is that the Scandinavian leagues are competitive physically, perhaps more than you’d have anticipated. Allsvenskan and particularly Eliteserien are two of the most run-heavy leagues in European football. Superligaen, meanwhile, compares favourably to the likes of Serie A and La Liga. Each are solid platforms for young players to leap to the next level from.
The Chosen One: Sverre Halseth Nypan
To kick off this case study, let’s dive into the data on the biggest prospect in Scandinavian football right now: Sverre Halseth Nypan.
A lot has been expected of Nypan from an early age. He was playing against fully-grown men for Rosenborg’s B team as a 14-year-old before becoming one of the UEFA Youth League’s youngest-ever debutants a couple of months later. Those achievements were swiftly followed by senior recognition: an Eliteserien debut at 15 years old, a full season with the first team in 2023, and a breakout campaign in 2024. He had played over 60 first-team games before turning 18.
A lot will also be expected of Nypan on the basis that he is a bonafide wonderkid on the most recent edition of Football Manager and, like on the game, the biggest clubs are already starting to circle. All the big Premier League clubs have been credited with an interest in him, particularly Manchester United and Arsenal. The excitement is tangible, and the competition will be fierce.
Why are Europe’s biggest clubs after him? Because he’s played a lot of high-level football from a young age for starters; that’s always a good tell. He is also a dynamic midfielder that can travel between both boxes, slip past pressure, facilitate in attack, and pop up in the box. He’s a bit of a do-it-aller.
Let’s dive into the data to quantify just how good he’s been in Norway.
Above is how Nypan stacks up against 121 Eliteserien and Allsvenskan midfielders for running, both in Distance and Intensity. He ranks at the average for the former but is well above the median for the speed of that running. In basic terms? He runs about the same as most, but runs harder than most.
The graph above supports that suggestion, showing that Nypan runs about 1.1km a game at over 20km/h. That means roughly 12% of his total distance covered is done at High Intensity, ranking him 12th of 121 midfielders across Norway and Sweden in the metric. Notice also that Malick Junior Yalcouyé pops up again…
Nypan is also one of the faster midfielders in terms of peak speed – as shown by PSV-99 in SkillCorner data above – in Scandinavia. It’s something that is pretty easy to pick up on when you watch him driving between the boxes; he possesses a turn of pace which enables him to separate from opponents as a break in attack or catch up player as he recovers in defence.
But peak speed is only part of the picture when it comes to a player’s athletic profile. Central midfield is just as much (if not more) about short-area quickness, bursting to break away or get back goalside. Look at him on SkillCorner’s brand-new Explosive Actions metrics too; he’s right up there among all midfielders in Norway and Sweden.
The metrics we’ve chosen here measure the number of times a player rapidly accelerates from a standing/walking start to reach High Speed Running or Sprinting pace – normalised per 60mins of ball-in-play time, meaning he’s showing that explosive quickness on a comparatively regular basis.
The thing that makes those graphs even more impressive is that Nypan was 17 years old when he generated this sample. He’s probably far from his final form as an athlete. It’s impossible to rule out that this could be his physical ceiling, but I doubt it is – there are margins to gain as he scales up to the elite levels, training against the best players with the best staff in the best facilities.
We’ve determined that Nypan is a good athlete relative to his peers in pretty athletic leagues, which is a good basis. Now let’s have a look at his skillset when his team has possession…
First off, his off-ball running. This is one of the big aspects of Nypan’s game and directly ties into his athletic capabilities. The graph above shows that the 17-year-old ranks comfortably above the average for the frequency, danger and production of his off-ball runs. He makes a lot of runs, a lot of those runs are dangerous and they result in shots and goals for his team.
The big green flag is flapping around already. Midfielders that can run will always carry high value – off-ball movement is a simple but significant advantage for a player that operates in the middle of the pitch to possess – and midfielders that can generate shooting opportunities with said movement should be too, however specialised certain coaches and their roles are becoming.
Drill into the detail of those off-ball runs and Nypan’s skillset begins to take shape. A 90th percentile ranking for Runs Ahead of the Ball is particularly interesting because it leans into my pigeon-holing of Nypan as a ‘developing midfielder’. The Norwegian comes alive in the second phase of possession by sliding around to move sequences on: creating angles, finding one-twos, unselfish runs are the order of the day as he creates time and space for himself and others.
Then you have the Cross Receiver Runs, which highlights his ability to get into the box in goal-scoring positions. His eight league goals in the 2024 season is a testament to that, as well as an improvement on an impressive five from last year.
For me, the data above underlines that Nypan is already a standout in Scandinavian football at a very young age. With two full seasons under his belt at a big Norwegian club like Rosenborg, the Eliteserien doesn’t hold much more value for his development.
His profile and potential is similar to that of Lucas Bergvall. The Swede was a much-heralded prospect in Swedish football, initially breaking through at IF Brommapojkarna then breaking out at Stockholm giants Djurgården with eye-catching performances and the SkillCorner data to match.
Like Bergvall, Nypan has been a much-heralded young talent that has so far lived up to the hype in Scandinavia, and I think he’s ready to make a similar move to the one his Swedish counterpart made last year. Ideally, that would be to a club like Eintracht Frankfurt, who could offer him the platform and playing time to supercharge his development in the Bundesliga.
But the allure of the biggest clubs is difficult to shun. Bergvall plumped for Postecoglou’s Spurs, turning down Barcelona in the process, where has has played a rotation role in a high-stakes environment. Who’s to say that isn’t just as beneficial for his development? Nypan may go for Amorim’s United or Arteta’s Arsenal, moves that would present similar challenges and upsides.
Wherever he goes, Sverre Halseth Nypan has a big future to look forward to.
Now Nypan is out of the way, let’s get onto some actual data scouting. That’s what you’re really here for, right? The next three sections will pick out some interesting profiles and prospects from Sweden, Norway and Denmark using SkillCorner’s Physical Data and Game Intelligence suites.
Benchmarking the Scandinavian Leagues
Let’s start with something exciting. What’s exciting, exactly? A speedy attacker is always exciting.
Running the SkillCorner numbers on this one uncovers a clear standout. His name is Bazoumana Touré, an 18-year-old left winger at Hammarby IF who moved to Sweden from Côte d’Ivoire in March of last year.
Straight away, the bells are ringing. He made an almost identical move to the aforementioned Malick Junior Yalcouyé – to Sweden from ASEC Mimosas in the spring – as well as a similarly immediate impact. Arriving a little later in pre-season, it took Bazoumana a month to settle in Stockholm before he burst into the first team with a goal on his first start – and he has stuck there, playing from the off in all but three of 18 league games since.
The graph above shows why Bazoumana is a standout – he has been the fastest forward in Scandinavia this year in a data set that includes almost 120 players. That’s impressive.
Extrapolate that to include the Big Five Leagues (Bundesliga, LaLiga, Ligue 1, Premier League, Serie A) and Bazoumana ranks among the very fastest again, up there with noted speedsters like Loïs Openda, Adama Traoré and Kylian Mbappé. That’s very impressive. His speed is a significant weapon in and of itself.
To further the point, look at how he compares to Big Five League forwards on those new Explosive Acceleration metrics we referenced above. He’s at the elite end of the elite once again, rubbing shoulders with Anthony Gordon and Gabriel Martinelli, some of the quickest movers in the game. He’s only 18 years old, don’t forget.
The Ivorian has unsurprisingly caught the eye of top European club scouts already, according to reports, and that will have been in large part due to his speed and goals coming straight out of Africa. But what about the other wrinkles of his game? Let’s start with his off-ball running.
The graph above plots the types of Runs Bazoumana has made on a per 30 TIP basis this season compared to his Hammarby team-mates with the percentile values relative to all Allsvenskan and Eliteserien wide attackers and centre-forwards. The results are interesting because he doesn’t really make that many Runs.
It’s important to keep in mind the effect factors such as team style and player role have on this kind of data. ‘Just because he doesn’t do it, doesn’t mean he can’t do it’ is an adage I live by when using data to evaluate players. Having watched a little bit of Hammarby, Bazoumana has played a lopsided wing-back role which sees him get touches in deeper areas quite regularly, and he often receives the ball to feet so he can drive at defenders in one-v-one situations. Those factors are reflected in the graph above.
I think there is very obvious upside for Bazoumana to be a much more frequent runner in behind defences and to latch on the end of crosses, both of which are situations where his Europe-leading speed and sharpness can make a game-changing difference.
There is a decent efficiency to the runs Bazoumana makes in terms of output. The above graph shows that, despite making almost 15 fewer runs than the average Scandinavian forward, his runs result in a shot for his team more than most. That’s a quirk that may reveal the potential his skillset holds.
What about his playmaking passing? Well, he tries it but doesn’t really execute, which is a good summation of his whole game to a certain extent. Again, his role comes into the equation here.
Bazoumana looks like a player with a lot of potential when you watch the videos and consult the data, but he’s probably one that needs another year at Hammarby – or a couple of intermediate steps – before he can make a consistent impact at some of the clubs he’s been linked to. That said, his freakish profile will catapult him to the top of clubs’ agendas that want to cut out the expensive middleman and get him straight from source. Expect to hear a lot more about him in the coming January transfer window, like Nypan.
A player that seems more suitable for an immediate step up is Zeidane Inoussa. The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted his name pop up in the plots above.
Inoussa is interesting because he has a bit of a history at the higher levels. He was signed by French club SM Caen as a 17-year-old from the IF Brommapojkarna academy in 2019. He spent four years on the books there, making a grand total of eight first-team appearances, but two of them were on loan at Real Murcia and Valencia’s B team in Spain’s lower leagues.
Last year saw him return to his boyhood club Brommapojkarna, who themselves had just returned to Sweden’s top flight, and he hit the ground running, ending the 2023 season with six goals in 13 games. That form preceded an off-season move to BK Häcken, a club in the best period of their history, for whom Inoussa has been a regular this year.
One to watch: Besfort Zeneli
Another young player in Sweden’s Allsvenskan to take note of is Besfort Zeneli.
That name might be familiar to you because he’s the brother of Arbër Zeneli, a playmaking winger that burst onto the scene at Elfsborg before moving to Heerenveen, Reims and Türkiye before returning to his first club this year.
Like Arbër, Besfort is cutting his teeth at Elfsborg. Last season saw him go from bit-part substitute to a first team (semi-)regular with 1,200 minutes played in the Allsvenskan, as well as a couple of starts against the likes of Roma, Galatasaray, AZ Alkmaar and Athletic Club in the UEFA Europa League group stage.
I’ve picked him out because he flagged in my deep dive of the Nypan data.
He features in that exclusive cluster of hard-running runners in Scandinavia this season, pushing the upper-echelons of the league averages. That group is a mix of late bloomers, young up-and-comers, plus an Australian international in Patrick Yazbek who sealed a €3 million move to MLS franchise Nashville in the summer – providing Viking FK a tasty 900% increase on their initial investment to sign him from Sydney FC.
Anyway, back to Zeneli. Digging a little deeper reveals that he’s listed as 1.87 metres tall. That’s a tick in the scouting box of a lot of clubs, particularly with the prevailing emphasis on duels. A little more digging suggests the Kosovo U-21 international is a passing midfielder that connects play through the thirds and provides a creative threat in higher areas. So let’s dig even more.
Boom – straight away, plenty of green. Green is good, right? In this case, yes. The graphic above shows that Zeneli is one of the most frequent passers to runners in Scandinavia this season. Not only that, he completes the majority of them. And furthermore, he attempts and completes a relatively high volume of passes into runs that carry a threat.
His retention under pressure is about the Scandinavian average. That’s something the 21-year-old will probably need to improve on if he wants to make the leap to the highest levels as a connecting midfielder.
It could be attributed to the amount of times he loses the ball under medium pressure, which is high (touching the 90th percentile) relative to other midfielders in Scandinavia. Tightening up on that aspect of his game could see his overall retention under pressure jump to a level that clubs will look for from their midfielders, but it would be interesting to see how much his role factors into it as well.
Nevertheless, Zeneli is one to watch for clubs at all kinds of levels. His mix of traits, from height to passing to running, will make him an interesting proposition for teams in different leagues. But another season at Elfsborg should be the priority for his development.
Denmark's Defusers
For Denmark, I’ve decided I want to find a proper pressure-relieving midfielder. A midfielder that can retain the ball under pressure is one of the most important profiles in the increasingly athletic, compact and competitive modern game. The very best will go for many millions.
The obvious standout is FC Nordsjælland’s Mario Dorgeles. That graph marks his Ball Retention Under High Pressure against every midfielder in Denmark and the Big Five European League in the 2024/25 season, and he’s in an elite bracket of his own, alongside Wolves’ André and Ardon Jashari of Club Brugge.
Those numbers are mad. They are also indicative of an FC Nordsjælland midfielder. Four of his FCN team-mates make that top 40 list, which underlines the emphasis the team places on retaining possession. The team average 63% possession and 651 accurate passes a game so far this season, significantly more than the next-best teams in both metrics (AGF with 55% possession and Brøndby with 478 passes).
To drill down on the ‘Nordsjælland midfielders are good under pressure’ point, all the players highlighted above are Nordsjælland midfielders. Brink, Dorgeles and Tverskov are the starters, with Sertdemir rotating in and out.
Despite there being some obvious team effects at play, Dorgeles’ data is backed up by the ol’ eye test. Watch him and you’ll see a compact left-footer that is extremely active in possession, connecting play across the pitch with zippy passing that is not only accurate but precise. It won’t be long before he makes a move to a bigger league, becoming the latest great success of the Right to Dream academy.
But who’s the next Mario Dorgeles emerging in Danish football, perhaps a player FC Nordsjælland could target to replace him and the outgoing (and similarly press-resistant) Jeppe Tverskov? Let’s have a look.
For the plot above, I’ve narrowed the data set down to Superligaen midfielders born in 2001 or later – making sure that we hit the U-23 criteria that a lot of clubs will be , not least Nordsjælland.
The results are interesting. Highlighted are the five players that retain the ball under pressure 85% of the time: off-the-scale Dorgeles along with team-mate Sertdemir, plus Noah Nartey of Brøndby and Silkeborg pair Mads Freundlich and Pelle Mattsson.
Straight off the bat, Sertdemir sticks out. His Ball Retention Under Pressure ratio puts him among the elite of the elite, although it’s important to note the fact he doesn’t play that much and he isn’t pressured as much either. Still, Nordsjælland replacing Dorgeles with Sertdemir would be a very Nordsjælland thing to do.
The standout name for me, though, is Noah Nartey. Why? Because he’s a 19-year-old that has played over 1,100 minutes for reigning champions Brøndby this season, bursting into a starting role after a promising pre-season. His data jumps off the screen.
Even when I expand the data set to include all Superligaen midfielders under the highest level of pressure, Nartey is still an obvious standout. Despite receiving the most High Pressures of any midfielder in the league, he retains the ball high pressure to an excellent standard. He profiles most similarly to Dorgeles of the select four – but the fact he plays for Brøndby means he certainly won’t be his replacement. If anything, he will move to a bigger league at the same time.
He also featured in our Team of the Year, where I chose him as one to watch in 2025.
Someone who could actually be the Dorgeles replacement is Silkeborg’s Pelle Mattsson. He profiles pretty similarly across the board to the Ivorian, and he also fits the bill of the relatively rare intra-league recruit for Nordsjælland. When they sign from rivals, they tend to cherry pick the best from the teams just below them on value deals, like they did with getting a 30-year-old Tverskov from Odense. In fact, there’s very recent precedent as they signed Mark Brink from Silkeborg last summer – and he will have an even bigger role to play once Dorgeles and Tverskov move on. Mattsson, a 23-year-old Danish youth international with over 120 appearances for Silkeborg, fits the same bill.
The bottom line? Mario Dorgeles is outstanding, Noah Nartey is the next Mario Dorgeles in Denmark, and Pelle Mattsson could well be the next Mario Dorgeles for Nordsjælland.
German value in the Scandinavian market
You would think that German clubs would be one of the most frequent buyers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden given their geographical proximity and similar cultural contexts, but you’d be wrong.
While German clubs dip into neighbouring Denmark from time to time, Norway and Sweden aren’t as high on their agenda as they probably should be. Italian clubs are much more active in this market, for example, which feels like an oversight on the Bundesliga’s behalf.
According to Transfermarkt, 2016 was the last time a Bundesliga club paid over €1 million for a player from Norway’s Eliteserien; that was Iver Fossum. There have only ever been ten €1+ million moves from Sweden’s Allsvenskan to the Germany top flight, two of which include Alexander Isak to Borussia Dortmund and Hugo Larsson to Eintracht Frankfurt. While the former had to move to fulfil his potential, the latter is doing it as one of the league’s most promising young players.
There’s an argument that German clubs should place a much greater emphasis on Scandinavia as a source of talent.
The plot above is as good an argument as any: if you’re a good athlete in Scandinavia, you’re a good athlete in the Bundesliga. The top-flight of German football profiles pretty similarly to Superligaen, while the Eliteserien and Allsvenskan are more explosive in the data. There’s not much of a discrepancy between the top-end attribute of PSV-99 either.
But who could Bundesliga clubs target? I’ve picked out quite a few already. Sverre Halseth Nypan is the obvious one. He’s in the same bracket as Hugo Larsson, a highly-rated midfielder coming out of Scandinavia as a starter for one of its biggest clubs and better teams. Mario Dorgeles and Noah Nartey as well. All three would be fantastic (and very typical) signings for Eintracht Frankfurt, let alone their rivals with similar platforms.
Bazoumana Touré is another. His profile and potential is the key selling point. While he may not be ready for a regular role yet, his speed and directness down the left wing combined with the fact he started most games for second-place Hammarby as an 18-year-old straight out of Africa are attributes clubs will want to take an informed punt on. He’s another that your Eintracht Frankfurts and RB Leipzig’s will have high on their shortlists.
More important than anything, all those fall in the ‘buy relatively low, sell very high’ bracket that Larsson does too. A €10 million investment could see a return of €50 million if everything falls into place. Nypan is certainly of that calibre, while Dorgeles and Nartey have the press-evading profiles that many of the richest clubs covet, and Bazoumana is a freaky wing prospect.
Zeidane Inoussa, Besfort Zeneli and Pelle Mattsson are ones of clubs in the lower half of the table – or perhaps some of the bigger clubs in the second division, of which there are plenty of historic powerhouses – to look at. I see no reason why a prospect like Inoussa couldn’t be an affordable yet impactful option for a team like Union Berlin, for example.
The future of the Scandinavian market
The future of Scandinavian football is exciting. Promising home-grown generations are coming through, and they’re supplemented by a flowing pipeline of dynamic African talent using Scandinavia as the gateway to Europe.
Scandinavian clubs are finally starting to see the profits their hard work deserves, too. Superligaen sales have gone through the roof in recent years – there have been five €15+ million sales since 2023, powered by Right to Dream and Nordsjælland primarily – while the prices are trending upwards in Norway and Sweden with records being broken year after year. Expect that trend to continue as more and more clubs see the value in Scandinavia.
What we may see more and more is the better Scandinavian talent (of all ages, not just the youngest ones) moving to MLS. Not only is the transition fairly seamless in terms of linguistics, culture and football, but MLS franchises often have the financial muscle to stump up the fees Scandinavian clubs should be asking for – and some clubs in the more typical ‘stepping stone’ leagues or even big European competitions can’t or won’t.
Like Scandinavia, MLS is a market that’s presenting exciting opportunities. Recent rule changes have meant U-22 players are more valuable than ever for franchises to target and their success as a stepping stone to the Big Five European leagues is burgeoning with every season and transfer window.
If MLS franchises have been focussed purely on unearthing the South American gems, the smartest will now start to cut them into a rough shape before Europe’s elite apply the polish.
Just recently, Inter Miami flipped Diego Gómez to Brighton for a club-record fee. Jake Entwistle highlighted even more examples in his recent analytical epic, which you can read for free, now you’re done with this one.
Written by Llew Davies.
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