Simon Bank: Isak went in as a talent - stepped out like a star
https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/ ... en-stjarna
(Software translation)
Spend years striving, dedicating a life to struggling, fighting wildly to become all you can.
Careers will always be built from the moment.
Alexander Isak joined Santiago Bernabéu as a talent, a few hours ago. By the time he stepped out, he had become a star.
This is not a time, when things happen in a vaccuum. There is not a football match at any level played in the shade, not a dream goal or a remarkable statistical task that is more than a [deleted] press away from a twitter feed.
Anyone who wants can see everything.
But there are still events that reach all the way, even to those who hardly even want to see.
And, yes, Alexander Isak from Ulriksdal has just broken through every attention-grabbing thing that is out there.
As I write this, he gives match hero interviews in English and corrects a reporter congratulating him on his three goals against Real Madrid.
He only did two, one was sentenced for offside. Sad. But it must go anyway: La Real from San Sebastián has danced into the proudest arena in the football world, and after 90 minutes they danced in the center circle after sending in four goals and sending Real Madrid out of the cup. For Real Sociedad, it is a step to the semi-finals, with a young, sexy team that can break the best.
Yes, they did.
Real without the airbag
Martin Ödegaard's Norwegian gold feet float in from one edge (he is 21 years old), Oyarzabal shoots forward on the other (he too), and at the front, Alexander Isak combines soft feet with a rock hard beat and is behind everything.
Ödegaard is owned by Madrid, Alexander Isak was halfway to writing before he chose Dortmund.
Real Madrid played without the airbag Casemiro, but that is an explanation more than an excuse. Zinedine Zidane had never conceded four goals as coach for this team, his team had played 20 straight without losing at all, and they probably wouldn't have done it now, even if it wasn't for a Swedish striker.
Alexander Isak is 20 years old, he scores in every match nowadays, and if you make it away to Real Madrid you will notice. If you send in a dream volley and a thunderbolt at Santiago Bernabéu, the whole world will be watching.
If you can make it here, make it anywhere.
If it matters? Obviously it does. I never doubted Alexander Isaac's talent or personality, there was something so obvious about him already when he struck out as a sixteen-year-old, both on and off the pitch, that it felt like he could give himself the chance.
This is what he goes for
The rest is about dealing with what's coming: the chances you get - and the ones you don't get.
Alexander passed through the tundra in Dortmund, he found out right in the Dutch provinces, and afterwards he had spent enough playing minutes in La Real to show what he was going for.
And this is what he goes for.
Eleven goals on eleven matches, a double in Madrid, and on the bench sat Willian José and felt how he fell into the internal chopping order.
Almost a year ago I saw Real Madrid drop four goals here, against an Ajax who was so young and youthful that they had to sit on each other's knees on the flight to Madrid. They were 21 and 22 years old, they were called things like De Jong and De Ligt, I wrote that "they are boys, but they are not any". They became world stars that night, their lives changed during that match, their price tags as well.
Another breakthrough
Copa del Rey is not a Champions League, but I am absolutely convinced that it was another breakthrough we saw tonight. Alexander Isaac has his understanding of the game, his timing, his step and his finishing ability. He can still develop his main game and his head in decisive positions, but it will be long before he enters a match like anyone again.
Now he is a player who can lower Real Madrid, a player that everyone will want to see from the start in the European Championships, a player who has stopped being a talent and become something else.
Alexander Isak is still only 20 years old, in many ways he is still just a boy.
But he is not anyone. No longer.