Alexander Isak, the prodigy who thrived in La Liga, can thrill Newcastle

Alexander Isak has joined Newcastle for a club-record fee but anyone who believes the pressure that comes with a move of that magnitude may faze the 22-year-old should think again. Because if there is one thing Isak has been doing throughout his career it is breaking records.

In January 2017, on his second appearance for Sweden, he became his country’s youngest goalscorer at the age of 17. He took one touch with the outside of his right foot in the penalty area before a slightly scuffed shot with his left found its way past the Slovakia goalkeeper (a certain Martin Dubravka), beating a record that had stood for 105 years. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as a comparison, scored his first international goal at the age of 20.

The year before, Isak had become AIK’s youngest goalscorer in a competitive game aged 16 years, five months and seven days. Soon after he was his club’s youngest goalscorer in the Swedish top flight and he celebrated his 17th birthday by scoring twice against arch-rivals Djurgården.

But despite having so much success so early Isak has remained incredibly humble and hard-working. His career has not been straightforward despite a move to Borussia Dortmund a few weeks after that first goal for Sweden. At Dortmund he became a victim of a power struggle between the then manager, Thomas Tuchel, and the board. The current Chelsea coach was not involved in the decision to sign Isak and gave him few chances. In fact, Isak played only four minutes for the German, in a cup game when Dortmund were 3-0 up.

Tuchel left that summer but Isak still struggled and it was not until after a move to Real Sociedad in the summer of 2019 that he got his breakthrough. He is not one to have regrets though and, asked in 2020 whether he was