Player Focus: Hiljemark the Latest Prospect Picked Up by Palermo
In Sweden, he is the most talked about Oscar since the last of Ingmar Bergman’s Academy awarding winning films in 1983. The name is Hiljemark. Oscar Hiljemark. On Saturday night, he once again had the critics writing glittering reviews. “A revelation” went the consensus. Gracing the Scala del Calcio for the first time in his young career, Hiljemark treaded the boards undaunted. Under the San Siro lights, a star, already born, ascended further. He almost rudely upstaged the protagonist of his hosts, Carlos Bacca.
Twice Palermo fell behind to Milan. Twice Hiljemark got the Sicilians back into the game. “He drove [his fellow 23-year-old] Mattia de Sciglio, a player whom some considered the new Paolo Maldini, crazy,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport. Hiljemark got the better of him at a corner to head in Palermo’s first equaliser. Then for his second he picked up the ball just within Milan’s half, played a series of give and go passes with Franco Vazquez, and auditioned for a role in The Illusionist. A triangle was completed with ex-Milan striker Alberto Gilardino and de Sciglio disappeared into it, as Hiljemark slotted the ball past goalkeeper Diego Lopez.
The pink made him the Rosanero’s Man of the Match. Their fantasy football columnist hailed the Scandinavian as “a viking with soft feet.” So far he has represented great value to all fantacalcio players. Hiljemark’s goals at the weekend weren’t his first for his new club. He bundled in a cross from his compatriot Robin Quaison against Carpi the previous Sunday to open the scoring in a 2-2 draw at the Favorita. Like Daniele Baselli, another child of `92, here’s a midfield player who has started the season with what in Italy they call the piede caldo - the hot foot. Hiljemark is on fire. So confident is he at the moment that he is trying his luck more frequently than any of his new teammates [once every 27.9 minutes].
- Oscar Hiljemark to score anytime vs Sassuolo at 6.00 with Bet365 -
It’s been quite a year for him. He captained Sweden’s Under-21s to improbable glory at the European Championships this summer. There’s a case to be made that Håkan Ericson’s side wouldn’t have even made it to the Czech Republic without Hiljemark. Held by Turkey in Istanbul, beaten by Poland in Krakow and trounced 5-1 by Greece in Katerini, at one stage they didn’t even look like reaching the play-off. The odds were against them. Sweden needed to beat Turkey in Halmstad last September and for results elsewhere to go their way. Up 3-1 with six minutes to left on the clock, disaster struck when Kerim Koyunlu pulled one back and Enes Ünal, now of Man City, equalised. Cometh the 92nd minute. Cometh the man. Hiljemark clinched a thrilling winner for Sweden while Greece did them a favour by condemning Poland to a late defeat.
Huge underdogs in the play-off against a France team that included Florian Thauvin, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Gianelli Imbula and Layvin Kurzawa [all of whom were involved in transfers this summer worth a combined €98.35m], not to mention Aymeric Laporte, they overturned a 2-0 loss in Le Mans with a stunning 4-1 win back in Scandi. A goal down and a man down after less than half an hour in their group stage opener against Italy, they again did the inexplicable, coming back to win a game that had looked beyond them.
Sunk next time out by a hapless England side, Sweden found themselves behind again and contemplating an early elimination with only two minutes to play against tournament favourites Portugal only for Simon Tibbing to score a last gasp leveller and book them a place in the knock-out stages at Italy’s expense. In the semis Hiljemark would help humiliate Denmark in a Scandinavian derby, putting the cherry on top of a sweet 4-1 win with a goal in the 94th minute. Four of the Blågult’s seven goals had come in the 83rd or later.
Written off ahead of the final in Prague against a Portugal team boasting Bernardo Silva, Joao Mario and William Carvalho, Sweden had taught the football world a lesson they weren’t yet ready to learn: Never write off Sweden. A midsommar’s dream, they were destiny’s team. It was like their name was written on the trophy and quite incredibly Hiljemark would lift it aloft after they prevailed in a penalty shootout.
Palermo know a thing or two about scouting young talent and so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they had someone at the Euros. Just think of some of the players they have discovered down the years: Javi Pastore, Edi Cavani, Paulo Dybala and, closer to home than South America in Scandinavia, Simon Kjaer.
One can understand why Hiljemark caught the eye in the Czech Republic. No player completed more dribbles for Sweden [6] and only one player made more key passes [7]. He was available too. Hampered by injury last season as PSV claimed the Eredivisie for the first time since 2008, Palermo sensed an opportunity. “The idea came out of a conversation my agent had with Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini,” Hiljemark told La Gazzetta. Quaison, who joined from AIK last summer, also sold the club to him and just like that a deal was done for a bargain €2.5m.
It looks like smart business. This is an imperfect science but the last four Under-21 European Championship winning captains haven’t exactly done badly for themselves: Sami Khedira, Javi Martinez and Thiago Alcantara. All have been unlucky with injury and let’s hope Hiljemark can stay healthy. Upon receiving the No.10 shirt from Palermo, he revealed: “I admired Maradona and Zidane, now Messi and Pirlo. But I am just Oscar, a box-to-box midfielder.” A Swedish Marchisio. That’s how he is being talked about. Palermo like nothing more than to buy low and sell high. Might Hiljemark be the latest player in that now long tradition.
What have you made of Hiljemark's start to life in Serie A? Let us know in the comments below
