With Manchester United taking a look at one of the most exciting young strikers on the market, comparisons with Red Devils forwards of happier times continue to come thick and fast.
The reportedly £50 million-rated frontman has already been likened to both Dimitar Berbatov and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Despite his 6ft 4ins frame, one of Manchester United‘s summer targets possesses the elegance and the swaggering stylishness to bely a build usually more suited to classic targetmen.
If the phrase ‘good touch for a big man’ was invented for players like Berbatov and Ibrahimovic, then Joshua Zirkzee is also a fitting recipient of such a description.
The Dutch international is a major reason why Bologna will be playing Champions League football for the very first time next season, Man United reportedly sending scouts to watch him as well as Atalanta duo Teun Koopmeiners and Giorgio Scalvini just after the close of the January window.
Manchester United consider Bologna striker Joshua Zurkzee
Not so long ago, Zirkzee was struggling for minutes on loan at Parma, serious questions asked about whether the one-time Bayern Munich starlet would ever live up to the potential that had Manuel Neuer labelling him a ‘crazy’ talent.
Under the similarly United-linked Thiago Motta at Bologna, however, Zirkzee has made massive steps in the right direction.
So much so that his former coach with the Dutch youth sides is now mentioning Zirkzee in the same breath as another former Manchester United star, the 22-year-old now earning comparisons with Robin van Persie as well as Berbatov and Zlatan.
“He has developed, also in his mentality,” Kees van Wonderen tells Rondo on Ziggo Sport. “The hard work, investing and playing a part in the defensive tasks of your team, he used to have much less of that. He didn’t think that was important.
“(Zirkzee) lived for scoring goals. He, of course, has very important qualities in the final third. Scoring goals is his quality.”
“I just made the comparison with Van Persie,” adds Van Wonderen, who may yet be replacedin the Heerenven dugout by the man who fired Man United to the Premier League title in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season.
“When you saw (Van Persie) at Arsenal, (he had) a completely different way of looking at things.”
The new Robin van Persie?
Van Wonderen’s final message to Zirkzee is to continue to ‘open your eyes and translate that full effort into what is required in contemporary football’.
Now, Man United are expected to prioritise a new centre-forward this summer. And while Zirkzee might not be quite as prolific as Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres or as explosive as RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, his more cerebral, subtle approach could earn him a place near the top of Ineos’ wishlist.
In contrast to Gyokeres and Sesko – two battering ram number nines who share a lot of characteristics with Rasmus Hojlund – Zirkzee is a completely different profile who would give the Red Devils a genuine different dimension.
Not quite a number nine or a number ten but something in between, Zirkzee shares that Berbatov-esque ability to drift between the lines, creating openings for his team-mates with his clever movement and vision.
It is not difficult to imagine Zirkzee – who has seven assists to go with his 12 goals this season – helping to get a lot more out of Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes.
“Joshua is a modern striker,” Bologna team-mate Lorenzo de Silvestri tells Tuttomercatoweb. “He is modern because he links the game and communicates with the team. He is a technical leader because he takes on great responsibilities.
“I wish him the best because he is working so hard. He combines his physical power with wonderful technique. He has (also) changed the way he trains.
“This year he is doing it in an incredible way.”