A coffee wagon that has been converted into a portable video analysis hub is making its way back into the FC Nordsjaelland (FCN) training base when the sudden thud of football on crossbar brings it to a halt.
It is the very specific sound of a Conrad Harder effort on goal, a missile that can be launched by his left foot, right foot or head — one that Manchester City will come face-to-face with on Tuesday when they take on his new side, Sporting Lisbon, in the Champions League.
On The Athletic’s visit to Nordsjaelland in the summer, analysts linger in the centre of the pitch to observe this crossing and finishing competition between Harder and reserve goalkeeper William Lykke, also 19, at the end of training.
𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 🔟✂️
𝐅𝐞𝐣𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 🔟🥳Conrad Harder 👏💥#sldk pic.twitter.com/D6dUQftGWP
— FC Nordsjælland 🐯 (@FCNordsjaelland) January 27, 2024
Former Chelsea and Ghana midfielder Michael Essien, now the assistant manager at Nordsjaelland, is on crossing duty and there is barely a delivery across the 20 minutes that is not devoured by Harder.
The Dane can do finesse but, when it comes to his preferred finishing style, it is Harder by name, harder by nature. Even the under-10 team’s training session was paused as the youngsters watched and gasped in disbelief.
There is no waiting for the ball to drop. Harder takes on every shot as early as possible. He strikes volleys as if seeing the ball like a watermelon and, when it is airborne, his hang-time is reminiscent of a certain Portuguese forward.
“My idol was Cristiano Ronaldo… but then Erling Haaland came along,” Harder tells The Athletic once the session is complete.
It is helpful that the teenager introduces Manchester City star Haaland into the conversation himself. As a tall Scandinavian striker with bulging thighs, bouncing blond hair and a left foot with the power to outpace Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking technology, the comparison is inescapable. Five years Haaland’s junior, Harder does not want talk of the Norway international to become an albatross around his neck. “He is a really good player and I’m watching his game to try to learn and go in this direction,” Harder says.
“People compare a lot, especially with (Manchester United’s Danish forward Rasmus) Hojlund, who is also scoring goals now, but I don’t want to be one of them. I just want to be my own (man). That is the way I think.”
This conversation took place in July and, since then, the Danish striker has been involved in a transfer tug-of-war, rejecting Brighton & Hove Albion on deadline day to sign for Ruben Amorim’s Sporting in a €20million (£16.8m; $22.1m) transfer.
So far he has come off the bench in two of Sporting’s Champions League matches and on his league debut registered his first goal and assist against Avs FS. He added a brace against Portimonense in the Taca de Portugal last month.
From the sidelines, Harder looks huge, but up close his boyish appearance is startling. Nicknamed ‘Mosquito’ by Nordsjaelland team-mate Mario Dorgeles due to his fear of those insects when visiting the Right to Dream academy in Ghana two years ago, he conveys the aura of someone who already sees himself as a leader in the team.
During FCN’s small-sided training games with rolling substitutions, Harder’s competitive edge is obvious as he laments goalkeeping mistakes and harries defenders as if his life depends on it. He is more of an all-round player than a pure poacher but it is clear he lives for scoring goals, which is why he is described by some at FCN as “goal horny” — a Danish way of saying he is not overly happy when he does not put the ball in the back of the net.
Harder in action against Fenerbahce in last season’s Europa Conference League (Sergei Gapon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Harder was having his breakout year with Nordsjaelland but, such is his talent, it was curtailed by that deadline-day transfer tussle between Brighton and Sporting, with Italy’s Napoli the other interested party earlier in the summer.
Clubs had been aware of his talent for some time, due to his goalscoring record for Nordsjaelland at youth level. He got 15 in 18 games for the under-17s, and 26 in 22 for the under-19s, but he still had to be patient before breaking into the first team.
Harder made his senior debut in the final game of the 2022-23 season and then made 33 appearances across all competitions in the last one — just nine from the start — scoring seven goals. In the early weeks of this season, he had started all six league games, scoring twice in a 2-2 draw with Midtjylland and producing a clever assist for what turned out to be the winner as they beat FC Copenhagen 3-2.
The plan was never for Harder to move on during the summer window. Indeed, Brighton were originally looking at next summer as the ideal time to pounce, but Sporting coming in so strongly forced them to act earlier.
This was to be Harder’s first season as a regular starter for Nordsjaelland, where he would be given space to develop and adjust to senior football. He even signed a new four-year contract in the summer, a step that underlined that intent, but money talks and, once the threshold of €20m was breached, the club had to accept he was off.
The pathway presented by Brighton was for him to go out on loan before becoming a first-team player. In their favour they had evidence of managing a phased integration from Danish football to the Premier League as they signed Simon Adingra from FCN in summer 2022 before sending him to Belgian sister side Union Saint-Gilloise for a season. He returned a more experienced player and is now an important part of the Brighton squad.
Although Viktor Gyokeres is the main man at Sporting, they could offer Harder an immediate role in the squad and, ultimately, that swayed his decision. It was earlier than those who have overseen his development would have liked him to make that step and there is the risk that such a leap this early into his career could be too much, but he backs himself and believes he will be a success in Portugal. The riches of Premier League football will always be on offer if that is the case.
Nordsjaelland have sold over £90m worth of African talent developed at their Right To Dream academy in Ghana, but Harder was the latest off the conveyor belt from their Danish academy, with Andreas Skov Olsen of Belgium’s Club Bruges and Brentford duo Mikkel Damsgaard and Mathias Jensen all previously moving for sizeable fees.
Adingra has excelled at Brighton (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Harder’s decision to move to Sporting was not the first tough call he has had to make. At 14, he decided to leave FC Copenhagen and move to Nordsjaelland.
“I didn’t develop as much as I wanted, so I wanted a new challenge and FCN was a good option for me,” Harder explains.
“I don’t know if there is a secret (in the way Nordsjaelland operate), but there are so many coaches around you all the time, working on the details at every training, it definitely helps. It is easy to go in the first-team squad, as you have been learning the same playing style the whole way.”
Harder may want to avoid too many comparisons with Haaland and Hojlund, but he does share an agent with the latter’s two younger twin brothers, Oscar and Emil, who play in Germany for Eintracht Frankfurt and Schalke respectively.
People at Nordsjaelland always knew he was destined for big things. They just did not expect that day to come so soon.
Whether Harder is ready is another question, but he does not come across as a teenager who will be daunted by a price tag or the shadows of Scandinavian strikers looming large.
(Top photo: Maciej Rogowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)