Benjamin Sesko, who has been with Red Bull Salzburg for three and a half years, already leaves his mark. That’s where Benjamin Sesko is now.
“We were in the gym one day,” former Salzburg midfielder Zlatko Junuzovic remembers. “Benji said: ‘Let me show you something’. He then jumped up, and touched the ceiling using his foot. You should know that it was a high ceiling. This was something he enjoyed doing. In training, he’d never head or chest the ball if he could kick it instead.”
It seems everyone in Upper Austria has got a similar story about the forward’s impressive jumping power and flexibility. One high-ranking official walking around the club campus was surprised to see the 1.95m Slovenian take flight to kick a basketball that was wedged between the basket and the board one day, a feat that’s since been recorded for posterity.
@nxgn.football Nope. Benjamin Sesko is not human 🤯 This video is from when he was 14 years old! 😱 Even Zlatan Ibrahimovic would be proud 🤝 📹: IG @pro_transfer_agency #fyp #football #basketball #footballtiktok #goal #soccer #zlatan #nba #sesko
Before turning his attention to football at 16, he had been a promising player in handball and basketball. In an effort to convert him, both federations invited him on to their national teams. But, in the end football won.
Born in the small town of Radece, an hour’s drive east from the capital Ljubljana, Sesko was considered a hot prospect when he was barely in his teens. Sesko was taller than his father Ales who was a goalkeeper at the local soccer club. However, he played as a quick centre-forward. He scored more than 50 goals in a single season and was offered a place in the academy by NK Domzale, a first-division club. He received offers from Bayern Munich a year later. Borussia Dortmund, Manchester CityAjax, many other clubs, but chose to go to Salzburg.
The Austrians had prepared a detailed plan for him that included playing adult football at SV Liefering in the second Division before moving up into Salzburg. RB LeipzigIf he wanted to, he could. Just like the many vertically integrated RB products such as Mergimberisha Mergim Berisha Dominik Szoboszlai Amadou Haidara and Dayot Upamecano before him.
Sesko’s agent and his family considered RB’s tried-and-tested in-house progression a safer bet than going to a bigger side. They would have either put him on their second team or loaned his name to another team in another league.
Salzburg paid Domzale €2.5million (£2.2m; $2.47m) in transfer fees, which was considered a big sum for a 16-year-old. However, not all RB employees were immediately sold on the gangly center-forward. Christopher Vivell, technical director, was later transferred to Leipzig and will soon return to Chelsea, was one of the player’s early champions. Sesko struggled to compete against grown-ups. Sesko only managed one league goal in his first season of Liefering.
After his 17th birthday, his last growth spurt ended and he was able to really find his stride. Bo Svensson, now the Mainz 05 manager, earned him a promotion from Salzburg. He scored 21 goals in 29 league matches. He was a star in his first match despite a rather average but not sensational total of 11 goals in 37 matches. Champions League campaign and inevitable comparisons followed: local newspapers either described him as the “new Ibra” after his role model Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or the new Erling Haaland. It wasn’t just lazy journalism.
Like Manchester City’s Norwegian forward, he was ridiculously fast — in one game, his pace was measured at 36km/h — strong in the air and on the ground, equally good on his left and right, but also incredibly smooth on the ball. Salzburg believed that he could become a star himself if he was able to continue to grow and find more consistency.
“I’m not a fan of comparing players. Erling Haaland is Erling Haaland. Benjamin Sesko is Benjamin Sesko,” Salzburg manager Matthias Jaissle tells The Athletic. But the 34-year-old agrees that the player has “all the prerequisites for a great career: the necessary physicality and technique that belies his height”.
Sesko scored two goals for Slovenia this season, including a Van-Bastenesque volley. SwedenSix goals for his club and he scored a whopping 63.
Spiš mirno, Marco van Basten?! 🤩😤😱 #Srcebije 🇸🇮 pic.twitter.com/9zJ9nebhBr
— Sportklub Slovenija (@Sport_Klub_Slo) September 27, 2022
But he’s yet to really get going.
Junuzovic, who was sitting next to him in the change room last season, believes that an exciting summer transfer window, which began with a lot of interest, is about to begin. Manchester United ChelseaHis signing of a deal with RB Leipzig next season has increased the pressure for him to perform.
“It’s not an ideal situation for him to receive that much attention. He’s still very young and improving as a player, there’s been a lot of noise for him to deal with,” the former Austria international and current Liefering assistant coach says. “But moving to Leipzig next summer rather than to a much bigger club straightaway will help him develop as a player. It’s similar in many ways. They will give him time to work on himself and on his game at a higher level.”
Junuzovic describes Sesko as a “very normal, down-to-earth guy” who rarely lets his hair down. Like many who have seen him close-up, he’s in awe of his athleticism. “He’s got the perfect body for a striker, he’s got it all,” the 35-year-old says. “Like Haaland, he’s honed his game at an early age and is brutally efficient in front of goal.”
If there’s anything missing, Junuzovic adds, it’s “that total willingness and drive to get into good shooting positions — because he’s so good on the ball, he’ll often come short and will look for a team-mate rather than make that run into the box”.
If that unselfish streak is the worst that can be said about one of the purest No 9s in the making, the Taxham gym won’t be the last ceiling that can’t hold him.
(Top photo: Hans Peter Lottermoser/SEPA.Media /Getty Images)
