When Erling Haaland looks across the centre circle at kick-off on Wednesday night he may, at first, wonder whether he has glimpsed his own reflection. RB Leipzig have the option of fielding a young, 6ft 4in product of the Red Bull Salzburg machine with a prolific goalscoring record to accompany frightening physical and technical attributes. Benjamin Sesko is destined to become a household name and could press himself into the wider consciousness during Manchester City’s visit to Germany.
Sesko and Haaland were ships in the night when, four years ago, they briefly coincided on Salzburg’s books. While the Norwegian earned himself a move to Borussia Dortmund, his junior clubmate was scoring goals in the Uefa Youth League and taking notes on first-team games from the side. As far as Sesko remembers there was just one meeting between the pair when travelling to different matches from the local airport. “It was interesting to look at him because he’s the same height and some movements are the same,” says Sesko. “At this point you think ‘I want to be like him’ but when you start to play a little bit you want to be yourself. But it’s really good to have learned from him and in some ways it has helped me a lot.”
In others, Sesko has not needed the assistance. At 20 he is a totemic figure for his national team, Slovenia, and made headlines when scoring a remarkable left-foot volley in a Euro 2024 qualifier with Sweden last September. Last month he opened his account for Leipzig, to whom he beat a well-trodden path in August despite heavy interest from Manchester United, with two excellent finishes at Union Berlin. Two and a half weeks later he emerged from the bench to add the third goal in a 3-1 Champions League win at Young Boys. Sesko still has rough edges but he is hurtling past the milestones.
It could have been different. Sesko’s father, Ales, was a goalkeeper in the family’s hometown Radece, located midway between Ljubljana and Zagreb. “He was the same height as me and we played a lot of football together,” Sesko remembers. “At the start he wanted me to be a keeper too but I said to him: ‘Look, it’s really boring, I can’t do it any more!’”
He began playing outfield and, via a false start in defence, found his calling. “I was playing centre-back and I always took the ball and tried to score goals. It was always goals, goals, goals and that’s why I became a striker.”
Salzburg eventually picked him up from the Slovenian side Domzale, their development plan for the player fending off interest from more storied names around Europe. Their capacity to succession plan, to ensure the next big thing is ready and waiting each year, is without parallel and particularly remarkable given classic centre-forwards are increasingly hard to find at youth levels. Sesko spent two seasons on loan at Liefering, essentially Salzburg’s farm club, before establishing himself at senior level. In 2022-23 he scored 18 times; by then Haaland and, later, the current Borussia Dortmund forward Karim Adeyemi had left sizeable boots to fill but Sesko cites other influences on his style.
Sesko scores against Young Boys in the opening Champions League Group G game last month. Photograph: Alessandro Della Valle/EPA
“Zlatan Ibrahimovic was my idol,” he says. “I’m not saying I play like him but he was having fun, enjoying himself on the pitch, doing what he wanted to do. It makes me really happy when I see that kind of player. Every single video I could find, I was looking at him.”
Sesko admits that, in a parallel universe, he might have opted for a basketball career. Playing casually remains one of his favourite hobbies and he regards Giannis Antetokounmpo, star of the Milwaukee Bucks in NBA, with awe. As a youngster he would finish football training, get changed and switch sports immediately. Making that a more formal arrangement “went through my head” at times but now he is on track to become one of the world’s best in his first sport.
It has been a rapid rise and occasionally he has to remind himself things will not always click straight away. “I’m very happy on this stage and want to score more and more,” he says. “Sometimes I have to stop myself and say: ‘Look, this can take time and then it’s going to work.’ But I’m really, really happy with the start.”
Things will get considerably better if he can fire Leipzig, who drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich on Saturday but let a two-goal lead slip, to victory over City. They lost 7-0 at the Etihad in last season’s last 16 second leg – Haaland scoring five – but, in two home games against Pep Guardiola’s side, have managed a win and a draw. Is there any hope of a repeat?
“We have the quality for that, it’s not in question,” he says. “But if we are not 100% there is not a chance. It can be hard for them, as we have a great team and can show a lot.”
United are credited with a continued interest in Sesko and a cross-city rivalry between Haaland and his younger counterpart would feel a natural end point. A Premier League move appears a matter of time either way, given his present trajectory, but he is predictably coy on the prospect. “It’s hard to say what will happen. I could be great or not that great. Of course it would be nice to play there, but first of all let’s focus on right now and we will see what happens later.”
Some of Sesko’s teammates have half-joked that he is better than Haaland. The prospect of that is extraordinary. Perhaps he will have a chance to outshine his old colleague on Wednesday but, regardless of the outcome, he hopes it shows those watching that he is carving a path of his own. “I do not love to compare myself to anyone,” he says. “I love to be myself.”
