Next 'Zlatan Ibrahimovic' Patrik Schick has all the talent to fulfill his grand potential at Juventus

Lukáš Vráblik 16:25 26/06/2017
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  • Star of the future: Patrik Schick.

    In the space of two months, Patrik Schick has had to deal with two pretty lofty comparisons.

    On April 23, Sampdoria’s official Twitter account made a bold declaration: “Dennis Bergkamp who? Meet Patrik Schick.”

    The reason was a stunning goal the 21-year-old had scored against Crotone; receiving a pass with his back to goal, he quickly flicked it over centre-back Gianmarco Ferrari, darted into the penalty area and finished without any hesitation. It was eerily reminiscent of Bergkamp’s famous flick around Nikos Dabizas to score for Arsenal against Newcastle in 2002.

    On June 1, it was the turn of fellow Czech Pavel Nedved who, in trying to court his countryman to Turin, said: “Schick reminds me of Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] from the time when he came [to Juventus] in 2004. He was 23 back then, and he had slim arms and quite few muscles.”

    It was perhaps no great surprise that three weeks later, Juventus with Nedved appointed vice chairman at the club where he made his name in 2015, were paying €30 million (Dh123.34m) to bring the forward to the Bianconeri, earmarked as a long-term successor to Gonzalo Higuain.

    Schick left the Czech Republic Under-21 camp on Wednesday, a few hours after helping the national side beat Italy in the European Championships 3-1 to undergo his medical and seal a move to the 33-time Scudetto winners.

    Internazionale, Napoli, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund all wanted him and had scouted him extensively, but Juve spent €5m (Dh20.55m) above his release clause to get him.

    Zlatan Ibrahimovic

    Free agent: Zlatan.

    Nedved added: “He has a big future ahead of him. I think that he has the right mindset and if he will want it bad enough, he can make a big career. He has to work a lot to improve and in order to become the greatest, but he has enough talent to do it.”

    Meterioric rise is a term liberally used in football but in Schick’s case, from not being able to get into Sparta Prague’s first team to signing for the world’s second-best side in less than two years, it is accurate.

    Schick’s signing has certainly been one of Sampdoria’s best deals in recent history and is testament to their own scouting network.

    In his home country, Schick couldn’t get in Sparta Prague’s line-up and he spent 2015/2016 season on a loan at mid-table Bohemians, the club most well-known for being the home of legend Antonin Pane-nka, who now serves as chairman.

    He scored just seven goals in 27 league games for Bohemians, who finished 13th of 16 teams in the Czech First League, and despite playing only 35 league minutes in total for Sparta, Samp gambled €4m (Dh16.4m) on developing him.

    However, at the beginning of his time in Italy, Schick struggled to breakthrough, due to not speaking the language and feeling homesick as he struggled to settle in Genoa.

    “He got into the starting line-up only after three months. I was very sad in the start, but it was vital that I refused to give up,” he revealed earlier this year.

    Call it luck or fate, but the fact he marked his full Serie A debut on October 26 with a goal 12 minutes into the second-half against Juventus proved somewhat prophetic.

    “It was the first time I saw him. For me, it was immediately a shock to see such a young player to shoot with his elegance and quickness. He showed great skills,” Gaetano Mocciaro of tuttomercatoweb.com recalls.

    It still took him time to earn a regular spot in Marco Giampaolo’s attack, though, with veteran Fabio Quagliarella and Colombian Luis Muriel first choices, limited Schick to sporadic substitute appearances until he nailed down a place at the turn of the year.

    From January 7 to the end of the season, he averaged a Serie A goal or assist every 118 minutes. And while his production doesn’t necessarily leap out it was the nature of how he was scoring.

    “The value of this boy rises by €10 million each time he nutmegs an opponent. And that happens every two seconds,” Italian Football Daily’s journalist Fede Manasse joked.

    To view Schick’s highlights offers a snapshot of the Ibrahimovic and Bergkamp similarities: at 6ft 1ins he’s not outrageously tall but has a thin frame which exaggerates his height.But he’s in that exclusive and unique group of lean strikers who have an elegance and gracefulness on the ball: Berbatov, Ibrahimovic, Bergkamp – you get the picture.

    “I have seen many players who arrived as already famous and failed in the first season. For example, Thierry Henry or Dennis Bergkamp in the past, or not so long time ago Edin Dzeko,” Mocciaro adds.

    “Tactically, Serie A is still the hardest championship in the world. A player from abroad needs time to adapt to different defenders and especially different way of defending. Very seldom a foreign player has such as big impact in Italy and you would never imagine a player from a mediocre Czech team make it.”

    Patrik Schick.

    The Czech star enjoyed a stellar time with Sampdoria.

    Given he’s barely a ‘half-season wonder’, there has to be a degree of trepidation in terms of managing expectations around Schick and weather he can make the next step up.

    From unknown prospect to Serie A sensation; he’s barely established himself as a household name in his home country, yet is now the third-most expensive under-21 player in Serie A history.

    As he remarked earlier this month, he never picks himself when playing on FIFA 17. Not because of modesty but because the game’s creators were taken by surprise just as much as anyone else and he’s just really mediocre in the game.

    There was always concern that despite his technical brilliance, Schick’s inability to work for the team would hold him back but it seems a combination of Serie A’s discipline and the grounding he gets from his family have helped him blossom.

    Ivo Taborsky, chief scout at International Sports Management who have Schick as a client, says: ‘Patrik has great parents and that is very important. They brought him as young to Sparta not with a conviction that their son would make amazing money. They just wanted him to enjoy his game.

    “From the start, it was clear that he can become an exceptional player.

    “Over the 17 years I have spent in this business, I have met only two families like this. The another were Tomas Rosicky’s. There is a belief that Schick could make it even further than Rosicky.”

    Sampdoria were desperate to hold onto Schick, for obvious selfish reasons; and there were many quick to tell him his development would be better served playing regularly for the Blucerchiati, rather than sat on the bench for Juve as, most likely, fourth-choice striker.

    But there is another school of thought that expectations will now be lower in Turin, due to his pecking order in the squad, and he will be afforded the time and patience to grow.

    Plus there is the crucial presence of seasoned campaigners and role models of the likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli, while working daily with Higuain, Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic can only beneficial.

    “Allegri wants to play 4-2-3-1 and, of course, Higuain will be in the line-up. Then, there are players like Dybala and Mandzukic, so Schick is realistically behind them in the order,” Mocciaro says.

    “However, I think it is still a good move from him because he has the chance to learn a lot from the best players in Serie A: skills of Dybala, the eye for goal of Higuain, or mentality from stars like Gianluigi Buffon. And all that will make his growth faster.

    “He has killer instinct of striker, is elegant and intelligent. He has many skills all in one and that’s hardly usual for a player in such as age.

    “It’s up to him, but choosing Juventus, the club with best professional players and ideal environment, will help him to become better and better. He has to work a lot to improve and in order to become the greatest, but he has enough talent to do it.”

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