Oscar Schwartau scouted: Who Is the New Canary? | OneFootball

On Saturday morning, Norwich City presented 18-year-old Danish starlet Oscar Schwartau as a new player on a 4-year contract. Despite his young age, the Dane arrives with plenty of pedigree, and Norwich fans can allow themselves to have high expectations for their new arrival. The big question, however, is of course what to expect from him.

An early breakthrough followed by disappointment

Oscar Schwartau received his football education at in the academy of Brøndby IF. He joined the club at the age of 12, and quickly established himself as one of the prime talents of his age group. At the club, he followed in the footsteps of former greats such as Michael Laudrup and Daniel Agger who also went through the youth ranks at the academy and into the first team.

In fact, the path he took was historic. At the age of just 16 years and 61 days, he became the club’s youngest ever debutant in 2022. And just a few weeks later, at 16 and 89 days, he also took the record as the youngest goal scorer.

In his first start with the first team, he was a surprising key player at the beginning of the season. He made five starts in the summer of 2022 (the Danish league starts in mid-July), and was an impactful player. Both setting up teammates to score as well as scoring himself.

However, as I also wrote in my analysis of the sale from a Brøndby point of view on Vilfortpark.dk, his regular playing time ended at the same time as the summer.

At the end of the transfer window, Brøndby signed multiple expensive players, including club icon Daniel Wass from Atletico Madrid, and Schwartau was demoted to a fringe player. Nevertheless, he was still impactful when entering the pitch, and he scored two more goals in the autumn. In particular, his winning goal against AaB, where he beautifully finished a cross with a backheel finish, is one Brøndby fans still speak about.

Unfortunately for the youngster, head coach Niels Frederiksen was sacked shortly before the World Cup break in November. The dismissal of the head coach collided with Brøndby getting new owners as well; and with the new owners came an influx of cash and bigger ambitions. This meant that the the squad was once again strengthened with new players, and the competition among offensive positions increased.

The new head coach, Jesper Sørensen, struggled to give Schwartau regular playing time in the spring. He didn’t start once, and only made short cameos, 23 minutes being the most minutes he received, in the last half of the season.

This pattern continued last season as Brøndby were challenging for the Danish championship. Schwartau was mostly playing reserve football and only appeared in 179 Superliga minutes spread over 14 short stints as a substitute.

With a contract that had less than a year left, the writing was on the wall for a his time at Brøndby in the 2024 summer. Especially since his agent had often complained about Brøndby’s lack of plan with his client and the lack of playing time, even publicly stating that they had no intentions of extending the contract.

REgardless, Schwartau was for the past two seasons considered the biggest talent at the club and was greeted by huge ovations from the fans anytime he entered the pitch. The faithful supporters never really lost their belief in him, and the fact that he didn’t get to leave the club after bringing home a title or similar, was a disappointment and seen as a failure by the club’s sporting administration.

What does he bring to Norwich?

It is easy to forget just how young Schwartau is. He only turned 18 in May, but he has been playing senior football for two years already. He is a tall and strong guy with a build that makes him look older. This is of course one of the major reasons for why he could break through at such a young age.

He is a technically strong player with a good touch on the ball, good finishing and passing skills. He can both score himself and set up his teammates, which he proved when he got the chance for Brøndby.

As for the mental part of his game, his positioning and movement is good, and he has an eye for goal. He is versatile, and can play both as an offensive midfielder and as a (second) striker. He has even been used in central midfield.

However, there has been some questions about his mental strength. While the coaching staff at Brøndby always spoke nicely about him, there was also a reason for why he was rarely used last season. He didn’t seem to handle the benching very well and perhaps he lost a bit of motivation and will to fight.

The guidance he received from his management team has also been questioned. He seemed to be in a rush, and unwilling to accept that receiving playing time at senior level requires hard work and patience for a young player. No matter how talented you are.

His appearances also became less impactful last season compared to his debut season. He went from having 2.32 finishes per 90 minutes to just 1.01 and from 0.31 big chances created to 0. Furthermore, his scoring percentage fell from 30.8 % to 0 %. All numbers are from the official Superliga.dk website.

Regardless, Norwich have bought a player that was once considered one of the biggest, if not the biggest talent, in Denmark of his age group. A guy who both broke through and produced at a record setting early age, and was followed by big clubs in both England, Germany and Spain.

He even arrives at a highly affordable price. A price that would not have been even remotely possible just a year ago when Brøndby hoped of selling him for up to ten times of what Norwich have paid.

The fact that Norwich coach Johannes Hoff Thorup has an excellent track record with developing talents, and knows Schwartau from Denmark, should be another reason for optimism and to believe he can follow in the footsteps of Teemu Pukki and take a successful step from Brøndby to Norwich.