Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Alexander Isak, Newcastle United, Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, Thomas Tuchel, Football, Premier League
Luke Davies
Topics: Alexander Isak, Newcastle United, Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, Thomas Tuchel, Football, Premier League
Newcastle forward Alexander Isak previously received an apology from his former club after some unusual comments from the head coach.
Isak, 25, is now arguably one of the best strikers in Europe and is attracting interest from Premier League champions Liverpool, having produced 23 league goals and six assists for Newcastle United as they won the Carabao Cup and secured Champions League qualification during the 2024/25 campaign.
And to get to the point he is now, the Sweden international has played for five clubs in five different countries, but when he signed for a particular side, he wasn’t greeted with compliments by one high-profile manager.
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After impressing at Swedish side AIK, Isak joined Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund for around €10 million in 2017.
However, despite Isak already making waves in European football at the time, then-Dortmund and now-England head coach Thomas Tuchel explained how he “did not really know” the player when he signed him.
"I must admit that I did not really know Isak,” Tuchel told reporters in a press conference.
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“But when they introduced him to me, I saw that the transfer made 100 per cent sense.
"Alex is a very strong striker, who can play with his back toward goal and is strong in the combination. He scores a lot of goals, so it is great to have him here. He is feeling even better than before after taking part in his first training.
"The signing of Isak makes perfect sense. This gives the club a long-term solution for the position of striker. Isak is a very talented player. We needed someone behind [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang following Adrian Ramos' departure. It is completely logical for BVB to bring in a youngster for that role."
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In 2021, it later emerged via the Independent, that Hans-Joachim Watzke, Dortmund’s chief executive at the time, had issued a private apology to the young forward.
Isak did not feature as often as he may have hoped under Tuchel.
"Of course, I would have liked to play more,” Isak told Voetbal International in 2019.
“The fact that it hasn’t worked out is difficult and frustrating, but also training at a world-class level has made me a better player.”
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Tuchel quickly learned exactly what Isak was capable of before the striker then signed for La Liga outfit Real Sociedad in 2019, where he scored 44 goals in 132 games, before completing a reported £63m move to Newcastle in 2022.