Norwich City have been linked with Bodo/Glimt full-back Fredrik Andre Bjorkan this week, with Leeds United and Newcastle United in the race.
Heading into this January window, Norwich City boss Daniel Farke was thought to have a left-back at the top of his shopping list.
One name has since cropped up – SportWitness credit Norwich City with an interest in Bodo left-back Bjorkan, but the Canaries face tough competition from the Premier League and from Serie A side Sampdoria.
Bjorkan is one of the members of the Bodo team that have just completed a record-breaking season in the Norwegian Eliteserien. He featured in all 30 of his side’s league games and scored once, as they won the division by 19 points scoring 103 goals along the way.
Subsequently, their top payers have all been linked with moves away – largely to England. Philip Zinckernagel has just joined Watford, Kasper Junker is wanted by a host of Championship and Premier League clubs and now, so too is Bjorkan.
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Discounting Sampdoria, Bjorkan will likely be tempted by an English move. Leeds and Newcastle will have the obvious pull of being in the Premier League and having money to spend, but the SportWitness report claims that a Premier League move is a ‘little ahead of the full-back’s career’ and that at Leeds, he’d likely be made to play in the development squad.
No doubt, at 22-years-old and having never played outside of Norway, the English top-flight would be a shock to the system. So many players come in from Europe and link up with development squads at teams like Leeds and Newcastle, and are never to be heard of again.
Bjorkan coming from an exciting, table-topping side would fit right into the mentality that Daniel Farke has laid at Norwich City this season. He’s been using Jacob Sorensen at left-back and with little competition in that spot, Bjorkan would stand a much greater chance at actually developing at Norwich.
A snippet at an estimated £1m, Norwich could sign a future star in Bjorkan and despite Leeds and Newcastle interest, they still make for a very attractive option for the youngster.
