Andreas Schjelderup: Rising Star in European Football

Andreas Schjelderup has gone from promising prospect to one of the hottest attacking properties in Europe in the space of a few months. A sharp World Cup cameo for Norway has only poured fuel on a transfer race that already involved some of the continent’s biggest clubs.

Benfica’s €30m breakthrough act

Milan and Como are the latest sides to move with intent for the Benfica winger, joining Liverpool, Tottenham and Atletico Madrid in tracking the 22-year-old. The list keeps growing; the price keeps climbing.

Benfica now value Schjelderup at around €30 million, according to TuttoMercatoWeb. That figure is roughly double what Club Brugge were willing to pay in January, before everything changed with one performance. A match-winning brace against Real Madrid forced José Mourinho’s hand. The coach shut the door, pulled him off the market and made it clear Benfica would not be selling on the cheap.

Parma had also tried to steal a march in the winter window. CEO Federico Cherubini has already admitted they came close, only to fall just short of getting a deal over the line. That near miss now looks costly.

A winger built for modern football

Schjelderup is the modern wide forward in sharp focus: a left-footed right winger who can switch flanks without losing his edge. Last season he produced 10 goals and seven assists in 43 appearances for Benfica in all competitions, numbers that explain why scouts have filled the stands at Estadio da Luz.

He carries the ball with purpose, drifts into central pockets, and finishes like a forward rather than a traditional touchline winger. Those 17 direct goal contributions are no outlier; they are the base case that has convinced clubs he is ready for a bigger stage.

World Cup impact and Barcelona whispers

Then came the World Cup. Schjelderup’s role for Norway has not been headline-grabbing in minutes, but it has been decisive in impact. Coming off the bench, he helped turn a tight game against Senegal into a 3-2 win, a result that sent Norway into the last 16 and pushed his profile into a different orbit.

As his influence has grown, so have the rumours. Barcelona have been linked with the Norwegian as a potential replacement for Marcus Rashford, a sign of the level at which his name is now being discussed. Schjelderup, though, has kept his feet on the ground.

“It would be fantastic if those rumours were true, but at the moment I don’t know anything concrete,” he said when asked about the Barça talk. No grandstanding. No public flirting. Just a cool answer from a player who knows the market is moving in his favour.

What comes next is clear enough. With his value rising, his World Cup still alive and a queue of suitors forming from Serie A to the Premier League and La Liga, Benfica hold the strongest hand. When the real negotiations start, they will not be short of bidders – or bargaining power.