Norwich City are signing a striker out of favour at Bologna, but that doesn’t tell the full story of Sydney van Hooijdonk.
The 23-year-old has made just two league starts this season for the Italian club, scoring once in cup competition and seeing his value drop alongside his previously budding reputation.
Assessing van Hooijdonk’s career before his nightmare six months, however, only serves to perplex as to how he finds himself in this situation.
Before his move to Bologna in 2021, the twice-capped under-21 international was a known goalscorer in the Dutch second division, notching 22 goals in 56 Eerste Divisie games for NAC Breda before his 22nd birthday.
That goalscoring continued when he returned to the Netherlands on loan six months after leaving his home country. Van Hooijdonk scored six goals in 13 top-flight appearances for Heerenveen before renewing his loan the following summer.
That season was when he really burst into the mainstream, scoring 16 league goals, more than Luuk de Jong and Steven Bergwijn, to come third in the Eredivisie’s scoring charts. He was subsequently linked with moves to Nottingham Forest and Celtic, with the world’s biggest clubs standing up to pay attention.
He returned to Bologna before any of that interest had been given the chance to develop, hoping to make an impression on boss Thiago Motta on a pre-season trip to Spain. With all the context surrounding their reunion, it seemed likely to go smoothly.
But with little indication as to why, van Hooijdonk was excluded from that camp, a controversial move and one that inspired the striker’s father, former Forest and Feyenoord man Pierre, to strike out against the Italian.
“It is incomprehensible that such a decision can be taken without anything motivating it,” he said. “I don’t think Sydney could ever have created problems for the coach. I say take him to the retreat, so you can judge him properly and protect the value of the player.”
Motta kept his head with his response, but it was clear that things were unlikely to get easier for van Hooijdonk Junior. “I’m happy with how he trains,” said La Dotta’s head coach. “He always gives his best. But that doesn’t alter the fact that he has to go and play continuously. He has to find another situation for himself.”
That ‘other situation’, despite continued links with the Hoops and elsewhere, has ended up being the Canaries, where his cover allows Adam Idah to move north of the border.
He’s David Wagner’s preferred profile, of that there’s no doubt. Van Hooijdonk towers above most of the Championship at six-foot-two, matching the physical presence clearly prioritised on City’s frontline.
But he isn’t all long balls and hold-up play. The majority of his strikes for Heerenveen, in fact, came from clever movement and close-range finishing, the sort of ruthlessness that’s yielded great results for Josh Sargent in front of goal.
Where the new man fits in is the bigger question, with Sargent pairing Ashley Barnes in Wagner’s first-choice attacking duo when available this term. Idah has swapped Carrow Road for Parkhead, but there’s still the matter of getting past the two men who denied him game time.
Replacing the American, a saviour of the Norfolk side’s season at times, seems a far-fetched idea, and van Hooijdonk’s suitability to Barnes’ advanced ‘10’ role seems limited at this stage.
In any case, he’s been brought in to make an impact from day one, as his new club look to push for the Championship play-offs this season. Although things haven’t gone for van Hooijdonk at Bologna, he has the talent to make this a real coup for Ben Knapper and his recruitment team.
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