Few professional athletes would call themselves “s***”, especially when they are scoring goals as frequently as the young Arsenal striker Mika Biereth.
The 21-year-old has impressed at Austrian Bundesliga title contenders Sturm Graz, netting four times in his first six appearances in all competitions since joining them on loan in January until the end of this campaign.
So what’s with the self-deprecation?
“I’ve said before if I can compare myself to another player I’d say a s*** [Erling] Haaland and a s*** [Harry] Kane! A hybrid of them at a much worse level,” he tells i with a smile.
“Like Haaland, all I really care about is scoring goals. If you’d offer me two touches of the ball and two goals I’d take that. For me, it’s all about scoring goals.
“[But] There are different aspects of the game when scoring goals isn’t possible when the ball is deep so then it’s about combining, linking the play, holding the ball up like Kane does. Those are the two different variables on the pitch.”
Biereth has some similarities with two of the world’s best strikers.
Like Haaland, who joined Red Bull Salzburg as a young player, he is developing his scoring skills in Austria, a challenging but not top-level environment. And like Kane, he has faced both the ups and downs of being loaned out by a big north London club.
Kane went to four different teams before breaking out at Tottenham Hotspur at the same age Biereth is now, in the 2014-15 season.
Before moving to Sturm Graz, Biereth had a successful spell at Motherwell where he netted six goals in 15 games, which came after a less fruitful period at Dutch side RKC Waalwijk in 2022-23.
“Motherwell was massive, almost like a comeback because the first loan spell went nowhere near the plan we had,” he recalls.
“There were loads of reasons but I don’t feel like I ever got a fair opportunity to play. I needed to play games and Motherwell sounded very willing to do that before I came and then thankfully when I did come they did play me a lot and I was able to return the favour with a few goals.”
Motherwell were unhappy at Arsenal’s decision to recall Biereth with manager Stuart Kettlewell admitting it was “hugely disappointing” to lose a player who had made a “huge impact” and was “well loved” by the supporters.
Biereth and Arsenal were both attracted by the prospect of joining Sturm Graz, a club that is not only in contention for the league title – they are currently in second place, trailing the perennial champions Salzburg by two points – but also participating in the European Conference League. He was so keen to make the move that he opted for a permanent transfer instead of a loan deal.
“He [Andreas Schicker, Sturm Graz’s sporting director] even said himself that they tried to do a permanent [transfer]. I was open to that as well but Arsenal weren’t looking to allow me to leave,” Biereth reveals.
Why did he want to go?
“The idea of settling down somewhere and not having to think about all the extra stuff of different houses, different places and different cars and all of that, it gets a bit boring after a while. Trying to find a home,” he says, succinctly revealing a side to the loan system that is rarely discussed: the upheaval and the uncertainty. “[But] It was kind of simple that I wasn’t for sale in January.”
There were other reasons too.
“And the club plays in European competitions, they are towards the top of their league. It’s a very good club in terms of a stepping club, a lot of players in the past have come [here] and then been allowed to be sold to take the next step in their career.”
It’s an accurate assessment. Schicker outlined the club’s recruitment strategy in an interview with i in January.
“The idea is to have success on the pitch with a team that is built around a few more experienced leaders who are surrounded by young, talented players who we want to develop, who can get ready for the next step in their career at Sturm and who we can sell for profit,” he explained.
Forward players may find Sturm Graz particularly appealing because of their recent success. In the past three seasons, the club has sold their star striker to a team in one of Europe’s “Big Five” leagues every year. This includes Rasmus Hojlund, who played alongside Biereth for Denmark’s U21s, and joined Atalanta in 2022.
“The whole team is kind of functioned towards allowing strikers to have lots of opportunities to score lots of goals,” Biereth says. “That was also a big factor in me coming in. I was under the impression that if I came here I could score and I’ve done that so far.”
Arsenal will keep a close eye on his development. Mikel Arteta’s team have been in excellent form lately, scoring 31 Premier League goals in only seven games in 2024. However, this has not stopped rumors that the club might overhaul its forward line in the summer.
Injuries have marred Gabriel Jesus’ stint at Arsenal, and Eddie Nketiah has fallen out of favour and not featured in the starting lineup of a league match since the last day of the previous year.
Biereth might benefit from a reshuffle, but in any case, his fate at the club will be determined at the end of this season when his contract will have only one year remaining.
“I’m on loan so all I can do is score as many goals and play as well as I can so that when I come back in the summer hopefully I can get an opportunity,” he says.
Biereth also has a realistic outlook. He knows that joining the first-team squad is more difficult now than when he left Fulham to sign with Arsenal a few years ago. The team has improved a lot since then.
“When Bukayo [Saka] and Gabi [Martinelli] broke into the team and Emile [Smith Rowe] it was kind of when Arsenal were struggling,” he says.