On Wednesday FC Groningen took over twenty-year-old Noor Jørgen Strand Larsen from Sarpsborg 08 FF and thus has the desired striker.
Larsen Beach has been playing at Sarpsborg since 2015. The 1.93-meter striker was loaned out by the Norwegian club to AC Milan in 2017, but he returned after a year of being a part of the Under 19 team. He was accurate nine times in 61 games for Sarpsborg.
Last Tuesday, Strand Larsen participated with Young Norway in the European Championship qualifying game with the Dutch Juniors (2-0 loss). He signed a four-year contract with FC Groningen with an option for another season. He was detained at Sarpsborg for another three years, but the amount of the transfer fee is unknown.
FC Groningen needed a striker because not too much was scored in the preparation. Trainer Danny Buijs played Sunday in the last exhibition match against Arminia Bielefeld (1-1) without a real attack leader, but with Arjen Robben and Ramon Pascal Lundqvist in the forefront.
“Although the call for a striker grew by the day, we mainly wanted to make a good choice. Quality over speed. We wanted to be 100 percent convinced of the choice we would make”, says technical director Mark-Jan Fledderus at the website from FC Groningen.
Larsen beach is the seventh reinforcement for FC Groningen after Robben, Wessel Dammers (Fortuna Sittard), Ko Itakura (Manchester City, rented again), Damil Dankerlui (Willem II), Patrick Joosten (FC Utrecht) and Nigel Bertrams (MVV Maastricht), that the Eredivisie will start in-house against PSV on Sunday.
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