There was solely two gamers who scored three hat-tricks in a serious European league final season. One was Harry Kane. The opposite was neither Erling Haaland nor Kylian Mbappe. It was Croydon-born former Arsenal striker Mika Biereth for Monaco.
He achieved the feat inside the first seven video games of his Ligue 1 profession following a January transfer from Austrian membership Sturm Graz. One yr previous to that, Biereth had made his huge breakthrough in senior soccer whereas on mortgage in Scotland with Motherwell.
“It is fantastic what he is doing,” Stuart Kettlewell tells Sky Sports activities. Kettlewell, now in cost at Kilmarnock, was Motherwell’s supervisor on the time. “He has really captured the imagination. Am I surprised? Absolutely not. We could see the talent that he had.”
It was apparent from the very first coaching session. “We worked on a drill where he was up against a couple of physical defenders, real competitors. But he is not scared of contact, he thrived in the duel with defenders. He prided himself on coming out on top.”
His Motherwell debut at residence to Hibernian was much more spectacular. “He was only capable of playing 30 minutes or so but had an unbelievable impact on the game. He scored one and set up the other fantastically well. He was exceptional that day.”
Kettlewell provides: “He was not fully fit at the time. I almost felt sorry for him at the end, he looked as if he was ready for his bed, just because he had exerted so much energy. He really burst onto the scene. I think he has done that everywhere he’s been, hasn’t he?”
Virtually however not fairly. Biereth had an ungainly mortgage transfer to the Netherlands the place he struggled for minutes with RKC Waalwijk. At 20, the transfer to Motherwell was make or break and there have been these in Scotland unconvinced by his credentials at that stage.
London-born striker Mika Biereth is now a Denmark worldwide
“He had really big shoes to fill at Motherwell. We had lost a striker in Kevin Van Veen that had scored 29 goals a season before and nominated for Player of the Year in Scotland. We had to field a lot of questions about how we were going to replace him.
“I believe there was a whole lot of doubters and a whole lot of naysayers. Lots of people checked out me and the membership as mad for attempting to exchange the highest goalscorer within the nation with a younger lad coming in from Arsenal that had not had a very good mortgage in Holland.
“We signed him off the back of not a great deal of footage, if you like. We watched a lot of his academy stuff, obviously know his pathway coming from Fulham to Arsenal, he had a loan move out in Holland, and we had seen the limited footage of that.
“It was about attempting to unearth a gem. We simply felt that together with his model of play, desirous to be that correct quantity 9 that basically enjoys the bodily aspect of the contact, that it could be conducive to a younger participant in Scotland. That’s precisely the way it panned out.”
Mika Biereth enjoying for Motherwell towards Scotland within the Scottish Premiership
Biereth solely stayed at Motherwell half a season earlier than transferring on to Sturm Graz. “He probably did too well because Motherwell did not have a chance to keep him.” However Kettlewell stayed in contact, watching on as his profession went from power to power.
What kind of participant is Biereth? He as soon as described himself as a **** Haaland combined with a **** Kane which is perhaps considered as cocky or modest, relying on which half you give attention to. Kettlewell laughs on the line. “Trust me, he is very humble, very grounded.”
Others have likened him to Jamie Vardy and his former coach sees a little bit of that in him too. “That speed of thought to be able to play off the shoulder. He relishes centre-backs coming tight to him, so that he can roll out of trouble. But he scores all types of goals.”
Kettlewell provides: “We often pigeon-hole players. He is well rounded. We worked with him on his hold-up play and bringing others into play. But we did not ask him to drop in as midfielder. And we did not ask him to play in a wide position, covering the full-back.
“In a world the place there are usually not so many quantity nines that need to play as correct quantity nines, who can play again to purpose, spin and run in behind, have that pure intuition between the posts, I typically take a look at him as a bit little bit of a dying breed.”
A correct striker, then, and one who will face the true Haaland when Monaco host Manchester Metropolis within the Champions League on Wednesday night. Biereth scored in Monaco’s earlier residence recreation however this can undoubtedly characterize one other step up.
“He always seems to be able to make that step. The key thing that people who have worked with him will tell you is that whatever level you put him in, whether it is Scotland, Austria, European football, the Champions League, he seems to adjust to the level.”
Monaco’s Mika Biereth in motion towards Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1
Provided that knack, maybe Biereth may have stayed at Arsenal and succeeded there, ultimately? “What he is doing at a top level, he would have to be in a conversation for one that could have filled that void for such a top club like Arsenal,” agrees Kettlewell.
“What I loved about him was just his mentality. Nothing much flusters him, nothing much derails him from what he wants to do.” Now 22 and a Denmark worldwide, the striker who began 2024 at Motherwell is ending 2025 doing it on Europe’s greatest stage.
“Look at how quickly it has happened for him. There are only so many individuals that do that, those guys who hit the ground running, knock the wall down and get to the next level. Mika is that type.” He can have the chance to show it towards Manchester Metropolis.
