Analysing Mika Biereth: The Next Striker off the Sturm Graz Conveyor Belt… and onto the Monaco One
When assessing some of the most valuable transfers for under-23 players over recent years, there are certain trends that emerge – certain signs of a promising player. Perhaps it’s a player who’s come through a top-level academy, making a move to a slightly lesser quality, lower profile league where they can hone their craft without the blinding spotlight imposed upon them at some of Europe’s top clubs.
Or maybe they follow a well-trodden pathway – joining a specific club that has a track record for successfully developing young careers in the past – often by signing them with a buy low, sell high type strategy. In fact, it could even be that latter strategy but scaled up to become higher risk, but with a higher reward – occasionally resulting in an eye-watering fee.
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In moving from Arsenal’s academy to SK Sturm Graz for a club-record €4.7million fee (plus a substantial sell-on clause for The Gunners) in July 2024 , Mika Biereth had already showed those first two signs. Now, having joined Monaco for €13m (potentially rising to €15m with add-ons) just six months on, the 21-year-old has not only tripled his value as part of the first transfer strategy, but is well on track to scale up again as part of the second one too.
Furthermore, analysing the frequency at which these clubs have made similar moves, and, more pertinently, the trajectory of the players who have made them – another effective indicator of a promising transfer – presents even more green flags when it comes to Biereth’s prior and future development. Graduating from Arsenal’s youth ranks is the obvious one, with the there being an endless list of current top-level talents to emanate from Hale End – not least Biereth’s former, and now-new Monaco teammate Folarin Balogun.
Likewise, there’s also the Denmark youth international being yet another young striker scouted by Sturm Graz in recent years. Kelvin Yeboah, Mohammed Fuseini, Emanuel Emegha, and Manchester United’s Rasmus Højlund have all been recruited by the Austrian champions over the past five seasons; each being signed for under €5m, before being sold for at least double their initial cost to a side either competing in Europe’s top five leagues, or a UEFA competition.
As for Monaco, the positive trend continues. In Biereth’s own words, the “legacy” of the young strikers to come through at the Stade Louis-II “speaks for itself”, while the Ligue 1 side have also been perhaps the most high-profile club to gamble on multiple coveted under-23 forwards over the past decade.
We won’t go through them all, but there’s been some hits, some misses, and some still yet to fall into either category, with George Illenikhena (18) and Balogun (23) two €15m+ strikers currently on their books, in addition to 27-year-old Swiss international Breel Embolo.
All of that is to say then, whilst it isn’t a sure-fire guarantee Biereth will be an instant success at Monaco, looking at how his career has progressed so far, the positive signs he will are certainly prevalent; a feeling only strengthened by how quickly he’s hit the ground running at every other club in his career thus far.
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Biereth’s Instant Adaptation
Opting to represent Denmark’s national team due to his father’s descent, Biereth was born and raised in London and remained there for his entire youth career. He developed in Fulham’s academy until garnering attention as a 17-year-old in the 2020/21 U18 Premier League season, scoring 21 goals and making 13 assists in just 21 appearances.
Those performances subsequently earned him his first professional contract at Arsenal, for whom he went on to score 11 times in his debut Premier League 2 season, before accumulating just two goals and 300 minutes in the 22/23 Eredivisie during an underwhelming and injury-ridden loan at RKC Waalwijk.
That opening season in senior football seemed to be an anomaly however. As, in the 2023/24 campaign, the forward notched 11 goal involvements in 14 Scottish Premiership games and seven in 15 Austrian Bundesliga games across two consecutive six-month loans at Motherwell and Sturm Graz respectively.
Playing a key role in in helping Sturm claim their first league title in over a decade, that latter loan spell convinced Die Schwoazan to sign Biereth permanently – a worthwhile investment given he has not only gained the side significant profit, but left them top of the Bundesliga as the division’s top scorer with 11 goals.
Add to those numbers his three goals in the Europa Conference League and two in the Champions League and it’s clear that Biereth has the ability to instantly adapt and perform across multiple levels of the game.
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A Natural Poacher
Speaking in his first interview with Les Monegasques, Biereth describes himself as an old school centre-forward. Standing at 187cm (6 ft 2 in), Biereth has a robust, athletic profile, is a powerful runner over distance, and incredibly hard-working both in and out-of-possession. This enables him to constantly pester defenders, whether fending them off with his back to goal, persistently chasing loose balls, or running the channels on the last line.
Averaging seven successful passes per 90 but one assist every three games, Biereth is capable at linking play and providing for teammates but is almost solely focused on scoring goals in the most efficient way possible. The striker isn’t the type to go viral for a rifled long shot into the top corner, or a deft chip after niftily rounding multiple opponents, but rather has a knack for manipulating defenders with clever, sharp movement and finding space in the right place, at the right time.
For instance, of his 16 goals (all non-penalty) in the Austrian Bundesliga, only one came from outside of the penalty area, whereas half of came from inside the six-yard box – many of which were headers or tap-ins near the far-right post.
Biereth Shot Map – Austrian Bundesliga 23/24 (top) and 24/25 (bottom) (via FotMob)
His equalizing goal in December’s Champions League tie against Lille perfect example of his trademark back-post finish. On the counter at 2-1 down on the edge of half-time, Biereth first drags a back-footed Leny Yoro into the left channel, before fluidly altering his run back into the space he’d just created and storming in between Yoro and the left-back to slot in a drilled ball across goal into an open net.
Moreover, taking a look at the end-location of his finishes via FotMob’s shot map further highlights this goalscoring style. Biereth almost never lifts his shots, instead hunching his head and shoulders over the ball when drilling it low and hard with either foot or opening his body to slot past ‘keepers with the inside of his stronger right.
End-Location of Biereth’s shots – 2024/25 Austrian Bundesliga (FotMob)
Granted this does mean his strikes are hardly unstoppable, it does minimise the risk they go wrong. Showing this, of all Biereth’s shots in the 24/25 Bundesliga, an astounding 69% hit the target (a better rate than any of Europe’s strikers), and almost one in every three found the net. Meanwhile, accumulating his expected goals (xG) from all league and continental appearances in his senior career, he has over performed by almost eight goals (29 goals from 22.53 xG per FotMob).
Although efficient, it must be noted that this quality over quantity approach – he takes 2.55 shots p90 but with a 23% chance of scoring per shot – does have its downsides. It means his strikes are hardly unstoppable, nor are they created ‘out of nothing’ – making the striker’s threat relatively minimal when service from his teammates is limited. Thankfully for Biereth though, the Principality club seem to have the ideal players and manager to maximise their new number 14’s talent.
A Perfect Fit at Monaco
Often operating in a 4-2-3-1, Monaco have a fluid, creative attacking trio constantly operating around the focal point of a striker. The likes of Takumi Minamino, Aleksandr Golovin, and especially French youngsters Maghnes Akilouche and Eliesse’s Ben Seghir all fit this profile, attaining, a ‘gravity’ that attract opponents, as they thrive receiving the ball to feet and manipulating defences with clever passes or silky dribbling.
This compliments Biereth’s off-ball movement and goal-focused attitude perfectly, allowing him to stretch defences and create space for others in between the lines, from where they’ll be able to provide the striker with constant service.
Moreover, Biereth will be playing under Adi Hütter- a head coach with a remarkable track record when it comes to optimizing his strikers’ output. In one season at Red Bull Salzburg and three at BSC Young Boys, the Austrian got over 46 goals out of Jonathan Soriano and 60 from Guillaume Hoarau, but it was at Eintracht Frankfurt where his strikers most excelled.
During Hutter’s first season with Die Adler in 2018-19, Sébastien Haller scored 20 and assisted 12 across all competitions, meanwhile a 21-year-old Luka Jović finished 17 times in the Bundesliga, and a competition-leading 10 times in the Europa League as Frankfurt narrowly missed out on the final with a penalty shootout loss to Chelsea.
Those performances earned Haller and Jović two ultimately disappointing €50m+ moves to West Ham United and Real Madrid respectively. The following season, as centre-back Martin Hinteregger scored a staggering eight non-penalty goals (an irrelevant fact that simply must be mentioned given the Austrian had never otherwise scored more than three!) Hütter’s No.9 replacement, André Silva, took a year to adjust with a not-insignificant 12 goals and three assists in 16 league starts.
Nonetheless, the Portuguese burst into life in his second Bundesliga season, achieving a career-high 28 goals and eight assists before moving onto RB Leipzig – resulting in another underwhelming transfer, and further exemplifying Hütter’s knack for getting the most out of forwards when other managers cannot.
Back to Monaco though, and, with Wissam Ben Yedder – the Red and Whites’ top scorer for the past five seasons – departing last summer, there is now an open spot at the top of the 54-year-olds side. Of course, it must be mentioned that, in Embolo, Balogun, and Ilenikhena, Biereth has significant competition.
However, the latter two are set to be out injured until mid-February at the earliest, Embolo spent the whole of last season out with an ACL injury, whilst Ilenikhena is only 18, and Balogun has so far struggled to replicate the form he showed at Reims since joining in the summer of 2023.
As such, with Monaco also looking for a revitalization following a flurry of poor performances in 2025, now is an ideal opportunity for Biereth to hit the ground running and earn himself the berth of Hütter’s starting number nine. If he does do that, there is a sizeble probability that, having just come off Sturm Graz’s conveyor belt of strikers, Mika Biereth could very well be the next high-profile name to come off the Monaco one too.
By: Travis Levison / @TravisLevison67
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Mark Scates – SNS Group