Benjamin Sesko is one of the most sought -after players in Europe this summer and has just joined MU at a huge price. But in a parallel universe, he was able to become a basketball player.
The potential of Sesko has been clear for a long time. He had nearly 200 appearances at the professional level for the three clubs, Leipzig, Salzburg and FC Liefering (Salzburg's “Sister” team), and Slovenia.
In October 2021, Sesko became the youngest scorer in his country's history in a World Cup qualifying match against Malta, only a few months after the 18th birthday. Zlatko Zahovic, the greatest striker of Slovenia with 35 goals, acknowledged that the honor would soon belong to Sesko, who had 11 goals in the team. “I consider my record as if it was lost,” he said in 2022.
Sesko is a typical teen prodigy, but his sports fate may have gone in a different direction if he pursues his second largest passion. “Benjamin Sesko is an excellent basketball player. Have you heard of that?”, Red Bull Salzburg's media director, Christian Kircher, revealed. “At the age of 14 or 15, Sesko is still thinking of playing for the Slovenia National Basketball Team.”
Sesko is a passionate basketball fan. He fans NBA's Dallas Mavericks, which owns compatriot star Luka Doncic, and has installed a basketball court in his backyard in Leipzig after moving to last summer.
A video recording the scene where he used his foot to get a basketball was stuck between the basket and the board, an extraordinary physical action, became a phenomenon on social networks when he was young.
Sesko also has an ideal body with basketball, though a bit smaller than NBA standard with a height of 1m95. Capital high and slender, he was encouraged to play by his father, Mr. Ales as the goalkeeper.
A reasonable way, with the future development of Sesko as a striker, he ignored that advice. A series of scoring records in Sesko's teenager decided to choose football instead of basketball.
Sesko's young achievements attracted the attention of Slovenia in the 2017/18 season when he scored 59 goals in 23 matches for NK Krsko's U15 team.
“Benji is almost impossible to be stopped when playing with us. Although it looks a bit funny with long legs and chubby face, he is not completely funny at all when he has the ball in his feet!”, Krsko's sports director Rok Zorko, recalled.
“He will spend hours and every day on the street to play football and basketball. Although he has not been completely developed, he was extremely fast, had long stride and possessed a great shot with both legs.”
“For two years of playing for us, he has scored more than 100 goals on all fronts. This is definitely a record. I think he has passed all the records at Slovenia at that age.”
Sesko continued to advance in Domzale, which led to another turning point. At the age of 16, Sesko had an offer from a series of big clubs including Man City, Bayern Munich and Ajax, but he chose to continue his football career in Salzburg.
Immediately after the contract was signed, Sesko was lent to FC Liefering, a familiar path of most prodigies through Salzburg.
Salzburg is a training school for European excellent teams, but Liefering is their counterweight, giving young players a platform to cultivate skills in a competitive environment. Liefering ended in the sixth position of the 16 clubs in the second division of the previous season with an average age of 18.9.
“For Benji, this is the perfect situation,” Kircher explained. “It gives him patience because at that time he might have moved to other clubs, bigger than Red Bull Salzburg. But with these smaller steps, you can improve yourself better in professional football.”
“Everything (here) is smaller, everything is more personal. Salzburg is a very personal city. So he is in a good society and a good community to help him.”
After two years of learning in Liefering, Sesko is considered to be ready to go to the Salzburg. He won two consecutive shirts, a national cup and was honored as the best male player Slovenia for two years with the first team.
A record of 29 goals after 79 matches for a club that has dominated football in the past decade seems modest compared to some of his predecessors. For example, Erling Haaland also scored 29 goals for Red Bull Salzburg but in only 27 matches.
However, Kircher considered Sesko as the most talented player he had seen in Salzburg in terms of potential diversity. Sesko was compared to his idol Zlatan Ibrahimovic in terms of height, strength and ability to control the ball at close range, and with Haaland about the ability to speed up the boom.
“Although he is really, really high, the speed, technique and attitude with his football are really extraordinary,” Kircher said. “He did things in the training sessions that you would not expect from such a player.”
“Erling, of course, is excellent, but Benji is a more technical player. He is definitely a leading (talent) in Salzburg. We have many other players. Dominic Szoboszlai is here, Erling, Sadio Mane, but he is definitely in the highest position with some others.”
The movement to Leipzig, the team owned by Red Bull, is the next reasonable step in Sesko's career, putting him in an environment similar to Salzburg but giving him a higher football standard in one of the top 5 European tournaments.
Similar to Salzburg, Sesko is given time to adapt. Marco Rose mainly used him as a reserve player in the first half of the 2023/24 season before launching him in the new year with the Belgian striker, Lois Openda.
Sesko ended the campaign with sublimated form with goals in 7 consecutive matches at the end of the Bundesliga season. Only 7 players in the tournament have a better total goals than him, of which 11 goals scored from January 27 onwards.
The Premier League is the next destination for a player who has set the way to its peak. Sesko's physical and technical properties will be very suitable for English football. Based on the way Sesko's career advanced, getting him could be a successful “pitch” for MU.
