Marcus is looking to be a Forss for Boro
MARCUS Forss was turning heads. It was the back end of 2020 and the young striker’s form for club and country had caught the eye of recruitment chiefs around Europe.
The year earlier he had dazzled for AFC Wimbledon in League One, scoring 11 goals in 18 games before a torn hamstring unfortunately cut his loan spell short.
Before the injury, though, West Ham were said to have been watching and monitoring his form and progress.
The following season he was again being watched, this time by Dortmund scouts.
After recovering from the injury that cut short his loan spell the year earlier, Forss had started the 2020/21 campaign in superb fashion, netting six goals in seven games for Brentford before scoring on his debut for Finland as they stunned the world champions France in Paris.
Two Bundesliga clubs, one being Dortmund, were said to have had representatives in the stands.
To think, just a few years earlier he had been without a club and with little clue as to what his future in the game looked like.
Forss hails from a football family. His older brother plays in his homeland, his dad was a former player and manager and his grandad played for Finland.
Forss moved to England aged 13 to join West Brom’s academy and worked his way through the ranks, playing for the youth sides before his release in 2017.
An unsuccessful trial at Sunderland followed before he was signed by Brentford, initially to join their B-team.
He impressed, scoring 11 goals in his first 23 appearances for the B-team, earning a new contract with the Bees and winning the B-team’s player of the year award in 2017/18 after finishing the campaign with 21 goals.
At the start of the following season, Forss was added to the Robert Rowan First Team Debut Board at Brentford’s training ground.
Rowan, Brentford’s former head of football operations who passed away suddenly in late 2018, played an influential role in the club’s move to the B-team model.
Forss’s first team debut came in a cup victory at Southend. He scored.
He netted in the Carabao Cup at the start of last season as well, one in a 3-1 victory against Forest Green before hitting four in a 7-0 hammering of Oldham.
Brentford boss Thomas Frank said: “Marcus is doing all he can every day in training and he’s a really good player.
“He scored four good goals. I guess that needs to be a 10 out of 10.”
Despite that backing from Frank, however, Forss struggled for gametime in the top flight - featuring in just seven Premier League games up to the end of January and only starting one of them. He asked for a January loan move in search of regular football and joined Hull City.
“I wasn’t involved as much as I’d like to be in the first half of the season at Brentford,” said Forss after the Hull move was finalised.
“It was bit disappointing but you have to take it on the chin.”
His loan spell at Hull City wasn’t overly impressive but it at least provided the young striker with the opportunity to play games.
Now, as he puts the finishing touches to his Boro move and with his long-term future mapped out on Teesside, Forss will be looking to rediscover his best form from two years ago.