The son of a footballer and a priest, August Priske’s ability to score goals made him the saviour of Djurgården and blessed him with a transfer to Birmingham City.
Before we get into the whole ‘Jesus Priskus’ phenomenon, let’s take a journey back to BC.
Priske has been guided, but never pushed, by his dad, Brian Priske – who won 24 caps for Denmark and now manages Sparta Prague – to tread the same path.
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“They didn’t really try and push me when I was younger. It was my own thing. If I wanted to play football, fine, go and play football,” Priske told BirminghamLive.
“It wasn’t one of those things where they would wake me up in the morning, tell me to get out and start shooting.
“I played a lot of handball when I was younger so it wasn’t really them pushing me into it, but now as I get further along and more into my career and it became more professional and serious, I think my dad has good knowledge about everything so he’s always there to help me make decisions.
“It’s never really been a thing where I felt that they were on me, more of a helping hand in the background.”
Priske was born in Belgium, while his dad was playing for Genk, and spent time in England and Denmark, whom he now represents on the international stage, in his formative years.
It should come as no surprise that he is multilingual. Priske speaks Danish, Swedish, Dutch and English fluently.
“I think I’d lived in four or five countries before I was five-years-old so I think that does something to you. I always told my parents, a lot of people look at it and say that’s not a nice upbringing, but I loved it and I still love it.
“Going new places and meeting new people is fun. Now I know a lot of people in Sweden, Holland, Denmark and England.
“I quite like it. I doubt I’ll ever be one of those guys who can live in the same place or country for 30 years. I think I’ve got to do something – I get that from my mom I think.”
August Priske’s dad, Brian Priske (pictured), played for Denmark and is now the manager of Sparta Prague
Priske is only 21 but England is already the fourth country of his professional career.
The 6ft 4in striker, who top scored in Sweden’s Allsvenskan last year with 18 goals in 27 matches, leapt off the page when Blues manager Chris Davies requested a new centre-forward in January.
Despite a lot of interested parties, Priske always thought he would end up in England – even before Blues made their interest known.
Priske explained: “It was pretty early in the window and one of my friends asked me where I was going to end up. I said ‘I’ve got no idea, my gut tells me England…’ He said, ‘I think so too!’
“There are a lot of leagues that look for that type of player. Modern football is a lot with the bigger striker who can preferably run so that’s fine by me.”
Priske isn’t the first person to be sold on the project. November’s unveiling of The Powerhouse didn’t reach Priske in Sweden but his reaction to Blues’ proposed 62,000-seater stadium, surrounded by 12 colossal chimneys, wasn’t dissimilar to ours: “F****** hell!”
“It’s crazy. I had the first meeting with Craig (Gardner) and the manager and they told me about the ambition and the fact that they backed it up meant a lot to me.
“When you speak to different clubs, they always want to go for something you know, but with certain clubs you can feel that they are putting their money where their mouth is and I felt like this was one of those clubs. It’s real, what’s going on here.
“After I had the first talk with Birmingham, which was later than other clubs, it was a time to go thing. There weren’t any talks with clubs after Birmingham, I spoke to my agent after the meeting and said, ‘Let’s go for it’.”
The Championship is a different beast to the Allsvenskan, hence why Davies’ first words on Priske were designed to temper immediate expectations.
Priske has started brightly in his two substitute appearances and would have scored his first Blues goal against Oxford United but for a strong left-handed save from Jamie Cumming.
Birmingham City’s August Priske
“The first impression is that it’s very intense, actually,” Priske commented. “There’s a lot of back and forth, and quick attacks. I don’t really mind that, that’s pretty good.
“It’s always a little bit extra chaos in the last 30 minutes of a game, which has been when I’ve played, so I know that the first 60 are probably a little bit different. I feel like I can do well in a lot of the situations.”
If Priske can excel, he will be adored at St Andrew’s – and possibly at The Powerhouse given the length of his contract (five-and-a-half years).
Adulation is something he has felt before, but not something the self-assured youngster craves.
Stickers of the ‘Jesus Priskus’ meme were plastered all over London when the striker played for Djurgården against Chelsea in the Europa Conference League semi-finals in May.
At that point, Priske only had two league goals to his name. Then came the mid-season break, followed by a goal-scoring explosion – 16 goals in 18 league games – that transformed Priske from cult-hero to Djurgården icon.
“In a lot of clubs it’s about the attitude that you show. Some players are good, some are less good, but one of the things that fans enjoy – as I did when I was younger – is the attitude of players. You can tell they wanted to be there and wanted to do everything that was possible for the team to win.
“That is what you have to do. It’s not something I seek (adulation), but it’s something that’s nice when it happens.”
Priske thanked Djurgården supporters with a trademark celebration – by rubbing his fingers together with his arms outstretched –when he plundered goal after goal. With that in mind, the final question is: will we see it?
“I doubt it. It was a Sweden thing. They started the Jesus Priskus thing, so it was more of a way to show them I appreciated it.
“I’m not Jesus here yet.”
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