Crystal Palace invested heavily in Norwegian striker Jørgen Strand Larsen and now they have paid off.
Being a club’s most expensive signing of all time comes with enormous pressure. Some players get up, others struggle.
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For a while, it seemed that Jørgen Strand Larsen was struggling.
The Norwegian striker joined Crystal Palace from Wolverhampton Wanderers on February 2 in a deal worth up to £48 million. Before Thursday’s semi-final in the Conference League, he had only three goals in 14 games for the Eagles.
But his fourth goal may turn out to be the most important. Because then the 26-year-old showed pure magic and gave Palace a 3-1 lead away to Shakhtar Donetsk in Krakow.
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The Norwegian’s journey: From caterpillar to butterfly
Jørgen Strand Larsen has had an extraordinary journey in recent years. From being a relatively unknown striker in Norwegian Sarpsborg 08, he made the trip via Groningen in the Netherlands and Celta Vigo in Spain before he really broke through in the Premier League.
After impressing for Wolverhampton with his physicality, work capacity and increasingly sharp finishing, he was brought to Crystal Palace for a record sum. The move to Palace has been demanding, with few playing minutes and fierce competition from Jean-Philippe Mateta.
But against Shakhtar, he finally showed why the club forked out the millions. Much of the transfer fee of 49.7 million euros was “paid back” last night.
The jump in that changed everything
Substitute Strand Larsen stormed forward after a pass from Daichi Kamada in the 84th minute. He broke into the box, showed ice-cold composure as he rounded a sliding tackle, before elegantly lobbing the ball over the advancing Shakhtar goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk.
The beautiful finish gave Oliver Glasner’s side a two-stage lead before the second leg at Selhurst Park on Thursday 7 May. Now, in all likelihood, they have one foot in the club’s first major European Cup final ever.
“We weren’t sure if he got a touch on the ball”
“We weren’t sure if he got the touch on the ball, and that’s exactly what’s so impressive – the composure and the way he puts it into the corner,” said former Tottenham and England midfielder Glenn Hoddle on TNT Sports.
“If it was Harry Kane who had scored that goal, we would all have said ‘wow, what a beautiful goal’.
Strong attacking cooperation
If Strand Larsen takes the momentum and confidence from scoring, Palace have an attack that no other team left in the Conference League can match.
In Jean-Philippe Mateta, they have a striker with 13 goals this season. Ismaila Sarr is the tournament’s top scorer with eight goals – five of them in the playoffs. His last goal, which gave Palace the lead after just 21 seconds against Shakhtar, was the fastest goal in Conference League history.
The competition for places in attack is tough, but everyone seems to be willing to contribute – either from the start or as a substitute.
“I really needed that”
“I really needed that,” Strand Larsen admitted.
“It’s tough. Two good players (himself and Mateta) fighting for one place, but to come in and score is absolutely fantastic.
“We know the structure of the manager and the team. We had to accept that they are a good team, so we had to be a little deeper today, but we did well on counter-attacks.
A fantastic bunch of people, men and personalities
Through their impressive European Cup performances, Palace have shown that they are not just about individuals, but about a team that steps up when it really matters.
Japanese midfielder Kamada hadn’t scored since October 2024 before his clinical finish on Thursday restored the Palace lead just as Shakhtar looked to take control.
It could be a slightly sad end to the season, as manager Glasner – who led Palace to a fairytale FA Cup triumph last year – is just two games away from European Cup glory before he leaves in the summer. Nevertheless, optimism seems to be high.
“It’s a fantastic group of people, men and personalities,” said Glasner, who himself won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022.
“There is an incredibly good team spirit and a strong community, and we always believe in ourselves.
“There is no button we can press to turn it on. This is something we have built up over months and years – that we know that we can always come back and score goals.
Conference League
The Uefa Conference League 2025/26 is arguably the weakest European continental competition commercially, and it was designed that way – to give smaller teams a boost in revenue and allow some of them to compete in Europe for the very first time.
Uefa expects €4.4 billion in commercial revenue across its three club competitions – the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League – in 2025/26.
Of this, €285 million has been allocated to the Conference League, less than half of the Europa League and more than eight times less than the Champions League.
EQUAL PARTS
The distribution for the Uefa Conference League is set at 114 million euros, which gives a starting fee per club of 3.17 million euros per club. That is not much less than the Europa League as a starting point.
PERFORMANCE-RELATED PAYMENTS
Wins are worth €400,000, while draws are worth €133,000 at group stage level. Strasbourg topped the group stage of the 2025/26 Conference League, so they will have amassed around €2.133 million for their group stage performances. This is due to the fact that the Conference League only has six games at the group stage level.
Teams also receive a ranking bonus depending on where they finish, so Strasbourg, thanks to first place, received €828,000, while bottom team Rapid Vienna earned only €46,000.
Finally, the clubs that finish in 1st-8th place – i.e. who avoid the knockout round and go straight to the round of eight – receive €400,000, while those in grades 9-16 receive €200,000.
- Playoff Round: €200,000
- The Round of Eight awards €800,000
- Quarter-finals: €1.3 million
- Semi-finals: €2.5 million
- Final: €4 million
- Winner: An additional €3 million
VALUE (MARKET + COEFFICIENT)
Finally, the distribution per team is based on their market and coefficient performance. €57 million has been allocated to this specific source that must be distributed among the teams based on European and non-European TV revenues.
In general, a top club can expect to receive around €2.5 million extra from this distribution.
For some smaller teams in Europe, the prize money of competing in the Europa Conference League would be life-changing, but for mid-sized Premier League teams, it’s a significant stake – a minimum of 13 games and all the extra squad restrictions that come with it – for a decent, if not spectacular, return if they go on to win.
