A bit of competitiveness is usually a given when siblings are involved, but when three boys arrive within the space of 23 months, you can expect the rivalry to be a little more intense. So it proved with the children of Anders Hojlund and Kirsten Winther.

First-born Rasmus, arriving in February 2003, and twins Oscar and Emil, born in January 2005, were so determined to outdo each other that there were occasions - regular occasions, in fact - when they would take up far more of their father's time than necessary.

A former footballer in the Danish leagues, Anders instilled the love of the sport in his own boys and was determined to help them be as good as they could be. He would leave the house with all three in tow, a bag of cones and balls in hand, ready to conduct a session with them.

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But so competitive would it become that he would often have to split it up. What should have been a one-hour training drill for his three children became an hour for Rasmus, an hour for Oscar and an hour for Emil.

That extra time is all starting to look like a very shrewd investment, however. Those memories of sessions in the cold in their hometown of Horsholm, just north of Copenhagen, might come flooding back at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.

The group stage fixture will feel like a family affair for the Hojlunds. Rasmus, 20, will almost certainly start for Manchester United and 18-year-old Oscar will likely be on the bench at the very least for the visitors. Emil is more likely to play in the UEFA Youth League game at Leigh Sports Village earlier in the day, but he has made his debut for the senior side this season and was twice on the bench in Champions League qualifying.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that at either Old Trafford or the Parken Stadium, they could make history as three brothers on the pitch in the same Champions League game. But even without that entry into the record books, it is a remarkable story. It's Rasmus, a £72million summer signing for United, who will attract most of the attention, but ask those who have worked with all three, and it isn't the striker who was considered the best player in his family as a youngster.

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"A lot of people who have met all three think the two younger brothers are at least as talented as Rasmus," says Christian Mouroux, sporting director of Horsholm Usserod Idraetsklub (HUI), the local club where all three started their careers.

Rasmus spent around six years at HUI before leaving when he was 12, while Oscar and Emil stayed for an extra year. At that stage of their development and in the years that followed, it was the twins who were considered the brightest stars.

"All of them have been very well advanced compared to the average, but the two younger brothers were, compared to Rasmus at the same age, in front of him," Mouroux told the Manchester Evening News.

"In my opinion, if you’re talking about pure talent, I would go to the length of maybe saying the two little brothers have a slight competitive advantage."

Their parents were involved in the club, with Kirsten a team administrator at HUI and Anders a coach. They still live near the club and use the facilities to train in the off-season.

While they played in different teams - the group of Oscar and Emil is considered one of the best HUI have ever had - their competitive nature was on show in those sessions that Anders would put on.

"Anders has had times where he has bought the balls and the cones and all of that stuff with all three of them, but often they end up making it so they go with him one-on-one, because if it’s all three of them they make it too competitive. They start to go at each other and things like that," said Mouroux.

"They were extremely competitive, extremely competitive. There is this part of Rasmus’ story around how FC Copenhagen maybe didn’t believe in him fully or wholeheartedly, so he moved to Sturm Graz and then how in the world in the space of 18 months does he go on to Manchester United. I would say the short story behind that is that Rasmus has always been insanely dedicated to his personal development."

Mouroux points back to this summer to make his point. While Rasmus was waiting for his move from Atalanta to United to go through, he was back home and would use the track facilities at HUI to train on his own and stay in shape before arriving at Old Trafford.

The competitive advantage and inter-family games didn't end there. Anders is a carpenter by profession and transformed the basement of the family home into an indoor football pitch, so while other youngsters in the town had times when pitches were unplayable or conditions inhospitable, the Hojlund boys could carry on.

They would take a ball downstairs and play against each other in the confines of the basement, sharpening technical skills and competitive instincts. Despite that, Rasmus, Oscar and Emil are close as brothers and Mouroux recounts a story from their school days to illustrate the point.

"When Rasmus would take cake to school for his birthday or things like that, he would hand out a piece to all of his classmates but he would always make sure there were two pieces left for his little brothers," he said.

"It’s that kind of relationship, they’ve always been together, but whenever it’s football they’ve always been competitive."

They have always been talented as well, but for the younger brothers just making their way at FC Copenhagen, those gifts were always a little more obvious.

All of the boys played a year above their level at HUI, but the reasons for doing so were different for Rasmus, compared to Oscar and Emil.

"For Rasmus, it was obvious because he was very physically developed early on, for him it was a natural thing to train with the boys who were one year older than him," said Mouroux.

"For Emil and Oscar, especially Oscar, who was the small one, it wasn’t because he was physically advanced, but the two younger brothers were a little bit more developed technically than Rasmus was at the same time."

Oscar, either a holding midfielder or box-to-box player, is the one most likely to line up against Rasmus at Old Trafford, while Emil is a forward who can play either out wide or through the middle. For Mouroux, it is the slight but tough and aggressive Oscar who makes the heart sing loudest.

"My personal favourite is Oscar," he said. "Emil is the more elegant player, he makes the elegant decisions and looks elegant when he’s dribbling and having beautiful passes, whereas Oscar is more of a bulldog, he’s a fighter, a winner, going into tackles, having courage.

"I think he has that because he was smaller than both of his brothers but also everyone else he was playing against. He had to compensate, so he is fearless, but also very good on the ball and he has that type of mentality where he is a winning personality, you can just see he wants to win in every single situation of the game."

But it's Rasmus who, at this stage, is attracting all the headlines and the attention. He left HUI one year too soon for the local club to receive any benefit from the transfer fees he has gone for over the previous 18 months as he's progressed from FC Copenhagen to Sturm Graz to Atalanta and now Old Trafford.

That money would have been a major bonus for a club like them, but the feeling of missing out must be even more pronounced at the Parken Stadium. In January 2022 they sold the striker to Sturm Graz for €1.8million, then watched him move to Serie A six months later for €17million and then a year after that United paid Atalanta €84million to sign him.

Mouroux makes the point that there were other talented strikers at FC Copenhagen at the time, but there's no doubt his explosion has taken some in Denmark by surprise.

"Looking back on it, they had a lot of other talented strikers and he was super young, so to some extent I can kind of understand why they did it, they believed in some of the other strikers with more experience than him," he said.

"But I do think they’re surprised he has made this journey he has, that he’s gone through this development at this speed he has. With the knowledge I have of him, it’s not surprising to me because he is so hard-working, he is so dedicated, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen him on his own just training by himself.

"I’ve always known something special was there with him, just in regards to his commitment to his football, but that he has done it at this speed is definitely spectacular."

Now, Rasmus is one of Europe's hottest and most recognisable players, but don't rule out his younger brothers making the same journey.

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