This article is part of the Guardian’s 2018 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who have qualified for Russia. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 14 June.

In 2014, when Glen Riddersholm was a youth coach at FC Midtjylland, there was this player with an insatiable desire to improve. “It is very rare, even in an elite environment, that you find someone with as much determination as Pione Sisto,” Riddersholm told Jyllands-Posten back then. “Pione is just unique in the way that he takes himself and his talent very seriously.”

On average the youngsters at FC Midtjylland trained 12 hours a week. Not Sisto. He doubled that, working on his technique, his crossing, his shooting and his set pieces for 24 hours.

Already then he was displaying the work ethic that later earned him a contract at Celta Vigo as well as a place in Denmark’s starting XI. Where does it come from? His family.

Sisto was born in Uganda on 4 February 1995 not long after his family had fled south Sudan. A few months later they embarked on the long journey to Europe and ended up in Hoejslev Stationsby, a rather remote village in the northern part of Jutland in Denmark.

Here the Sisto family adapted well and watched how Scandinavian society compared with that in south Sudan and Uganda. When Jyllands-Posten visited the Sisto family at their new home in Tjørring, 60 km south of Hoejslev Stationsby, in 2014 one of the siblings, Angelo, reflected on this and what it had meant to the Sisto children.

“Back in south Sudan our parents lived on a small farm but when they fled to Denmark they experienced a huge difference. In Denmark the elder generations have worked hard to build a welfare state and served everything to the future generations, who don’t have to work as hard.

“In south Sudan it wasn’t like that, so our parents are very focused on us doing the best they can for us. When you have an opportunity you have to take advantage of it. That’s how we see things in our family.”

Sisto has eight siblings and all have taken their education seriously. For Pione, however, football became his education. His talent was obvious from the beginning and when the family moved to Tjørring Sisto was spotted by Midtjylland.

They are one of the three biggest clubs in Denmark and arguably the best at developing talent. The Denmark captain, Simon Kjaer, was one of the first to come off the conveyor belt and West Ham’s Winston Reid and Celtic’s Erik Sviatchenko have also come through the ranks there.

It was at Midtjylland that Sisto met Riddersholm, with the coach looking after him, first in the youth team and, after they had both been promoted, in the first team. For a while Riddersholm tried to protect Sisto by keeping him out of the first team but in the end it was impossible – Sisto was simply too good.

In 2015 Sisto was part of the Midtjylland team that won the league and the following year he scored home and away against Manchester United in the Europa League – and everyone knew that it was a question of when and not if he was going to leave for a top European club.

He had gone from being a somewhat tactically naive player to a much more rounded footballer. Some of Europe’s biggest clubs watched him and in the end he chose Celta Vigo – knowing that he had a chance to break into the starting XI. Straight away he became a fixture in the Celta team and a Denmark call-up followed.

Sisto did not become a Danish citizen until December 2014 but once that had gone through he was quickly called up to the Under-21s – and then the seniors. Sisto has been selected to start in every Denmark game since October 2016 and scored his first goal this year in a friendly against Panama.

What baffled viewers of that game, however, was not the fact that he scored but that he played without tying his laces. He was running around like Diego Maradona during a warm-up or Lionel Messi during training at Barcelona. “I like it when I have a lot of space for my feet in the boots so I can make cuts and move freely,” Sisto told Jyllands-Posten afterwards.

Denmark’s coach, Åge Hareide, has tried to develop Sisto’s link play with Christian Eriksen and is well aware that opponents’ focus on the Spurs player will open space for the Celta winger.

Whatever happens in Russia and afterwards, though, Sisto knows that he will never be alone. He will have his parents – who interrupted the press conference when Sisto was named in the under-21s for the first time by singing and dancing in African costumes – and his siblings Lobolohitti, Margaret, Akari, Cathy, Angelo, Lopunyak, Adeleide and Regina.

They have already achieved a lot together, through hard work and dedication, and one senses that this is only the start of their journey.

Troels Henriksen writes for Jyllands-Posten.

Follow him on Twitter here.

Click here for our Denmark team guide.