Erling Haaland: Norwegian Prospect Who Can Become the Best Striker Ever

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We can praise God that we are living in the times of the Messi vs Ronaldo contest while also seeing how cool the strikers like Ibrahimovic, Lewandowski, Benzema or Suarez.

However, ten or so surnames can be annoying to see from year to year, and it attracts plenty of attention to the promising youngsters. So, names like Mbappe or Haaland can be even more interesting to discuss, and this time we will talk about Norwegian attackers. Yes, it’s quite hard to review the portfolio of the 21-year-old striker as one of the best, but let’s look more attention to Erling and his achievements at this age.

Interestingly, the Norwegian striker was born not in his native country but in England. There, his father, a professional footballer with the same surname, was playing for Leeds. So, the first land Erling saw was the UK and happened on July 21, 2000. Interestingly, his father, Alf-Inge, was seriously injured by Roy Keen from Manchester United and was even forced to finish his career. Now, the latest news reported that Haaland refused the offer from the Red Devils, although he expects a transfer from Borussia Dortmund this summer.

Nonetheless, the family moved from England to Norway in 2004, where Erling began his sporting career. Yes, he was interested not only in football and even had a his-age record in a stand long jumping being only five. Not surprisingly, his first junior team appeared the same year when Haaland joined Bryne’s academy. The young talent was polishing his mastery there until 2016 and joined Molde in 2017. Being only 16 years old, Erling debuted in senior football for Byrne and even played 16 games, while Molde still invited him to their academy.

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However, Haaland needed only four games in his new team’s academy to persuade in his talent. After scoring two goals in four appearances, he was sent to the senior being only 17. And that was not a problem for the young man with a height of 1.94 metres. During his not full two seasons in Molde, Erling played 39 games and scored crucial 14 goals at the senior level. The scouts of the European clubs took a note of the guy after that.

However, even more impactful was Haaland’s game for the Norwegian U-20 team at the Youth World Cup. At the tournament held in Poland, Erling was able to surprise, astonish, and enter record books at the same time. Thus, in the group stage of the event, Norway met Honduras and won 12-0, while the striker scored nine goals. Interestingly, his team didn’t even make it to the playoffs, but Haaland quite predictably won the Golden Boot of the competition and a lot of attention from mass media.

It forced his transfer to RB Salzburg from Austria. The team was on the rise at the end of 2010th, playing attacking football. That was the right place for the young talent with astonishing scoring abilities. The team was dominating in the Austrian Bundesliga and also played in the group stage of the Champions League.

So, starting from the season 2019-2020, Haaland entered a new level for him, and there were plenty of sceptics concerning his achievements at this level. However, Erling was good not only in the Austrian competition but on the European stage as well. Although the team got into the tough group with Liverpool, Napoli, and Genk, the Austrian club was close to playoffs but lost the last game to Liverpool. And Haaland was the main power of the team, scoring in the first five games of the competition and eight overall. Adding 17 goals in 16 games in the Austrian championship, the Norwegian showed that he is ready for making another step in his career. And these talks were right in January 2020, after a half year in Salzburg.

While most of the fans and experts expected Haaland to join RB Leipzig as one more club in the Red Bull group, the team didn’t need the huge striker with a height of 1.94 as all their game was built around smaller Timo Werner. So, the Norwegian joined Borussia Dortmund for a pretty small sum of 20 million euros. However, as many now see, the guy costs much higher.

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In the Bumblebees squad, Haaland immediately became the main star as he was scoring with incredible regularity. Thus, after two years in the German Bundesliga, Erling holds the stats of 58 goals in 63 league games while also adding dozens in European competitions. Thus, at the age of only 20, Haaland scored ten goals in eight UCL games in his first season in Dortmund and became even the best scorer in the competition. In the Bundesliga, Erling set numerous records in terms of fastest-to scoring rates at particular distances (to 10th goal and alike) and scored by young guys.

As the Bumblebees have been quite unstable in the European arena in the latest years, a lot of stronger clubs put an eye on the Norwegian and want to see him in their squads. Moreover, his contract with Borussia has an item, so his transfer fee will be around 75 million euros in summer 2022, which looks like a cheap deal for about ten or so clubs. So, everyone expects to see Haaland in the English or Spanish top club as the guy can make history in terms of scoring. Of course, he will also earn much more money at his 22, while his recent net worth is “only” about $10 million.

What relates to the playstyle of Erling, he looks like a typical striker of a new generation. Haaland has great distance speed, is pretty skilful in passing and shooting from both legs, and has great striking instincts. It allows him to find a free space on the pitch and use it delightfully. While his height also allows him to be great in headings, he scores in such a manner rarely, but that is a room for improvement for still a young guy. At the moment, Haaland looks like the footballer who will become the main competitor for Mbappe in the goalscoring race and Ballon d’Or winning chances.

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