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Whenever a young goalscoring machine comes along, comparisons with greats past and present are inevitable.
In the case of Erling Braut Haaland, the 20-year-old Norwegian plying his trade for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, the hype is understandable, but comparisons with the likes of Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo remain very premature.
The latest round of Champions League matches, the round of 16, has once again thrust Haaland into the limelight, along with French superstar Kylian Mbappé.
Haaland scored twice, and added an assist, in his side’s 3-2 win over Sevilla, whilst Mbappé’s hat-trick helped PSG to a 4-1 win over the hapless Barcelona, with Messi scoring for the Blaugrana through a first-half penalty.
The 22-year-old Mbappé already has a World Cup winner’s medal, something that has eluded both Messi and Ronaldo, but there is still a long way to go.
Consider this:
Cristiano Ronaldo has 763 career goals:
That means that Erling Haaland would need to score 44 goals a year until he’s 35 to match him.
Kylian Mbappé would need to find the net 48 times a year until he’s 35 to match him. pic.twitter.com/30y7HumObo
— Football Tweet (@Football__Tweet) February 18, 2021
As things stand, Mbappé has 142 goals in 225 club appearances, to go with 16 in 39 for the French national team.
Haaland has 110 in 153 club matches, and six in his seven appearances for Norway.
Let’s focus on Haaland, with this via CNN:
A hat-trick off the bench, in less than 20 minutes, in your first match for Borussia Dortmund is quite a way to announce your arrival.
In total, in the Champions League, competing against the best in Europe, Haaland has scored 18 times in 13 matches.
You can see each of those below:
Coaches who have worked with Haaland through his career, such as Alfe Ingve Berntsen and Christoph Freund, aren’t shying away from the Messi and Ronaldo comparisons:
Given he is already one of the best strikers in the world, both Berntsen and Freund say “the sky is the limit” for Haaland and with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi now in the twilight of their careers, football is looking for its next superstars to lead the emerging generation…
“Messi and Ronaldo have outstanding careers, they worked very hard every day for these careers,” Freund says. “The last 10, 15 years they were superstars in this business and they played every year at the highest level.”
…”I think, yeah, this can be a goal for Erling, but for this career everything must be perfect and you have to be hungry every year again and again and again. Overall, maybe Erling can be one of the next superstars in Europe. It’s a lot of work for him, but from the potential side, he has everything.”
With the goalscoring heroics on display in midweek, the Haaland / Mbappé rivalry is really being talked up as a replacement for Messi / Ronaldo.
The ageing duo have won 11 of the past 12 Ballons d’Or trophies, and whilst both are still producing impressive goalscoring numbers this season, the clock is ticking.
As the BBC reports, football pundits and fans are licking their lips at the prospect of the youngsters taking over that mantle:
“It means we’ve got something to look forward to after [Ronaldo and Messi],” said Gary Lineker on BT Sport.
“That [their goalscoring figures] are Messi and Ronaldo at their prime.”
Ex-Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand said: “Last night Mbappe overshadowed Messi and tonight Haaland overshadowed Ronaldo on a night where they both played.
“[This is the] changing of the guard. This could be another rivalry which lasts 10 years. How long have we been asking ‘what’s next?'”
Ex-Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole said: “We didn’t see these numbers even when Ronaldo and Messi were learning their trade. The frightening thing is these lads will improve.”
This is the same Joe Cole who confused Barcelona’s famed youth academy, La Masia, for a curry spice:
Joe Cole mistook our world famous academy, ‘La Masia’ for an Indian spice. British pundits never seize to amuse me
pic.twitter.com/xTE6OWRYC4
— Neal
(@FriendlyNobody_) February 17, 2021
Still, since the start of the 2019/20 season, the youngsters are keeping up with the best in the business:
Everywhere you look, the comparisons continue – here and here, for example.
What really sets Messi and Ronaldo apart is the longevity of what they have achieved, year after year, and season after season.
If Haaland or Mbappé really want to be written into the history books alongside these two greats, they’ll have to keep up their current goalscoring antics for many years to come.
Which, as any proper football fan will tell you, would be very welcome.
To finish, here’s a highlights reel featuring some of Haaland’s finest moments, with a characteristically terrible soundtrack to boot:
