In Erling Haaland's debut season, Premier League goalscoring records fell. Photo: PA/Martin Rickett
There is an air of nonchalance in the way Erling Haaland makes a wonderful sight seem ordinary. Each week of his first campaign at Manchester City brought new milestones: he became the first Premier League player to score hat-tricks in three consecutive home games and scored 13 goals in the Champions League play-offs, one more than Thierry Henri for 15. years. At 22 years old, the Norwegian is a real storehouse of praise. Even Roger Federer, who won a Grand Slam tournament at 27, looks scruffy in comparison.
Yet the brightest debut season in living memory is still in need of two further flourishes. Haaland will still need FA Cup and Champions League glory over the next eight days before he can truly be said to have completed English football in his first year. Because if you study his work so far, there is a disparity between his many individual awards and his relatively small set of team awards. The league title for which he had done so much for City contrasted with his relentless pursuit of trophies at Borussia Dortmund, where Bayern Munich's dominance led to just one German Cup in 2.5 impressive seasons.
Haaland hopes the City will push him towards the greatness he longs for. While Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could add to their resumes internationally, he is unlikely to ever enjoy the same luxury representing Norway. In fact, he needs to win the Champions League in Istanbul to have any hope of depriving Messi, still basking in World Cup glory, of his eighth Ballon d'Or. That's why his first FA Cup final is so big: for Haaland, the symbol of the post-Messi generation, it's all about the club, not the country.Accordingly, he acts like a man who wastes no time, transforming himself from a clumsy «piece of spaghetti,» to borrow an unflattering image of one child coach, into a true Scandinavian striker god. Haaland was already in a hurry at Dortmund, where in his first match against Augsburg he scored with a third touch. Just under 23 minutes later, he scored a hat-trick. The same nonchalant jump in warp speed was seen in the City. All those predictions he could make to make an instant move out of the Bundesliga? He scored nine goals in his first five Premier League games.
Haaland's ability to shrug off even the most depressing expectations makes his move to City the coup of the century. He's that ultimate rarity, a full-blown star, not some immature prodigy or rough-hewn gem that needs Pep Guardiola's polish to sparkle like Jack Grealish in Season 2. Here you are looking at one treasure in which there is no noticeable flaw. Despite all attempts to force comparisons between Haaland and Harry Kane, the only player to score 30 Premier League goals this season, City's voracious centre-forward has scored 36 in less than six hours of play.
Erling Haaland's exploits this season have seen Premier League goalscoring records fall. Photo: PA/Nick Potts
As for his appetite for the grand event? Haaland was the epitome of wistful brilliance in two league deciders against Arsenal, scoring goals in the second half in both. Even though Antonio Rudiger pinned him masterfully at the Bernabéu, his game with Kevin De Bruyne against Real Madrid at the Etihad was dazzling, an aesthetic high point for English clubs in Europe. Guardiola doesn't have to worry about his deadly shooter going up in stakes against Manchester United, would-be Treble saboteurs. The only nitpick, perhaps, is that he scored only one goal out of the last six, by his standards the Atakaman drought. But maybe even a genius deserves a week or two off.
Terrifyingly, Haaland is convinced he can still improve in every aspect, from his left foot to his build-up play. This view is shared by Guardiola, who prides himself on spotting flaws invisible to all but the most obsessed perfectionists. It's not like they had much reason to disagree in their first year together. The closest they came to a spat was when Haaland grumbled about being substituted after he put an A against Leipzig and became furious at being denied the chance for a double hat-trick.
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These are what you might call first world problems. But Haaland, in truth, occupies the whole world. While Andrew Cole grouchily claimed that he «didn't care» that Haaland broke his record for most goals in a single season, the reality is that such parallels flatter him. Indeed, Cole was superb at Newcastle in 1993/94, his first full campaign in the top flight, scoring 41 goals in all competitions despite not being named as the team's penalty taker. Haaland, however, belongs to a category of its own with 52, including 12 in Europe alone. Those dozens of Champions League goals for City with the upcoming final in a single season are surpassed only by Messi, Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski. If you limit yourself to England, he has no equal.
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He is on a dizzying trajectory. But Haaland has the prospect of admitting that his absurd head counts are nothing more than selfish trips without matching trophies. He admitted this week that the main reason the club bought him was because the Champions League, which would be the first such title in City's history, was prioritized. For now, he should avoid looking too closely at that horizon. The FA Cup final against United is too precarious, too fraught with danger, to be seen as a mere staging area. Haaland is obviously ready. Not to mention born ready, this incomparable talent was ready as a fetus. Today, a month before his 23rd birthday, he must put the finishing touches on his conquest of the English game.
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