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The most wanted man in European football will be at Manchester City on Tuesday night, regardless of whether Pep Guardiola thinks he can afford it.
Erling Haaland arrives in his country of birth, the next £ 125 million footballer out of the rankings, with Borussia Dortmund set to face City in the Champions League quarter-finals.
He and Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappé are seen as heirs to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the superstars who have dominated world football for the past decade.
And he has all the credentials for footballer royalty, even at the age of 20. His agent is probably the best known in the world, Mino Raiola, famous in the UK mainly for his management of Paul Pogba and his frank interventions on the future of his client. .
His father, Alf-Inge, is the former Leeds and Manchester City player, the defender Roy Keane hit with a brutal defiance, high on his knee, prompting a five-game suspension for the United midfielder. and a lengthy legal case. as to whether he was done with Haaland senior’s career.
Most importantly, Haaland has data to back up the fanfare – he was faster than 100 goals in top-notch football than Messi or Ronaldo. He has already scored 20 Champions League goals in just 14 games and 39 goals this season, 33 for Dortmund. Week after week, it’s making his jaws drop.
The first nine minutes against Bayern Munich last month were a good example. He simply pushed his way through the Bayern defense to give Dortmund a two-goal lead, though they would eventually lose 4-2.
Jan Age Fjortoft, the Norwegian international who coached for Middlesbrough and Swindon and now works for Norwegian TV, is an old family friend who has played with Alfe-Inge or the national team. Fjortoft now covers all Dortmund matches for Norwegian television.
“We saw him score those goals against Bayern, we shook our heads and thought: ‘What are we part of? “Said Fjortoft.” As a small nation, we are very proud of our player and he is our main man, and when we see him in headlines around the world, we take great pride. “
And, along with Robert Lewandowski at Bayern and Harry Kane, he’s part of a growing generation of old-fashioned center forward. “In Germany, the number 9 is making a comeback,” said Fjortoft. “Mbappé is not so much a typical 9, he can do everything. But Erling is this new, typical No. 9, but a No. 9 developed with career power, a phenomenal physique and this hunger to score goals.
“It is very symbolic that Messi and Cristiano are out of the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time in 16 years. And you have these two little boys and we experts love that. But I think both Mbappé and Haaland are authentic.
“Mbappé has won the World Cup, but he is still young, but you have two players with a great passion for the game. They have a great attitude, which is greatly underestimated. I have known his father Alfie from his entire football life and Erling has a fantastic attitude. The attitude that he puts every day to improve himself as a player is amazing. You see the end result on the pitch, but it’s amazing in terms of attitude. ”
Born in Leeds, Haaland grew up in Bryne, his father’s hometown of 12,000, which is five miles inland from the North Sea and on the shore of Lake Froylandsvatnet, a Scandinavian idyll, away from the bustle of football. modern. and the £ 125 million it is expected to cost if it sells this summer.
Like his father, he joined the local team, Byrne FK, but at 16 his super talent was already evident, he had moved to Molde, Norway’s dominant club, which was later managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Molde CEO Oystein Neerland recalls: “Solskjaer did a very good job developing the physical and mental part of his game. And as a former striker he had good advice and inspiration. He got along very, very well with Erling. They had to moderate their departure initially.
“The first year at Molde he grew 20 cm (9 inches) in one year, so he needed to control his training,” said Neerland. “So he started to build his physique too.” Now the center forward he most resembles is Wayne Rooney, his physical strength and belligerence are a key factor in his goal.
Haaland also impressed off the field. “A typical thing that he did, that was special compared to other players, was that after training he would knock on my door,” says Neerland. ‘I was a club manager and he said to me: “Hello, Oystein. Do you have five minutes?” No problem. I was thinking, “What are we going to talk about?”
And I wondered: “What is it like to be a general manager in a club? Do you like your job?” I was 17 years old. I never had other young players visit my office for conversations like that. That impressed me quite a bit. I wanted to know everything about football. Of course, she had her father around her. He was relaxed on the pitch, he always wanted to win, he enjoyed the game, he never seemed afraid. “
So when it comes to business, you should be aware of all the decisions that are being made today. Last week Raiola and Haaland senior were in Barcelona and Madrid, meeting with the club’s directors. It doesn’t matter that Erling is under contract until 2024 and Borussia Dortmund says they won’t sell this summer. Manchester United, City, Chelsea and the Spanish giants are making plans if Dortmund’s resolve falters.
Conventional wisdom says that when Barça, which has a debt of one billion euros, or Real Madrid come to call, they get what they want. “It’s just my opinion, but I never got the impression that it’s part of his analysis of where he’s going,” Fjortoft said.
“ He knew of all the clubs that wanted him when he went to Salzburg and when he went to Dortmund. There were many clubs that wanted him and he chose to go where it would be developed. And the speculations about his father and Roy Keane [meaning they would reject United] …. the team around Erling is much more professional than that.
Take a look at the team around you, with Alfie as the main man. They are always choosing where they could develop and they always have. There will probably be a time when they look for other things as well, but so far they always have. Having been born in Leeds, his father to English football, I always say that I suppose Erling will love playing English football sometime in his career.
“Until now, everything is about development and the country is not the main thing. That is why they chose Dortmund. He scored a hat-trick in his first game against Augsburg. I was on German TV that Sunday morning and I said: “I think it’s good to wake up today as a 19-year-old in Dortmund when he scored three on his debut rather than waking up in English football, at this point in his professional career. . “
‘Okay, now there is an incredible mania around him, but he is still quite calm in Dortmund. Most people in Norway have no idea where Dortmund is! He is surrounded by young players and he is taking some of these young players like Jude Bellingham and Claudio Reyna to practice because they don’t have their driver’s license. It is perfect.
‘The people around him have shown throughout his career that they have chosen the alternative where he can develop the most. They did that in Molde, they did it in Red Bull Salzburg, they did it in Dortmund. All along there have been other alternatives. ‘
Next season, his contract has a 75 million euro (64 million pound) release clause, which would seem extremely cheap under the circumstances and it is worth waiting one season to save most of the 100 million pound sterling. . But there is uncertainty about whether the clause will be legally focusable. “Clause or no clause, there are processes in football, says Fjortoft.
There are two alternatives: Dortmund are in the Champions League next season or Dortmund are not. So let’s say you make a move in the summer. It is very interesting to see how the clubs of this era of the coronavirus turn out. Dortmund is losing a lot of money, several clubs losing a lot of money ”.
The question, which is the one Guardiola raised, is who has £ 125 million to spend right now. Note that the record transfer fee paid by the city is £ 64 million by Ruben Dias, although Kevin De Bruyne may have finally cost more once all the quotas have been met. But not much else.
Reports that UEFA’s Financial Fair Paly rules will be relaxed can help. But even City, owned by Sheikh Mansour, the UAE’s deputy prime minister, may not want to significantly exceed £ 100 million after the pandemic.
Fjortoft points out that Dortmund are in the semi-final of the German Cup, where they play Holstein Kiel and are currently fifth in the Bundesliga. [check at full time]. ‘If Dortmund win the Cup and are in the top four [and qualify for the Champions League]I would say that it will most likely stay.
If they are not in the Champions League, Dortmund will continue to desperate to retain him. This is your future. But we know football and there are dynamic processes that will happen. I think Dortmund are focused on being in the top four and then they will stay one more season. ‘
Haaland has been accused of arrogance, with his one-word responses in television interviews. And he unleashed a mini brawl by celebrating Sevilla goalkeeper Bono in the face after scoring a repeated penalty in the round of 16 tie. In attenuation, Bono had done the same to him after saving the first penalty, which was retaken because the goalkeeper was out of line.
“He has the” it “factor as a player, Fjortoft said. You see that in interviews. That’s not arrogance. He just likes to play with journalists. Never ask him a yes or no question because then you will get a yes answer or not. When they asked what did you say to the guardian [Bono, when celebrating] He said, ‘I don’t know. I just told him what he told me. He ended up with a yellow card, but he’s a great kid. ‘
He may be a great kid, but all of Europe is struggling to own him.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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