 "A legend in the making? How Erling Haaland is shaping his own destiny")
“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Like many other timeless William Shakespeare quotes, this one too (from Twelfth Night), written over four hundred years ago, holds true for many athletes in the current global sports ecosystem. Some are born, destined to be great. Some work hard to achieve greatness and some find their way to greatness thanks to the opportunities that come their way. One such athlete – who surely falls in one of these three categories - is footballer, Erling Haaland.
On Sunday (22 September), Manchester City registered their first non-win of the 2024-25 English Premier League season in their fifth game ( a 2-2 draw vs Arsenal ), but as has become the norm these days, Haaland once again made headlines.
It wasn’t because he scored the opening goal of the game in the ninth minute, it wasn’t because he was on the score-sheet again, as has been the case for each and every EPL match played this season so far. As harsh as it might sound, Haaland scoring goals is perhaps no longer headline-worthy news, simply because he is a prolific goal-scoring machine, who you expect to find the back of the net every time he sets foot on a football pitch.
Record-breaking Haaland
On Sunday, Haaland made headlines because he equalled the record of becoming the fastest player to reach 100 goals (all competitions – in European football) for a single club – in 105 appearances. A record that was previously solely held by a certain Cristiano Ronaldo (100 goals in 105 appearances for Real Madrid).
Haaland, believe it or not, is scoring at an average of one goal every 85 minutes on the field. That’s one goal minimum, on an average, in less than one full football match.
He also became the fastest player to get to 10 goals in one Premier League season (five matches). It’s a culmination of years of hard work and dedication, behind the scenes – a journey that began when he was just five years old.
It’s a big deal, this latest record – to become the joint fastest to reach 100 goals across Europe’s top 5 leagues (EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1) for one club. It’s made news the world over of course, but did it really make you sit up and say ‘Really? That is something else’. Perhaps not. And don’t blame yourself, if you didn’t react like that.
After all, Haaland has become synonymous with consistent, ruthless, prolific goal-scoring. Who else did you think would get to this record, if not the man who has already netted two hat-tricks in five Premier League games this season, having scored 10 of the 13 goals that City have scored overall in the league, in the 2024-25 season, so far?
To say that his Premier League career, which began only in 2022, is already extraordinary wouldn’t really be a stretch. And to think that the 6-foot 4 inch tall Norwegian turned just 24, in July this year.
Consider this – Haaland’s 10 EPL goals so far in the first five games is the best start a player has had to a Premier League season since centre-forward Thomas ‘Pongo’ Waring in 1930 (called Football League back then), while playing for Aston Villa.
Haaland has scored against each of the 23 Premier League opponents he has played so far, while donning the City jersey. He is also the fastest to 50 Premier League goals (48 games), ahead of the likes of Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Mo Salah, among others.
We are all aware of just how big a ripple, nay wave, Haaland caused when he joined the Premier League. And to think that in less than three seasons, he has already become faster than any other man to get to a century of goals for one Premier League club (closest to Haaland is Ruud Van Nistelrooy who reached 100 goals for Manchester United in 131 matches).
Considered the fastest and often roughest football league in the world, the EPL shapes players differently. Many of the all-time greats, like Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero, among others, played in the initial stages of their careers, or had career-defining associations with Premier League clubs.
His giant frame, strength and presence inside the box, coupled with his speed sets him apart. And oh yes, then there’s the finishing. And to think that the Haaland we are seeing is not the finished product. He has been evolving, adapting and improving, since he was five years old.
“He (Haaland) is a fantastic finisher. He is learning the game. We saw him at (Borussia) Dortmund and he was rough and unready – and we are thinking – ‘ok, he has come up to this level – to the Bundesliga, scored lots of goals there’ and I am thinking – ‘ok, this is the next level (EPL)’. I knew that he had a lot of injuries towards the end of his tenure at the Bundesliga and I am thinking – ‘will his body be able to stand up to the rigours of the Premier League?’ Well, he’s had a couple of injuries here and there, but nothing too major. But, the one thing that he (Haaland) has done, and I will give all the credit to Guardiola for this – is he has become a better, all-round player, in terms of his hold-up play, his awareness, his runs,” former Manchester City player, Mark Seagraves told this writer recently during a chat on European club football.
Guardiola. That one name that comes up almost every time a football expert talks about young Haaland. And why not? After all, it was nothing short of a coup for City to get Haaland’s signature, at a time many other leagues were circling, at the price they got him at, and also to put so much faith in a young player, who had never played English football before. All the credit for that perhaps has to go to the scouting system at City and the manager – Pep Guardiola.
In fact, the scout who discovered Haaland, when he was playing under-15 football, Bryan King, feels the Norwegian will stay on at City, till Pep is manager.
The process of understanding just what a masterstroke it was to scout, target and recruit Haaland and bring him to the Etihad at the time that City did can really go hand in hand with tracking his incredible upward trajectory and his unwavering focus on aiming to be one of the best in the business.
Haaland’s early footballing days
Haaland began playing organised youth football at the age of five, when he joined the academy at Bryne – (a club whose first team currently plays in the second tier of Norwegian football). Joining the Bryne academy in many ways was a no-brainer, considering his father, Alfie Haaland, had joined the youth academy of the club in 1979 and then climbed up to the first team by 1989, at the age of 17.
Erling Haaland moved up to the reserve team, in the fourth tier of Norwegian football, in 2015 and then to the first team in 2016. By this time, he had already scored 18 goals for the reserve team.
Haaland got his first taste of international football when he represented Norway at the under-15 category, during the 2015-16 season – his exploits with the Bryne reserve team bringing him on the radar of the national team officials. This is also around the time when he was noticed by prominent football scout, Bryan King, who at that time tracked Scandinavian football, for clubs like Tottenham, Everton and Aston Villa.
At the national level, Haaland came across Gunnar Halle – former Norwegian right-back, a former team-mate of Alfie Haaland (Erling’s father) at Leeds United and the current manager of Norwegian club Honefoss Ballklubb.
Halle told Goal.com – “The first time I saw Haaland playing football was at the age of 15. At that time, he was quite small and narrow before his growth spurt and physically at a disadvantage…He was without a doubt a good player who scored many goals, but was by no means outstanding. His physique and coordination still had to develop at that time. That he would one day become a superstar was still a long way off….No one could have imagined what he would one day be capable of. Today he benefits from the fact that he had to learn to read a game back then because he was not as assertive as he is today.”
Haaland knew what he was lacking when he wasn’t physically assertive could allow him to pick up skills which could be very useful in the future. As Haale says, he learnt to ‘read the game’. Once he had the added weapon of physical force to his arsenal, he made sure he combined his game-reading abilities with his physicality.
In May 2016, Alf Inge Berntsen, the youth coach at Bryne was promoted to caretaker manager of the senior team. Since he had worked closely with Erling Haaland, Bernsten decided to hand him his first senior start that year, even though Erling was just 15 years old at the time. After playing him as a winger in a few games, Bernsten decided to deploy Haaland in his favoured position of central striker. Interestingly, Haaland didn’t score at senior level with Bryne.
But he did get a trial with German club Hoffenheim. Though a move to Hoffenheim didn’t materialise, he was signed by another Norwegian club – Molde, where he joined the reserve team in 2017 and then moved up to the first team the same year, even before he had turned 17. This brought him right under the watchful eyes of Norwegian and Manchester United legend - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But being surrounded by older players and football legends didn’t intimidate Haaland. And he continued to work hard and stay focussed on his goal – to be one of the best in the business.
Halle told Goal.com – “He is not afraid of anything. He often trained alone as a child, doing exercises over and over again because he always had this big goal in mind to make it to the top.”
Haaland’s rapid rise to the top
The rapid rise to the top really began when he moved to the Austrian Bundesliga, to play for Red Bull Salzburg. He scored 17 goals in 16 appearances there from 2019 to 2020. According to Goal.com, Salzburg had been tracking Haaland since 2016.
Haaland made international headlines at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland when he scored as many as nine goals in Norway’s 12-0 win against Honduras. It wasn’t surprising that when he returned to Austria, the new Salzburg manager made Haaland his first-choice striker. In September of the same year (2019), Haaland made his Norway senior team debut, while turning into a prolific goal-scorer for Salzburg (at winter break of 2019 - 28 goals in 22 games in all competitions, including five hat-tricks).
Haaland had already been noticed by the big names in European football and in December 2019, Bundesliga heavyweights Borussia Dortmund announced his signing after activating his 17-million-pound release clause. Among some of the other clubs who were interested in him at the same time were Manchester United.
Haaland made his debut for Dortmund in an away match against FC Augsburg in January 2020. He came on as a second half substitute and scored a hat-trick in 23 minutes. Dortmund won the match 5-3.
Haaland made a total of 67 appearances for Borussia Dortmund, scoring 62 goals. He reached the milestone of 100 senior goals (all competitions, all clubs) in his 146th game. In the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League season, Haaland finished as the top goal scorer with 10 goals and received the Champions League Forward of the season award.
And then on 10 May, 2022, Manchester City announced that they had completed his signing. He joined the club on 1 July, on a five-year contract. He scored a brace on his Premier League debut against West Ham. And the rest as they say is history.
But Haaland knows that his evolution is far from done. He still, in many ways, holds his destiny in his own hands and he knows the hard work, behind the scenes, must continue.
Guardiola recently said – “After training sessions he (Haaland) stays longer to practise the crosses and controls.” Guardiola and City had waited and watched and then pulled the trigger when they felt the time was right to bring a physically fully formed Haaland (6 foot 4 inches tall) to the Premier League. This month (September 2024), after he scored twice against Brentford, despite the recent death of a close friend, Guardiola said – “He (Haaland) is an incredible weapon.” He also said that Haaland is in his best Manchester City career form, currently, after a relaxing summer break .
Mark Seagraves told this writer – “A very shrewd bit of business by Manchester City (signed in 2022 after City triggered his 51.2-million-pound release clause at Dortmund. City reportedly paid a total of 85.5 million pounds, including agent fees, signing bonus and other costs. Most experts feel going by how well he is doing at City, it was quite the bargain).
“And he has done it for them, year-in-year-out. I just like the way he is developing, he is aware of where he should be, where he could go and he is anticipating it and the defenders aren’t reacting – and that’s what sets him apart and his finishing, of course. Also, his dad (Alfie Haaland) played for Manchester City and he knows just how big a club Manchester City is. When you are in the football game and you are managing and you want players to come to your football club, all these things matter.
“It’s not just about football. It’s about where your wife wants to go shopping, where the best schools are for your children, ‘I want to play where my dad played’ and obviously Manchester City are one of the biggest clubs in Europe now, anyway, so, financially it would be good for him (Haaland). So, a lot of these things aligned and Manchester City got him for little compared to what his stock is now.”
His expected valuation as a phenomenal striker aside, what needs to be understood also is that there are various factors that have to work in favour of a player for him to be able to do what Haaland is doing at City.
One – the quality of players around him. How many times did we hear the refrain – ‘Messi is not being able to do for Argentina, what he does for Barcelona, because of the quality of players around him.’
“He (Haaland) is (also) getting an awful lot of chances – from the players who are around him. We talk about Manchester City’s quality and their ability to go and get the best (players) – and they have got the best. The likes of (Phil) Foden in and around there. They have just sold (Julien) Alvarez – to sell a guy like that, with the knowledge that someone else will be coming in. I think what he (Haaland) has done, that sets him apart from the likes of Harry Kane and others is that he can get in behind the defenders, whereas Kane – a lot of it is in front of the play, he doesn’t have the pace to get in. Haaland has got the pace, he has got the power….If you put Haaland in say the Nottingham Forest team, he wouldn’t score 30-40 goals a season.
“He might only be able to score 15-20, because the players around him there (Notts Forest) aren’t going to be as good as the ones he is going to get at Manchester City, so all of it is subjective, dependant on how you view it. For me, with his goal scoring and the regularity of his goal scoring every season, he is up there with the best.” Mark Seagraves said.
Two – physical form and age. Haaland seems to have arrived at Manchester City at just the right time – both for him and for the club. Guardiola has used Haaland cleverly. He has gone on record to say – “I like when he (Haaland) runs a lot. I like when he presses like an animal.”
When Haaland ‘presses like an animal’, it helps City to high-press the opponents. But to be able to maintain a shape that allows them to win back possession as close to the opposition goal as possible, requires incredible fitness and above all team-work. With Haaland in prime physical shape (barring a niggle or two) and a quality roster of players around him, Guardiola and City have what they want and need.
There’s no doubt that if you closely scrutinise Haaland’s per year development and progress, you will see an astonishing improvement, every season. And that is what makes him not just a very lethal weapon, but a scary prospect for the future.
Comparisons with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have already started of course, but let’s not forget to appreciate and relish who Haaland is currently before claiming that he will be an all-time great etc. Remember, he has already been linked to a possible move to Real Madrid, though reports suggest that he is no longer interested in looking at the Spanish giants, after they recruited French World Cup winner, Kylian Mbappe.
Maybe, it is in Haaland’s best interest for him to stay at Manchester City, regardless of the potential offers and temptations.
Mark Seagraves told this writer - “He (Haaland) will never be a Cristiano Ronaldo, but he will be an Erling Haaland. Each year he stays at Manchester City and under Guardiola, he is only going to get better. He’s only 24, he’s still got a lot to learn…We saw the goals he scored against Ipswich (hat-trick), cool as a cucumber, his finishing is brilliant. I just think this (City) is the ideal club for him.
“The next one will be probably, Real Madrid and he will score even more goals there. He’s on the road to 40 goals this (EPL) season (scored 27 goals in the 2023-24 EPL season). He is a fantastic player.”
It’s really not a surprise to see Erling Haaland’s name in the list of players nominated for the 2024 Ballon d’Or .
A certain Alfie Haaland, who became a property developer in Norway after his football career, will be a proud father today, having encouraged Erling to take up the beautiful game.
To quote Shakespeare again - ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them’ — which of these three categories does Erling Haaland belong in? You decide.
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