Manchester City are already making a statement ahead of the defence of their Premier League title by signing Borussia Dortmund and Norway striker Erling Haaland.
The £51m striker is one of the hottest names in world football and at the age of 21, the Norway international has already established himself as a premier talent.
DAZN takes a look at the clinical Norwegian as he looks to become a legend at the Etihad Stadium.
Who is Erling Haaland?
Erling Haaland is a Norwegian footballer who now plays for 2021/22 Premier League champions Manchester City.
He is 21 years old and was born in Leeds, England, before moving to his parents’ hometown of Bryne at the age of three. His father Alfie Haaland was also a professional footballer and spent 20 years in England where he played for Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Manchester City between 1993 and 2003.
Haaland’s professional football career began at the age of five when he joined the Bryne academy in 2005 and since then his rise through the world football ranks has been astronomical.
What position does he play?
Haaland is a striker and is usually the focal point of any team he plays for.
With a 6’ 4” frame, Haaland is a huge aerial threat, but his technical ability and speed means he is lethal both inside and outside the opposition penalty area.
Who has he played for?
After a brief two season spell at Bryne, Haaland joined Molde in February 2017 to play under former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. An impressive run of form which saw him score 16 goals in all competitions during the 2018 season saw him attract the attention of Austrian Bundesliga champions Red Bull Salzburg who announced that Haaland would join the club on January 1 2019.
Haaland made an instant impact when he arrived at Salzburg and made history on his UEFA Champions League debut against Genk. The Norwegian international scored a first half hat-trick in a 6-2 win and became the first teenager to score three goals on a Champions League debut since Wayne Rooney in 2004.
Once again, Haaland’s goalscoring ability did not go unnoticed and after scoring 29 goals in 27 appearances for Salzburg, he joined German giants Borussia Dortumund on a four-and-a-half-year deal in December 2019.
During both spells with Salzburg and Dortmund, Haaland’s stock rose considerably, especially in the Champions League where he finished the top scorer for the 2020/21 season and was named the competition’s best forward for that particular season.
His final season at Dortmund however wasn’t as prolific as the previous two. A number of injuries meant Haaland wasn’t able to reach previous heights, but he did manage to score his 50th Bundesliga goal last November in Dortmund’s 3-1 win over Wolfsburg and became the youngest player to reach 50 goals in the German top flight.
Then on May 10 2022, Dortmund announced that Haaland’s time at the club was up and he would be joining Premier League champions Manchester City at the end of the season.
Why are Man City signing him?
It’s no secret that Manchester City have one of, if not, the deepest squad in world football when it comes to star quality, however if there is one position the Blues have been lacking, it’s in the forward department.
Since Sergio Aguero’s departure and a failed pursuit of Tottenham star Harry Kane in the Summer of 2021, City spent the majority of last season playing without an outright striker and while a manager like Pep Guardiola can find ways to navigate around this problem, it was clear City may have sewn up the Premier League sooner, and even possibly won the Champions League.
City’s trademark goal is a player in a wide area to hit a low cross across the opposition box and then for a teammate to poke the ball into the goal, and Haaland’s poacher ability will suit these moves perfectly, but he will also pose another dimension to City’s attack.
Often when the low balls across the box aren’t successful, City players resort to crosses which fail to find a fellow City player who is tall enough to head the ball into the goal. Haaland will be a solution to this problem with his height and maybe it will give Guardiola a reason to conjure up a ‘Plan B’ if matches aren’t going his team’s way.