Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Alex Brotherton

Man City told Erling Haaland will make people 'forget about Messi and Ronaldo'

In Erling Haaland, Manchester City have a goalscorer that will break plenty of records and help earn them a reputation once earned by Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Haaland has made a superb start to life at the Etihad Stadium since his £51m summer move from Borussia Dortmund, scoring 12 goals in seven matches in all competitions, 10 in six in the Premier League. He has already broken the record for the most goals scored by a player in their first five Premier League appearances (nine), but surely it won't be long before more records start to fall.

That's the view of former Chelsea and Tottenham midfielder Gus Poyet, who believes that Haaland will earn City a sense of inevitability that Barcelona had with Lionel Messi and Real Madrid had with Cristiano Ronaldo.

READ MORE: Man City lead where the Premier League did not over fixture postponements

"I don't know if people remember, wherever you were, if you saw Real Madrid score, you knew it was Ronaldo, Barcelona score, you knew it was Messi, now it's Haaland!" Poyet told Midnite.

"You watch any game, you hear Man City score, you know Haaland has scored. He's young as well, he's going to beat all the records in football, he's going to beat everybody, he's amazing.

Furthermore, Poyet believes that in a few years Messi and Ronaldo will no longer be the names people automatically jump to when discussing the best players in the world.

"With Haaland and [Kylian] Mbappe now, in the next few years people will forget about Messi and Ronaldo, they're becoming so big and influential in the game it's crazy. We say at the moment Benzema is the one at the top at the moment, but the Premier League should be delighted to have a player like Haaland."

Following the postponement of City vs Spurs on Saturday, Haaland's next chance to add to his City goal tally will come on Wednesday when the Blues take on his former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

READ NEXT

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.