Erling Haaland is one of the sharpest strikers of this era.
He has recorded a number of personal records as a bomber. He is the first teenager at the age of 19 to score in five consecutive Champions League matches in the 2019/2020 season with Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg. In the following season, became the top scorer in the Champions League when defending Borussia Dortmund.
This season with Manchester City, he has also successfully broken several Premier League records. Among them the fastest player to score two, three and four hat-tricks , as well as the first in league history to score a hat-trick in three consecutive home games. Most recently, he equaled Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano’s record by buying up five goals in one Champions League match, March 15, 2023.
But make no mistake, Haaland isn’t always fierce in front of goal either. The player who was born on July 21, 2000, who is just about to turn 23, was apparently infertile. He lived a goal drought at the start of his professional career with Bryne FK, one of the clubs in his country, Norway in 2016. In fact, at that time he passed a season without a goal. Here’s the story.
Early Career at Bryne
Haaland’s journey started at small club Bryne in 2016; at that time playing in the second level of the Norwegian League. The previous year, he had been in the reserve team after 10 years in the club’s academy. “The first time I saw him was in the reserve game,” recalls Patrick Byskata, a senior fellow in 2020.
“I think he was 14 at the time. So young and thin, like a piece of spaghetti when running,” he said.
Ahead of the summer, Haaland was called up to the first team. He then made his professional debut on 12 May 2016 in matchday seven at Ranheim IL, which coincided with Alf Ingve Berntsen’s debut as head coach, after several years in charge of the academy squad which included Haaland. The teenager also entered the field in the 69th minute, wearing the number 19 jersey and playing on the left wing.
“He used to elbow senior players to let them know he was there,” Byskata said laughing.
“He runs a lot, presses forward and defends after losing the ball. He cares deeply about the team and earns a lot of respect. He plays very mature for his age, always elbowing, stomping his feet, facing and winning his duels, “said the former Bryne midfielder.
A season without a goal
The following week, Haaland was even trusted as a starter . Unfortunately, they lost at home, just like in their debut match. He himself has not been able to score goals. Even so, the coach still gave him a chance by playing him a total of eight times in 10 matches; four times in the starting line-up . But they only managed to win once, so Alf Ingve Berntsen was also fired.
Ole Hjelmhaug, who was previously an assistant coach, was promoted to main coach. It’s just that, Haaland no longer gets the same amount of trust. In the remaining 14 games of the season, he only started eight times, all of which came as a substitute at the end of the second half. The inaugural season in his professional career was really far from glamorous and record goals for goals.
Not a single goal came in the 422 minutes he played, in contrast to the total of 18 goals in the 14 games he has scored for Bryne’s second team since 2015. Haaland finished the season goalless, and a record relegation in the portfolio due to Bryne’s downgrade. However, he was instead recruited by one of the big Norwegian clubs, Molde FK, who was coached by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the time.
Mentality Becomes Strength
Another teammate at Bryne, Sondre Norheim also recalled how Haaland was able to continue to raise his level even though he had failed.
“We did finishing drills together on the day off. I can clearly see his work mentality. That day I learned that his biggest talent isn’t scoring goals or physicality, although both are impressive, it’s his mentality.
“If he misses from a certain angle, he will have five more tries from the same position to get it right. He may seem like a natural talent, but he spends hours perfecting his craft,” said Norheim.
“He is one of the best in football right now, and he will continue to improve,” added the defender.
“His winning mentality and love of scoring goals immediately stood out,” recalls Haaland’s team-mate at the academy, Adrian Bernsten.
“When we played in Bryne’s second team, we won almost every game. He is crazy about scoring more goals every game,” he said.
Haaland may not have been able to score at Bryne, but now he has more than made up for that miss.
Sources: Dreamteam FC, Wikipedia, Transfermarkt.
