Erling Braut Haaland’s move to the English Premier League was one of the most exciting transfers in recent years. And, now with a successful start to the campaign under his belt, we feel the youngster from Norway is on course to be the new Zlatan Ibrahimović.
Erling Haaland has been drawing the attention of football fans around the world for a few years now, thanks in no small part to his incredible achievements during his three-season stint at the German club, Borussia Dortmund. With 62 goals from 67 appearances during his spell with the Bundesliga side, he’s a ferocious goalscorer.
And who else happens to be pretty adept at scoring goals? Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahmibović. The 40-year-old, who is still playing at the highest level of the sport and is currently signed to Italian Serie A side, AC Milan, has so far recorded 405 league goals from 635 appearances.
Zlatan Ibrahimović (L) might actually pip Haaland (R) for the most-ripped striker.
It’s not just natural goalscoring ability that the two share; both players are absolute giants on the pitch, standing an impressive 6 foot 5 inches tall and both are certifiably ripped. While this might be expected for the 22-year-old Haaland, however, it is beyond impressive how Zlatan keeps himself in such great shape, considering he’s 40.
But, crucially, we feel Haaland will become more and more confident – and perhaps a little bit cocky – in a similar vein to Zlatan, who often refers to himself in the third person (and has somehow developed a bit of a Bruce Lee type status/persona).
Why do we think this? There are a couple of reasons.
Firstly, Haaland recently posted an image of himself to his Instagram account, holding a menu with the caption “About to order the whole menu.” His Manchester City teammate, Kevin De Bruyne, commented, “you want me to hold the menu and assist you?” referencing the role he plays for the club.
Haaland responded by saying, “Yes, I’m dreaming of it every night don’t know why.” To us, this implies he knows what kind of formidable partnership he can create with De Bruyne, and he knows he’ll get the goals if he’d fed the ball. Also: it just shows he’s got a sense of humour, and a bit of the old Zlatan-esque wittiness that he’s not afraid to let show on social media and when talking to the media.
Secondly, following Manchester City’s opening weekend win against London club West Ham United – which saw Erling Haaland score two goals on his Premier League debut – the Norwegian striker swore twice during an interview with Sky Sports, following the game.
We can appreciate he may have forgotten he was being filmed for live TV, and yes, he did apologise, albeit by saying “oh sorry, s**t!” but to us, there was certainly a Zlatan-inspired aura to how Haaland presented himself.
He knows he’s talented and he has the statistics and goal tallies to back that up. If he is to become “The next premier league legend,” as one user put it on Haaland’s most recent Instagram post, we wouldn’t be shocked if his attitude changed and he too began to refer to himself in the third person.
Only time will tell.
