How Haaland helped lift City to new heights

چاپ خبر

What do you buy for the man who has almost everything? For Pep Guardiola, the answer was simple: Erling Haaland.

Manchester City went into the 2022-23 season as the dominant force in English football. They were the reigning Premier League champions, having won the title in four of the previous five campaigns, after assembling a star-studded squad already brimming with attacking flair and talent.

But there remained a gap in City’s trophy cabinet as, despite Guardiola’s coaching credentials and his elite array of players, the UEFA Champions League remained beyond their grasp, with three quarter-final exits, a semi-final defeat, and one agonising final loss to Premier League rivals Chelsea in the same period as their domestic success.

Enter, Haaland. Signed from Borussia Dortmund in July 2022 on a five-year contract, the Norway international arrived with a CV which effectively stated: Goals.
The 23-year-old’s scoring exploits are simply phenomenal. Nine goals in one FIFA U-20 World Cup™ match for Norway. 86 goals in 89 games with Borussia Dortmund. The fastest player to score 50 Premier League goals. The fastest player to score 40 Champions League goals. Haaland’s 36 Premier League goals in his debut campaign was a record for the competition, and his tally of six hat-tricks was as many as every other player combined across 20 teams.

Haaland’s achievements at such a young age are extraordinary, so it comes as no surprise that he is now one of the three finalists – alongside Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe – in the running for The Best FIFA Men’s Player Award for 2023, with the qualifying period for the honour running from 19 December 2022 to 20 August 2023.
His individual efforts contributed significantly to the collective success achieved by City last season, when they retained their Premier League crown and also lifted the FA Cup to claim the domestic double. The crowning glory came in June, with victory over Inter Milan securing a first-ever Champions League success for City, matching the 1999 achievements of Treble-winners Manchester United.

Speaking after that Istanbul victory, Haaland admitted that Guardiola’s influence had already elevated his game to new levels, and suggested that he could yet achieve further heights in the coming years.

“To work with Pep is really special,” he said. “We have a good relationship and he’s helped me a lot. I look forward to developing even more.

“I’m still young, I have a lot of years left. To be getting trained by him every day, the best coach in the world, it’s a good place to be.

“In the end, it comes down to the fact that I just have to listen to him because he’s the best coach, and he’s the smartest football guy I’ve ever met.”