The biggest transfer of 2022 has potentially already happened. Erling Braut Haaland is set to join Manchester City on July 1st. An agreement of £51.1m was met, activating Haaland’s release clause. City are expected to pay up to £85.5m with agent fees, signing bonus and other small additions.
Erling Braut Haaland is a Norwegian striker. He stands at 6’4” and unbelievably, is only 21 years old. The Norwegian giant’s career really started to take off after his move to the Austrian side RB Salzburg in January 2019. Whilst in Austria, he scored an impressive 17 goals in 16 games. After a year, he transferred to his current club, Borussia Dortmund. During his spell in Germany, he scored 86 goals and got 32 assists in 89 games.
Haaland is one of the deadliest strikers in the world. So far this season, he’s scored 37 goals in 39 games across all competitions, including 7 assists. That’s 44 goal contributions in the 21/22 season. An even more impressive 53 contributions in 41 games last season. Haaland is a goal scoring machine! No doubt he’s eyeing up a Premier League golden boot.
(Pictured above: Kevin De Bruyne's Haaland celebration)
Haaland will be plugging a hole at City at striker. They’ve lacked someone as prolific as him since Sergio Agüero left. Our mouths are watering at the idea of Haaland finishing the chances created by the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva. If City weren’t already a force to be reckoned with, good luck to anyone challenging them for the title now. It will be interesting to see what Liverpool do to keep up with City. With talks of Mane and Salah potentially leaving in the summer, the pressure is now on Liverpool to bolster their ranks.
Haaland will face some challenges at City. Players joining the Premier League from the Bundesliga are notorious for flopping, with the likes of Timo Werner, Jadon Sancho and Kai Havertz all failing to adjust to Premier League football.
He’ll also be tasked with helping City win their first Champions League, which year on year seems to elude them. After a semifinal exit this year, and a final loss to Chelsea last year. Haaland will be under a lot of pressure to perform straight off the bat. City are emerging as one of the best clubs in the world. Pep Guardiola will expect nothing but the best from a striker of his quality.
Haaland isn't the typical striker that you'd associate with 'tiki-taka' type teams. Usually the likes of Luis Suarez, Agüero etc are the preferred choice for this style of play. Haaland's big, strong, physical prescence will offer City another style of football. He'll be able to hold up the ball and link up runners. He'll be able to compete in the air with some of the best centre-backs in the world. He adds a different dimension to the City attack.
It goes without saying, but feed him the ball and he will score. Sounds simple right? Well, people said that about Romelu Lukaku's return to English football and that hasn't exactly panned out the way everyone expected it to. Although injured for part of the season, only 8 goals and 1 assist in 25 games is nothing to shout about, especially after his impressive goal scoring record in Italy. 26 goals and 10 assists in 36 league games in his last season with Inter Milan.
Haaland will have to hit the ground running so that he 's not lumped into the same group as Lukaku.
Haaland has all the ability, potential, and now landing spot to become a real icon in the footballing world and a legend for years to come. Here’s hoping he can live up to the hype.
댓글