He broke the premier league scoring record in his first season, he won city their first ucl. Won the treble. He has 13 goals in 12 games this season. Excluding ballondor and that, how can ANYONE not drool for Haalands goalscoring ability. This is coming from a Liverpool fan that cant believe the standard of talk around this player.
To be fair, I do ‘drool’ over him. But many rival fans won’t because his goal scoring simply means other teams aren’t winning. Not everyone can distance themselves enough emotionally to appreciate a player who, for the sake of your team, you should hope plays like shit. I mean, Mo Salah is one of the best players in the league and I don’t think Manchester United fans are watching compilations of him in their spare time.
Another factor is that Haaland is playing for City, a team that is already a footballing machine. Though he is undoubtedly their best player he is kind of seen as another cog in the machine, like every other City player. It is not like Barcelona in the Messi days, or Real Madrid in the Ronaldo days. Those clubs were Messi FC and Ronaldo FC. Manchester City is not Haaland FC. He is not their face in the way that other players have been a club’s face, because football has kind of outgrown that. We don’t get flyers with ‘Mohammed Salah versus Erling Haaland’ when Liverpool plays Manchester City. I feel like football has kind of moved away from the super star and closer to the super team.