Erling Haaland has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Lionel Messi and become the leading player of the next generation, according to Sergio Aguero.
Haaland has made an incredible start to life at Manchester City, scoring 20 goals in 13 appearances across all competitions. So far, the 22-year-old striker has only failed to find the back of the net in two games for City, who paid Borussia Dortmund £51million for his signature in the summer.
The Norwegian has long been earmarked for greatness and City legend Aguero is a big fan. Aguero banged in 260 goals in 389 appearances for the club, but has already seen enough to know that Haaland can reach such heights – and even those set by his compatriot Messi.
"There's been many strikers worthy of awe I can think of,” Aguero told Stake. “One of my favourites was Ronaldo [Nazario], who time and time again proved to be the full package as a player, and a menace before the goalposts.
“Each era usually has two or three players with that ability – and usually with different styles. Diego [Maradona], Romario, [Robert] Lewandowski, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, and Leo, of course! Each had their own flair but they were all tremendous scorers to a fault.
"Speaking of Haaland specifically, he's got potency, athleticism, and a particular instinct for goals, which makes him very dangerous. He's got everything to keep racking up amazing stats, especially being part of an offensively-minded team like City.
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“That in turn means plenty of opportunities to score. He's young and has a lot of potential to continue breaking records. Key to this, of course, will be consistency.”
Haaland has certainly been consistent so far in his short Man City career, but greater challenges are to come. Having been rested for the first time during the 0-0 draw against FC Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday night, he will return to the starting line-up for the visit to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday.
"He finished the game against Southampton so, so tired and he didn't recover well these two, three days," Guardiola explained after the draw in Denmark. "Yesterday was not good, today was a little bit better but not perfect and we decided not to take the risk."
Guardiola already believes Haaland is one of the best signings he’s ever made as a manager. "He is one of the best. I have many very, very good strikers and Erling is one of them," he said pre-match.
"He understands quickly and he is a nice guy. He is able to do this for the team, but we need to work together and that has happened. I speak a lot about him, but sometimes I should not have to because the numbers, they do this."
