According to Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland’s performance is comparable to that of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Haaland has led City’s treble in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup this season, scoring at an incredible rate since he arrived from Borussia Dortmund last year.
The Norwegian has scored 48 goals in 42 matches in all competitions this campaign, already a record for a player representing a Premier League club.
Haaland averaged every 67.2 minutes and converted 58.6% of his big chances for City as determined by Opta, allowing Silva to compare his mentality to that of his Portuguese counterpart Ronaldo.
“The goal numbers are incredible. This is the level of Cristiano and Messi, so many goals,” Silva said in an interview with Arab News.
“Hopefully Erling can continue like this because we need his goals before the last game of the season.
“He definitely has the same mentality as Cristiano, he always wants to be in the box, he always wants to score.
“He doesn’t care if he touches the ball once or twice, when he touches it he will score. He’s just a good striker.”
Of course it @ErlingHaaland! https://t.co/BlWRdHYPrz pic.twitter.com/gJXx68X6nD
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 25, 2023
In total, Haaland scored 54 goals, the most of anyone who has played in Europe’s top five leagues this season, with Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe in second place with 42 goals (34 goals, 8 assists).
With the transfer of Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia Al-Nassr Probably signaling the end of his era-defining rivalry with Messi, Silva was asked if Haaland and Mbappe could be the protagonists of a similar fight in the future.
“Probably yes,” Silva said. “Besides them, you have a few players who play very well, such as Vinicius. [Junior] Also. But it’s true, these two are very young and doing well.
“Kylian is more like a dribbler with the ball and Haaland mostly plays in the box like a real striker, but both are very, very good at what they do.
“It will not be easy to match the level of Cristiano and Messi, but they are at the top.”