Marco van Basten thinks Erling Braut Haaland can become the best striker of his generation. The analyst reports that to the program Rondo from Ziggo Sports. When presenter Wytse van der Goot mentions the names of Van Basten himself and the Brazilian Ronaldo as the best strikers of their generations, he asks whether Haaland could end up in that list. Van Basten responds in the affirmative.
“Does he have the potential to become the best striker of this century, of this generation?”, Van der Goot asks the three-time Ballon d’Or winner. “Definitely yes. He can score in all ways. He is technically good, strong, can head well, has a good shot and is fast. So yes, he has all the elements.” Haaland has had a phenomenal debut season in the Premier League. The Norwegian, who came over from Borussia Dortmund this summer, scored no fewer than fourteen goals in his first eight games for Manchester City at the highest English level. On Sunday, Haaland made a hat-trick against Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United in a game that eventually led to 6-3 the Citizens would end.
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Marco van Basten and Youri Mulder are full of praise for the Norwegian! ????Is he the best number 9 at the moment? ??#ZiggoSport #Rondo pic.twitter.com/Ge9SEN6oDB
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) October 3, 2022
Van Basten does wonder how good Haaland will turn out to be later on. “That also has to do with how long he stays fit and motivated, which clubs he will play for, et cetera.” Youri Mulder, one of the other analysts at the table, jokingly says that Norway will become world champions in four years. “If they train nine more good players”, Van der Goot adds. “They have (Martin, ed.) Odegaard, but if I were Norway, I would only train good defenders and board it up completely,” Mulder praises the two Norwegian Premier League players. Ødegaard has been playing for current leaders Arsenal since January 2021.
Van Basten says he finds it special that Haaland again managed to produce a hat-trick. “And now against Manchester United, that is really special. No one has ever done that,” the former striker of Ajax and AC Milan, among others, refers to the small number of duels (eight) that the Norwegian needed to achieve three hat-tricks to come. The numbers two and three on the list of players who needed the fewest games in the Premier League to reach three hat-tricks, Michael Owen and Ruud van Nistelrooij, needed 48 and 59 games respectively. “We all know how hard it is to score in the Premier League, let alone make hat-tricks. I thought that was the moment of the weekend.”