MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Manchester City forward Erling Haaland highlighted this Tuesday that the Frenchman Karim Benzema is an “even better” player now at 35, for which he wished “to be a better footballer when I am his age”, in 12 years, at the same time as he assured that he will do “everything” in his power to “win trophies” with the English team.
“We would all like to (win the Ballon d’Or). But I don’t think it’s good to think about it too much. If you and your team play really well, you’ll get good results, you’ll start winning trophies, and you’ll probably be among the finalists. Like De Bruyne , which came third, and I think it was well deserved, by the way. But yes, you can’t start thinking about those things,” said the Norwegian in an interview with GQ collected by Europa Press.
And the striker did not hesitate to highlight the great form of Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema last season. “Look at Benzema, he is 35 years old and I think he is even better now,” says Haaland. “So 12 years from now I hope to be better than now,” he added, prolonging the ‘Haaland era’ by more than a decade.
Precisely, Haaland addressed a possible loss of confidence, remembering what happened in the semifinals of the last Champions League, when they faced the whites. “Sometimes, like in the game against Real Madrid last year, with Rodrygo’s goal, when Asensio shoots with a header and misses, and hits Rodrygo in the leg and scores, I think there’s a God up there who decides. those things”, he explained about the comeback of the meringues.
“Is that a matter of trust, with Madrid knowing that they had won other years? I don’t know if it makes sense. Maybe,” he added regarding the night his current club lived at the Santiago Bernabéu, staying one more season without the long-awaited Champions League award.
However, the Norwegian does not hesitate and pointed out that he will do “everything” in his power to “be a key player and win trophies with Manchester City”. “My goal is that we win the Champions League, I hope,” he confessed.
In addition, the Nordic footballer dreams of taking his team to the next World Cup in 2026, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada. “Norway is a very small country. It has 5.5 million people. But then at the World Cup you see small countries doing incredible things. We hope to qualify [para 2026], is my biggest goal with them. I hope to play the qualifiers with Norway one day,” he said.
As a child, Haaland obsessively watched other forwards, imitating their movements, such as “Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robin Van Persie, Jamie Vardy, Sergio Agüero or Messi”, as well as the Spanish Álvaro “Negredo”. “I try to do the same as when I was 13 years old and I played in my city. I do exactly the same sprints. If I show you videos from when I was 13 years old, you will see exactly the same thing,” he concluded.