Manchester City have a generational talent in the form of Erling Haaland, and Pep Guardiola knows it. The Spanish boss couldn’t be happier about having the Norwegian on his squad. Pep recently heaped massive praise on Haaland, pointing out his stats in the UEFA Champions League are better than those of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at his age.
“You see his numbers at his age. In the Champions League not even [Lionel] Messi or Cristiano [Ronaldo] had these numbers at his age,” Guardiola said, as quoted by TalkSport.
At 23, Haaland already boasts 40 goals in the European tournament. That’s a much better record than that of Messi and Ronaldo before turning 24. While the Argentine star found the net 37 times by then, Ronaldo had only 16.
Haaland is still many UCL goals shy of Messi, Ronaldo… But for how long?
But eventually, these stars managed to boost their numbers. While Messi went on to record 129 Champions League goals before leaving Europe for the MLS, Ronaldo became the tournament’s all-time top scorer with 140 strikes.
Of course, Haaland still has work to do to get close to Messi and Ronaldo’s total of goals in Europe’s most relevant club competition. But he seems to be on pace to narrowing the gap.
“He’s so strong. It comes from nature. He’s coped perfectly because he’s so strong mentally. He scores one goal and wants a second and a third,” Guardiola added about Haaland.
The Norway international is already among the top 20 UEFA Champions League all-time top scorers, so it will be interesting to see how many spots he ends up climbing when it’s all said and done.