Erling Haaland believes that Lionel Messi is the greatest player to have ever graced the beautiful game.
As Manchester City prepare to face Copenhagen in the Champions League on Wednesday night, the Norwegian international was quizzed about whether the Argentine needs to retire for him to win the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Best awards.
Even before Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or, Craig Burley claimed that the Leeds-born striker deserved to and should go on to become the winner.
Erling Haaland says Lionel Messi is “the best that’s ever played” football
Ian Wright was also baffled by the decision to award The Best Men’s Player Award to the Inter Miami forward over Erling Haaland.
Micah Richards claimed that the former Borussia Dortmund hitman should have taken home The Best award, especially considering the ex-Barcelona attacker’s World Cup triumph in 2022 was not taken into consideration while deciding the winner.
While Erling Haaland did not claim that Lionel Messi had to retire for him to be handed such individual awards, he did acknowledge that he is the best player to have ever played football.
“I don’t know. Good question. Yeah, it’s true he won it, he won the World Cup. I don’t know what to say. He is the best that’s ever played, I think. So yeah, I don’t know”, Haaland said [via HaytersTV].
Classy response from Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland could well have been honest if he felt that he deserved to win both awards over Lionel Messi.
Perhaps Haaland even does think so privately but instead of making such claims, he decided to pay Messi the respect he deserves.
The treble-winner must have been inspired watching the former Paris Saint-Germain superstar in action growing up and considering his one-of-a-kind status in the game, he simply chose to praise him.
Fair play to Erling Haaland for not being dragged into such conversations and instead, choosing to highlight the brilliance of one of, if not the greatest player of all time.
