Jermain Defoe knows exactly what it takes to be a top striker.
Throughout his playing career, the 41-year-old scored 305 goals in 762 club games across all competitions.
Having played against Manchester City 24 times in the Premier League, the Englishman found the back of the net eight times in total, losing 10 of the matches he played in against the Blues.
Playing with and against many other top strikers throughout his career, Defoe has now shared his thoughts on which centre-forwards from the past and present are the best in terms of specific attributes, with one City star getting a mention.
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Jermain Defoe picks Erling Haaland as one of the fastest strikers in the world
Appearing in a recent video shared on the ESPN UK TikTok channel, Defoe was tasked with building his ultimate striker by selecting certain past and present centre-forwards based on specific attributes such as movement, speed, heading, finishing, strength, dribbling, link-up play and work rate.
For the speed attribute, the former England striker picked Erling Haaland.
Haaland’s pace is a strong weapon
While Kyle Walker has a reputation for being one of, if not the, fastest player in Pep Guardiola’s squad, Haaland, who City paid £51m to sign back in 2022, has shown that he also has a significant amount of pace.
In the Norwegian’s debut Premier League campaign at the Etihad Stadium, he clocked a top speed of 36.22 km/h according to Goal, making him the seventh-fastest player in the division.
With that in mind, and the fact that the 23-year-old has scored 90 goals in 98 appearances for the Citizens, it’s undeniable that Haaland’s pace is a key part of his game that makes him such a tough striker to deal with.
Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise many City supporters that Defoe picked Haaland for the pace attribute when building his ultimate striker.
