Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said striker Erling Haaland is on the same level as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo after the Norwegian player scored twice in a 4-1 win over Southampton in the English Premier League, Saturday.
Haaland hit the net with a header and a wonderful double kick, to raise his tally to 44 goals in all competitions this season, including 30 in the league.
His balance is now equal to the best balance for a player in the English Premier League during one season in all competitions, just Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2002-2003 and Mohamed Salah in 2017-2018.
“We lived two amazing decades with Cristiano and Messi, but he belongs to this level,” Guardiola told the BBC.
And he praised his amazing second goal from the flight position when he dealt well with Jack Grealish’s cross pass, saying: “It is not easy to catch a ball in the sky and direct it towards the ground. It is unimaginable that he possesses this ingenuity with his great length.”
Haaland, 22, joined City from Borussia Dortmund this season and is now 4 goals away from the record number of goals in one season in the English Premier League for Alan Shearer and Andy Cole (34 goals).
City ranks second in the league, 5 points behind leaders Arsenal.