9781422270721

WORLD CLASS FOOTBALLERS SOCCER’S BEST PLAYERS

CRISTIANO RONALDO

ERLING HAALAND

KYLIAN MBAPPÉ

LIONEL MESSI

ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI

WORLD CLASS FOOTBALLERS SOCCER’S BEST PLAYERS

GREG BACH

MIAMI

PO Box 221876, Hollywood, FL 33022 (866) MCP-BOOK (toll-free) • www.masoncrest.com

Copyright © 2024 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-4745-7 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4222-4747-1 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-7072-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bach, Greg, author. Title: Erling Haaland / Greg Bach. Description: Hollywood, FL : Mason Crest, [2024] | Series: World class footballers | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2023027257 | ISBN 9781422247471 (hardback) | ISBN 9781422270721 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Haaland, Erling, 2000---Juvenile literature. | Soccer players--Norway--Biography--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC GV942.7.H22 B33 2024 | DDC 796.334092 [B]--dc23/eng/20230630

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Chapter 1: Greatest Moments................................................7 Chapter 2: Club Dreams......................................................21 Chapter 3: National Pride....................................................35 Chapter 4: Words Count......................................................47 Chapter 5: Off the Pitch.......................................................63 Series Glossary of Key Terms...............................................76 Further Reading & Internet Resources.................................77 Index................................................................................. 78 Author Biography & Credits.................................................80 CONTENTS

KEY ICONS TO LOOK FOR:

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more!

Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there.

Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

brace: term for the achievement of a player scoring two goals in a single match futile: ineffective; useless; incapable of producing any useful result kaleidoscope: diverse collection panache: flamboyant confidence of style or manner; self-assurance penchant: tendency to do something shambles: a state of great destruction; wreckage

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World Class Footballers: Erling Haaland

CHAPTER 1

Greatest Moments

FASCINATING FORCE Erling Haaland’s arrival as one of the most explosive and exciting young players taking over soccer these days has occurred amid a storm of spectacular shot-making and high-volume scoring. A fascinating force who collects goals in bunches, the Norwegian youngster strikes genuine fear into goalkeepers thanks to a kaleidoscope of sensational skills at his disposal. Exuding power, precision, and panache , each stop on his fast-moving run to greatness has been marked by prolific production rarely seen by a player still in his early 20s. The son of a former player—his dad, Alf-Inge, played professionally for several teams, including Premier League stalwart Manchester City—Haaland has dedicated his days to forging skills that have turned him into one of the most entertaining and incredibly productive players on the planet. He barged into Germany’s top league, the

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Greatest Moments

Bundesliga, as a teenager in 2018 with Red Bull Salzburg, later jumping to Borussia Dortmund, and left a trail of flustered and frustrated defenders during his four years in the league. Haaland snagged the 2019 Austrian Footballer of the Year award, the 2020 Golden Boy Award, and the 2021 Champions League Forward of the Season. He also took Dortmund to the 2021 German Cup title, burying a pair of goals in the title match. FABULOUS FEET AND FEATS Leaving the record books in shambles with performances that are a joy to behold, Haaland reached the 50-goal mark in the Bundesliga in just 50 matches, becoming the youngest to pull off that feat. And along the way, he’s made tough-to-get hat tricks almost routine somehow, notching them with remarkable regularity. The devastating striker scored a hat trick in his Dortmund debut and punctuated his Champions League debut with one—in the first half!—becoming the first to ever do so in their first game in that competition, and then he followed that up with goals in his next four league matches to become the first teen to ever score in five straight Champions League contests. Big and strong—Haaland carries a sculpted 190 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame—he has devastating sprinter-type speed, capable of gobbling up big chunks of real estate in a flash while putting defenders under duress and in distress. Too physical for defenders to move him off the ball, a marvelous manipulator of the ball in traffic in the box, and a lethal finisher with either foot, Haaland is the complete package. Leaving Germany for England, he joined Manchester City in the summer of 2022, a team he cheered for growing up. Erling Haaland is one of the game’s fiercest competitors and sensational scorers. Soccer fans around the world will be treated to his exciting, record-breaking exploits for many years to come.

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World Class Footballers: Erling Haaland

GREATEST MOMENTS

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Greatest Moments

DEBUT GOAL, MINUS A LAMBEAU LEAP

The tundra wasn’t frozen, and there was no Lambeau Leap involved after scoring, but the moment was still a special one in the summer of 2022 when Erling Haaland struck for his first goal in a Manchester City uniform. Haaland made his debut for the club against Bayern Munich at famed Lambeau Field—home of the National Football League’s (NFL) Green Bay Packers—and it took him less than a dozen minutes to find the back of the net. He took a clever pass from Jack Grealish and made a beautiful sliding play at the goal line to poke it home for the match’s lone score. While Packers’ players are well-known for jumping into the first row of end zone seats after scores to celebrate with fans, known as the Lambeau Leap, Haaland was content to hug teammates on the field. While the match was just a friendly, Haaland treated the American audience to some of the vast array of skills that have made him a global star.

Erling Haaland scored in his debut for Manchester City against Bayern Munich at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on July 23, 2022.

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World Class Footballers: Erling Haaland

NABS HAT TRICK IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DEBUT Haaland dazzled and delighted the home fans during his Champions League debut in 2019—generating a much-deserved standing ovation—as he put together a history-making performance. He scored less than two minutes into Red Bull Salzburg’s opening group stage match against Genk and followed that explosive start with two more glorious goals before halftime arrived to leap into the record books as the only player to record a first-half hat trick in his Champions League debut. The fabulous feat also made Haaland the fourth youngest to notch a hat trick in his Champions League start behind Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Real Madrid’s Raúl and Rodrygo. Leading up to the match, which Salzburg comfortably won 6–2, Haaland had been riding a wave of prolific play that was turning heads across the soccer landscape. He had produced 17 goals in his previous nine matches, and he was piling up hat tricks along the way, as this one marked his fourth of the season.

Erling Haaland became the first-ever player to record a first-half hat trick in his Champions League debut, leading Salzburg to a 6–2 win in 2019.

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Greatest Moments

SCORES HAT TRICK IN DORTMUND DEBUT

Erling Haaland made one heck of a first impression in his debut match with Borussia Dortmund in January of 2020. Arriving in Germany amid a haze of hype swirling around the talented striker and his penchant for producing goals in bunches, he lived up to all the hearty praise by striking for a hat trick in a 5–3 win over Augsburg. Remarkably, it took him a mere 23 minutes to do so. Haaland was inserted into the contest early in the second half with his club trailing 3–1 and scored three minutes after entering the match. He then struck twice more— three goals on three shots!—to secure the win. The dynamic debut put Haaland in the Bundesliga record books as the second youngest to ever record a hat trick and just the seventh player to do so in their league debut. He also became the first substitute ever to record three goals in a debut.

Erling Haaland scored a hat trick in his debut for Dortmund in a 5–3 win over Augsburg in January 2020.

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World Class Footballers: Erling Haaland

GOALS GALORE! SCORES NINE AGAINST HONDURAS Haaland delivered an epic display of goal-scoring never before seen in the history of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, battering the defenseless Honduras team with a hard-to-imagine nine goals in Norway’s 12–0 rout. The 18-year-old found the net four times in the opening half of the group stage match in Poland during the 2019 tournament and tallied five more goals in the second half to crush the previous single game record of six goals held by Adailton of Brazil. Haaland earned the prestigious Golden Boot award for his exploits, as only two players in tournament history had scored more goals in the entire tournament than Haaland did in a single game: Javier Saviola had 11 goals in the 2001 tournament, and Adailton had 10 in the 1997 event. Haaland also put Norway into the U-20 World Cup history books with the largest margin of victory ever in the event, bettering Brazil’s 10–0 win against Belgium in 1997.

Erling Haaland scored a record nine goals as Norway defeated Honduras 12–0 at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland in 2019.

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Greatest Moments

2019 AUSTRIAN FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR Erling Haaland drained all the drama out of the race for the Austrian Footballer of the Year award in 2019, as the Red Bull Salzburg teen delivered a dominating display of brilliant playmaking all season long to easily earn the honors. The efforts of opponents to contain or even slow him down were usually futile and frustrating, as Haaland struck with staggering precision. His potent production outshined the efforts of his nearest competitors: Red Bull Leipzig midfielder Marcel Sabitzer and Bayern Munich star David Alaba. Haaland became the youngest player to wrap his hands around the award at just age 19, eclipsing Alaba’s record at that same age by about two months. Haaland also became the first non-Austrian to claim the honor in more than a decade, since German standout Steffen Hofmann in 2009. The award is voted on by the managers of the Austrian Bundesliga, who suffered many sleepless nights when having to face the talented teen! Erling Haaland was a goal-scoring force on his way to becoming the youngest winner of the Austrian Footballer of the Year award in 2019.

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World Class Footballers: Erling Haaland

WINS 2020 GOLDEN BOY AWARD

A look at some of the goals Erling Haaland scored during the 2020 Bundesliga season on his way to earning the Golden Boy Award. the results were remarkably the same: goal scoring in bunches. Haaland struck 44 times throughout all competitions in 2019–2020, a golden year worthy of adding to his trophy case. It’s clear one of the bigger problems Erling Haaland is going to face as his career advances is finding space for all the shiny awards being dropped in his lap. In 2020, he was named winner of the Golden Boy Award, which is annually presented to the best player aged 21 or under from a top-tier European league. Traversing his first season in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund, Haaland spun together a string of flashy numbers to beat out a talented bunch of players hoping to get their hands on the award, including Barcelona’s Ansu Fati, who was runner-up in the voting, and Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies, who was third. While Haaland’s year featured wearing a couple of different uniforms—he started with reigning Austrian champion Salzburg and midway through joined Borussia Dortmund in Germany’s Bundesliga—

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Greatest Moments

CLAIMS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FORWARD OF THE SEASON Erling Haaland continued smashing records and infuriating goalkeepers during his remarkable and relentless goal-scoring rampage in the Champions League in 2020–2021, where he was named Forward of the Season. He struck for 10 goals in eight matches, averaging a magnificent goal every 70.5 minutes of action. Haaland became the first player in the illustrious history of the Champions League to ever score 10 or more goals in each of their first two seasons, and at 20 years of age, he became both the youngest and the fastest to reach the 20-goal mark. He also recorded two assists. He finished tops in the voting with 202 points, beating out this talented trio: Kylian Mbappe (154), Robert Lewandowski (104), and Lionel Messi (76). Haaland became the first player from Norway and Borussia Dortmund to win the prestigious honor. The award was presented to him in Istanbul, Turkey, during the Champions League group stage draw for the 2021–2022 campaign.

Erling Haaland was a goal-scoring force in the Champions League during the 2020–2021 season, where he was named Forward of the Season.

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World Class Footballers: Erling Haaland