Erling Haaland
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- Gregor Kobel 1
- Mateu Morey Bauza 2
- Soumaila Coulibaly 4
- Dan-Axel Zagadou 5
- Giovanni Reyna 7
- Mahmoud Dahoud 8
- Thorgan Hazard 10
- Marco Reus 11
- Raphael Guerreiro 13
- Nico Schulz 14
- Mats Hummels 15
- Manuel Akanji 16
- Youssoufa Moukoko 18
- Julian Brandt 19
- Reinier Jesus 20
- Donyell Malen 21
- Jude Bellingham 22
- Emre Can 23
- Thomas Meunier 24
- Luca Unbehaun 25
- Steffen Tigges 27
- Axel Witsel 28
- Marcel Schmelzer 29
- Felix Passlack 30
- Abdoulaye Kamara 32
- Marin Pongracic 34
- Marwin Hitz 35
- Roman Bürki 38
- Marius Wolf 39
- Stefan Drljača 40
The 21-year-old striker has been a Borussia Dortmund player since January 2020. As of June 2021, the Norway international has made 59 appearances across all competitions for BVB (57 goals, 15 assists). He was part of the team that won the DFB-Pokal in 2021.
Haaland turned 21 on 21 July. He is still at the very beginning of his career - yet so mature and level-headed, both on and off the pitch. Erling Haaland may seem shy and reserved, but he's registering every single detail - both in conversation and in action on the pitch. He always seems to be in the right place, and he always rises to the challenge in the most spectacular way possible.
The young Norwegian’s career got off to a historically good start: on his debut on Matchday 18 of the 2019/20 season - a 5-3 win away to Augsburg - he became the first substitute in Bundesliga history to score a hat-trick. He had five goals to his name in his first two games and then seven goals after three games - both Bundesliga records.He only needed eight shots to score these seven goals - another record. What is more: Haaland is the only BVB to score on his debut appearances in the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. In total, he scored 16 goals in his 18 appearances across all competitions in his first half-season at the club.
He proved equally unstoppable in the 2020/21 season. 27 goals in 28 league matches (he missed six through injury) and nine assists meant he notched up 36 scorer points - a new record for a BVB player. The physically mature, powerful and athletic Haaland won 48% of his challenges - an impressive success rate for a striker. In a Matchday 28 game away to Stuttgart, he clocked up a sprint speed of 36.04 km/h - the second highest figure in the league all season after Mainz player Jermiah St. Juste.
Erling Haaland has scored 40 goals in his 43 Bundesliga appearances thus far - only Uwe Seeler (HSV) needed one game fewer to hit the 40-goal mark. On average the BVB striker finds the back of the net every 87 minutes. No other Bundesliga player with at least 25 goals to their name has a better strike rate! Haaland has scored 33 Bundesliga goals with his left foot, five with his right and two with his head. “We were waiting on a player like him. Expectations were high right from the outset. And he has more than fulfilled them,’’ says Sebastian Kehl (head of the licensed player division) about the striker.
Erling Haaland is the son of former Norway international and World Cup participant Alf-Inge Haaland (born 1972, won 34 caps) and was born on 21 July 2000 in England, where his father played for both Leeds United and Manchester City. Just two years later, his father was forced to end his career due to a knee injury. The family moved back to Norway, where young Erling got his first taste of playing football with the youth set-up of third-tier side Bryne Fotballklubb. He moved his way up through the ranks before making his first-team debut on 12 May 2016 at just 15 years of age.
From February 2017 to December 2018, Haaland played for Norwegian league runners-up Molde FK before moving to Salzburg in the 2019 January transfer window. The summer of 2019 saw him named winner of the Golden Boot at the U20 World Cup. All nine of his goals were scored in just one match: Norway’s 12-0 rout of Honduras.
But it wasn’t until the start of the 2019/20 season that the 1.94-metres tall striker really made his breakthrough. In the first seven matchdays of the Austrian Bundesliga season, he scored an incredible eleven goals. He ended up grabbing a total of 16 goals in 14 league matches, while in the Champions League, he managed to score eight in six appearances. ''We can all look forward to having an ambitious, athletic and physically imposing centre-forward here at the club. Haaland boasts a real eye for goal and impressive speed, and we are confident that we can develop him even further here in Dortmund,'' said Sporting Director Michael Zorc at Haaland’s unveiling, going on to add: ''At just 19 years of age, he is at the very start of what promises to be an incredible career!'' Haaland was then named Austria’s Footballer of the Year in 2019, following in the illustrious footsteps of record-holder David Alaba (most recently 2016) as well as Marcel Sabitzer and Marko Arnautović.
“BVB always had good strikers. I used to look up to them when I was younger, and I always used to imagine what it would be like to lead the line wearing that Black & Yellow jersey,'' said the Norwegian in an interview with the club’s member magazine Borussia (February 2020 edition), going on to add: ''As I started to get better and better, I one day asked my father: 'Dortmund and me - that would be cool, right?' When I heard BVB were interested, I knew I had the chance to make this dream a reality. I had a great feeling about the move. The timing was perfect.'' Hans-Joachim Watzke was delighted: “Despite receiving numerous offers from some of the biggest clubs in Europe, Erling Haaland has decided that the best option for his career is to come and join our project here at BVB. Our persistence has paid off.’’