Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe are considered to be the successors of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to carry the throne of soccer royalty for the next decade or so. Both of them play for giant clubs and are having incredible seasons, producing unreal numbers. However, Haaland recently talked about Mbappe and wished that they could play for the same team.
Haaland and Mbappe, both are producing eyewatering numbers for Manchester City and PSG respectively. The Frenchman has scored 29 goals in 29 all-competition matches. Whereas, Haaland has produced even crazy stats. The Norwegian has scored 32 goals in 28 all-competition matches. In terms of domestic success, they can reach the highest levels, considering their age. However, things are a world apart, when it comes to their national teams.
Every soccer player dreams of winning the World Cup for their country. But only a very few can make that dream come true. The countries don’t quite produce the same level of talent. Countries like Spain, England, Germany, and France are known to produce world-class talents and they tend to dominate international tournaments. Haaland is from Norway, which is generally one of those countries, that are not so rich in this area.
[Canal Plus] Erling Haaland on Kylian Mbappe: “The French are so lucky that he plays for France. I’d like him to play for Norway, but it’s not the case. He’s so fast, so strong & he’s been doing it for so many years. What is he, 2 years older than me? It’s crazy.”
by u/TheBiasedSportsLover in soccer
Haaland recently, in an interview with CANAL+ talked about Kylian Mbappe and France. He said, “The French are so lucky that he plays for France. I’d like him to play for Norway, but it’s not the case. What is he, 2 years older than me? It’s crazy. You can imagine him having another 10 years at the highest level. He’s phenomenal,” in his interview stating that Mbappe has another 10 years at the very top level.
Both Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could have played for different national teams
Haaland pondered how lucky France is to have a player like Mbappe, who is already a World Cup winner at 24. He could’ve won it again last year. However, Haaland’s Norway didn’t even qualify for the World Cup. But things could have happened on the flip side. Both of these young superstars could have had completely different fates in terms of their national representation.
Erling Haaland was born in Leeds, England. His father Alf-Inge Haaland was a Leeds player when Erling was born. He lived there for almost four years, but after that moved away to Norway. The Manchester City talisman was eligible to play for England, but he chose Norway instead. In an interview with GOAL, he did talk about his reasons to choose Norway.
On the other hand, Kylian Mbappe was born in Cameroon. His father Wilfried Mbappe is Cameroonian and he wanted his son to represent Cameroon. In 2018, Wilfried revealed that the Cameroonian FA demanded money in order to let Kylian Mbappe represent the national team. Wilfried said he was disgusted and went to France. He also said, “The French charged us nothing,” in his statement.
Haaland playing for England would have changed the portrayal of his national career completely in a very positive way. Whereas, Mbappe playing for Cameroon would have restricted his chances massively to win any major trophy with his national team.
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