Man City ace Haaland voted BETTER than Mbappe
FT Desk
- 20 Sept 2022 14:40 BST
- 3 min read
After years of frenzied debate over whether Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo deserved the title of world's best footballer, a new battle is now emerging.
The Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United stars are nearing the end of their respective glittering careers having dominated the game for the best part of two decades.
With 12 Ballon d'Or titles between them and a bewildering array of team trophies at both club and international level, Messi and Ronaldo will be no mean act to follow for any budding player.
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But two young stars in particular stand out as potential successors to the greats.
Erling Haaland, 21, and 23-year-old Kylian Mbappe have wasted no time in reaching the game's elite with their explosive talents and stellar touch in front of goal.
Haaland has started his Manchester City career at a record-breaking scoring pace after bursting onto the scene at Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund, while the Paris Saint-Germain ace is already a World Cup winner with France and has already helped himself to more than 200 career goals with Monaco and his current employers.
Competition between the pair for the right to be called the best promises to be fierce, but who holds the upper hand right now?
Haaland streaks ahead
In the view of FootballTransfers' readership, it is the Norwegian who sits ahead.
A poll held on Twitter awarded Haaland almost 70 per cent, comfortably ahead of the PSG star.
Mbappe or Haaland - choose one!
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) September 19, 2022
Haaland has indeed made the brighter start to the 2022-23 season, scoring 11 goals in his first seven Premier League appearances to send defending champions City back to the upper reaches of the table in rapid fashion.
Mbappe, meanwhile, sat out two of PSG's opening games this campaign but now appears to be back in the swing of things, forming a lethal partnership with fellow superstars Lionel Messi and Neymar that has also catapulted his team to the summit.
The season has of course just begun, and there is still plenty of time for opinions to change in the coming weeks and months.
But for the time being Haaland appears to have a strong case to be ranked just ahead of his budding rival, having wasted no time in taking the English top flight by storm.
