‘Messi and Ronaldo are finished, Haaland deserves 2023 Ballon d’Or’

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 23 Apr 2023 18:15 BST
• 3 min read

Wayne Rooney has labelled Erling Haaland the best player in the world and believes he deserves to win the 2023 Ballon d’Or ahead of Lionel Messi.

Haaland joined Man City from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of €60 million last summer, as the English champions beat off competition from Real Madrid and Barcelona.

And the 23-year-old has broken record after record since his arrival.

Premier League top scorers 2022/23: Erling Haaland

He now has a barely believable 48 goals in just 42 games in all competitions, with City on track to win a treble of Premier League, Champions League and the already acquired League Cup.

Former Man Utd star Rooney believes that Haaland has now surpassed the likes of legends Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player in the world.

What did Rooney say about Haaland?

“Erling Haaland is the best footballer in the world right now,” Rooney told The Times.

“Lionel Messi is the greatest but, at this moment, nobody is playing better than a striker who — even though I broke records in that position myself — takes my breath away with the levels he’s reaching.

“He’s the best in the world because of the numbers he’s posting, the performances he’s putting in and the mentality he shows.

“If you’re looking at who is going to win the Ballon d’Or then it has got to be Haaland, providing he keeps up his form of this season.

“And why wouldn’t he? A record of 224 goals in 264 games is the mark of a player whose standards don’t drop. We’ve had the era of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, now this is his time, the era of Haaland and Kylian Mbappé.

"When there is a talent like him around you just have to enjoy it — even if he is wearing a Manchester City shirt. After the Community Shield, when he was getting stick, I wrote that I had no doubts about him and that he would go on to prove the difference in the title race.

“I always felt he was the player who was going to take City where they needed to go. I was wrong about one thing, though. I said Haaland was capable of scoring a goal a game in the Premier League and in fact he has 32 goals in 28 appearances. It’s very rare to see someone quite so lethal.”

Haaland will next be in action on Wednesday when City take on Arsenal at the Etihad in a Premier League top of the table clash.