{"id":26123,"date":"2025-11-04T09:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/04\/erling-haaland-rejects-comparisons-between-messi-and-ronaldo-im-just-erling\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T09:46:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:46:48","slug":"erling-haaland-rejects-comparisons-between-messi-and-ronaldo-im-just-erling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/04\/erling-haaland-rejects-comparisons-between-messi-and-ronaldo-im-just-erling\/","title":{"rendered":"Erling Haaland rejects comparisons between Messi and Ronaldo: &#8216;I&#8217;m just Erling&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/04\/erling-haaland-rejects-comparisons-between-messi-and-ronaldo-im-just-erling\/#Erling_Haaland_expresses_his_life_as_it_is\" >Erling Haaland expresses his life as it is<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/04\/erling-haaland-rejects-comparisons-between-messi-and-ronaldo-im-just-erling\/#Haaland_recognizes_both_Messi_and_Ronaldo\" >Haaland recognizes both Messi and Ronaldo<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Erling Haaland has once again played down comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, insisting he doesn&#8217;t belong in the same story as two of modern football&#8217;s legends.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ahead of this week&#8217;s Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund, the humble Manchester City striker stressed that his focus will remain on scoring goals and improving his game, rather than competing with the sport&#8217;s all-time greats.<\/p>\n<p>Haaland continued his excellent form this season, scoring twice for his team against Bournemouth at the weekend.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Erling_Haaland_expresses_his_life_as_it_is\"><\/span>Erling Haaland expresses his life as it is<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The Norwegian attacker has scored 13 goals in 10 Premier League appearances for City this season.<\/p>\n<p>He has scored four goals in three appearances in the Champions League, and the striker will be hoping to continue his form against Dortmund in the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about being named alongside Ronaldo and Messi, who have dominated world football for nearly 20 years, Haaland was quick to dismiss the idea.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;No, not at all! No one can get close to those two, so it&#8217;s no good.&#8221;<\/em> Fabrizio Romano reports that he said this with a smile.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I&#8217;m just Erling, a Norwegian player who scores goals. That hasn&#8217;t changed.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Haaland&#8217;s comments reflect his down-to-earth attitude despite his rapid rise in world football.<\/p>\n<p>Since joining Man City in 2022, the 25-year-old has broken records at an incredible pace, winning the Premier League&#8217;s Golden Boot award, the Champions League award and the UEFA Player of the Year award, an achievement that rightly rivals the dominance previously displayed by Ronaldo and Messi.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Haaland_recognizes_both_Messi_and_Ronaldo\"><\/span>Haaland recognizes both Messi and Ronaldo<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-2239377442-612x612-1-414x276.jpg.webp 414w,https:\/\/icdn.caughtoffside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-2239377442-612x612-1.jpg.webp 612w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 770px, (min-width:1020px) 630px, (min-width:900px) 880px, (min-width:680px) 97vw, (min-width:414px) 414px, 100vw\"><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Manchester City&#8217;s Erling Haaland celebrates scoring (Photo by Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, the Norwegian forward has often stressed that he admires the pair rather than seeing them as rivals.<\/p>\n<p>Haaland continues to break the scoring record at an astonishing rate, but remains humble about his place in the game.<\/p>\n<p>For football fans, Erling Haaland&#8217;s humility and ruthless efficiency in front of goal make him one of the most fascinating figures in the game today.<\/p>\n<p>Man City fans will be wondering how they will buy tickets for Man City vs. Borussia Dortmund to watch Haaland in action at the Etihad Stadium this week.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Man City manager Josep Guardiola eyes blockbuster move for Aston Villa defender<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End -->\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erling Haaland has once again played down comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, insisting he doesn&#8217;t belong in the same story as two of modern football&#8217;s legends. Ahead of this week&#8217;s Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund, the humble Manchester City striker stressed that his focus will remain on scoring goals and improving his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[40],"class_list":{"0":"post-26123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}