‘I Will Do Everything For Treble’ – Erling Haaland

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland says he “will do everything” to help the club to a historic Treble.

City have won this season’s Premier League and can add to that if they beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final on Saturday and Inter Milan in the Champions League final on 10 June.

United won each of those trophies in 1999 and are the only English club to have done such a Treble.

“It would be unreal to make this history,” said 22-year-old Haaland.

Despite City’s domestic dominance, they are yet to win the Champions League and Haaland hopes he can be the missing piece to secure success in European football’s biggest tournament.

“This is why they bought me of course, to get this, we don’t have to hide that,” Haaland told BBC sports editor Dan Roan.

“It would mean everything. I will do everything I possibly can to try to make it happen. It’s my biggest dream and hopefully dreams do come true.”

He added: “But as well it’s not easy – it’s two finals against two good teams that will do everything they can to try to destroy that.

“They will be motivated, they will be ready and we have to play at our best, because if we play at our best we have a really good chance of achieving exactly that.”

City overtook Arsenal this season to win a third Premier League title in a row under manager Pep Guardiola.

“We’ve been chasing the whole season so when we won the Premier League it was a big relief,” said Haaland, who scored 36 top-flight goals this season.

“Now we’ve got two finals left and now the only thing we can focus on is these two finals before the vacation.”

‘I’m 196cm tall and have got long blonde hair – people are going to see me’

Haaland has had a stunning first season in English football since joining City from Borussia Dortmund last summer.

He has broken the Premier League record for most goals in a season with his tally and, overall, has scored 52 goals during the campaign.

The Norway international has been named the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) men’s footballer of the year and is the first player to win the Premier League player and young player of the year awards in the same season.

Haaland’s exploits have made him one of the most recognisable players in the game and he says his way of dealing with the fame is to embrace it.

“It’s nice, it means I’ve done something right,” said Haaland.

“My life has changed of course, I can’t live so normally any more. That’s how my life is, I can’t complain.

“I try to enjoy every single moment of it and that’s how it is.

“I’m 196cm tall and have got long blonde hair so wherever I go people are going to see me. So that’s how my life is. What can I do?

“There’s nothing I can do, that’s my life. I just have to try to enjoy it as much as I can. Try to relax when I’m home with good people around me, that’s really important. Just try to enjoy my life.”

Haaland believes he has improved “a lot” this season but that he can get better “from my right foot to my left foot to my heading, from the build-up play – everything”.

“I’ve been developing in a really positive way and that’s really important for me because I’m still really young,” he said.

“I’m 22, I’ve got a long career ahead of me and I still have to develop. That’s also something I was thinking of over one year ago when I was thinking about my next move.”

Haaland knows Manchester United will be “motivated” as they will not only want to beat their local rivals to add to their Carabao Cup success this season, but also stop City from matching their Treble.

“It will not be an easy game,” said Haaland. “We have to play our game. We have to not think too much, we have to focus on ourselves and we have to play the game we should play.

“In the end we’ll see. It’s a 90-minute football game and the ones who do it best in these games can win.”

 

Source: BBC