Norway's rising son

Erling Haaland expected to eclipse his famous father after European goal rush

LONDON - Mention the name "Haaland" to the average soccer fan, particularly a British one, and their thoughts will likely go back to one of the most vicious fouls ever committed in the English Premier League.

That day in 2001, Manchester City's Norwegian defender Alf-Inge Haaland was scythed down by a studs-to-knee tackle by Manchester United captain Roy Keane at Old Trafford that prompted threats of legal action and resulted in a long ban for the offending Irishman.

Eighteen years later, there's another Haaland rising to prominence - with a strong likelihood of making a name for himself in English soccer.

Erling Haaland, the 19-year-old son of Alfe-Inge, is one of the most talked-about young players in the world because of his scoring exploits on the youth international scene with Norway, in Austria's top flight and - most recently - in the Champions League.

By netting three first-half goals for Red Bull Salzburg against Genk last month, he became the third-youngest player to score a Champions League hat-trick, after Real Madrid great Raul and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United.

After missing two domestic games with illness, Haaland last Wednesday came off the bench at Anfield - where his father scored for Leeds United 19 years ago - to net an equalizer against reigning European champion Liverpool, only for Mo Salah to spare the Reds' blushes by bagging the winner in a 4-3 victory.

The strikes took Haaland's season tally for the Austrian club to 18, which includes four hat-tricks.

Haaland also bagged an incredible nine goals for Norway in an Under-20 World Cup game against Honduras in May.

It wasn't a surprise that he was immediately called up to the senior squad, making his debut in the recent European Championship qualifiers against Malta and Sweden.

Standing 6-foot-3 and easily identifiable with his broad shoulders and slicked-back blond hair, Haaland is an intimidating presence by the way he can shrug off opponents and drive forward with the ball at his feet.

He clearly knows where the goal is, too.

No real shock, then, that he is already being linked with some of Europe's biggest clubs, including in England - where he was born while dad Alf-Inge was a Premier League player.

"His heart is close to England so he'd like an opportunity to go to England, maybe even in January," said Paal Fjelde, a former teammate of the younger Haaland at Norwegian club Bryne.

"I'm not putting more pressure on him, but as long as he keeps his attitude and his feet on the ground, he will continue to progress.

"This is just the start."

Haaland has already spoken of one day playing for Leeds, the northern city where he was born and a former club of his father.

Fjelde also said he has heard Haaland speak about Manchester Cityhis father's final club before retirement in 2003 at the age of 30 because of a serious knee injury that was allegedly linked to Keane's tackle. The Haaland family then moved back to Norway, when Erling was 3.

Keane, who admitted the challenge was a revenge attack in a long-running feud between the two, has been typically unapologetic since, saying of the incident in his autobiography: "There are things I regret in my life and he's not one of them."

Given what happened to his father at Old Trafford all those years back, a move for Haaland to the red half of Manchester appears unlikely, even if United is now managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - a compatriot who coached Haaland at Norwegian team Molde for two seasons.

"He is probably not the world's biggest Manchester United fan," Solskjaer said on Wednesday. "But if they come knocking on the door, there are not many who would say no to that."

Fjelde recalls Haaland making his senior debut at age 15 for Bryne in May 2016. Haaland cut a tall but slight figure-"he was only bones," Fjelde said - but had uncanny movement for a player so young and was not overawed in the dressing room alongside experienced players twice his age.

"Most youngsters don't do the kind of runs he did when he was 15 or 16," Fjelde said in a phone interview, adding when Haaland first started playing soccer, youth coaches took him out of training sessions and reduced his workload because he was growing so quickly and they were afraid he'd get injured.

Haaland has never lost that unbridled exuberance for the game and still returns to Bryne, where his parents live, for kickabouts with his friends.

Fjelde, who still keeps in touch with Haaland and met up with him this summer in Norway, said the teenager is the biggest thing to come out of the Scandinavian country since Martin Odegaard, who left boyhood side Stromsgodset at age 16 to move to Real Madrid in 2015 but is only now beginning to fulfill his early promise on loan at Real Sociedad.

Haaland is taking a different route to the top by moving to Salzburg instead of one of Europe's more high-profile teams.

"Maybe making that step was just too big for Martin at the time, but I think it's different with Erling," Fjelde said.

"He is very down to earth. He has got his feet on the ground and knows what he wants to do."

If Haaland can continue in that vein, he might realize his English Premier League dream sooner rather than later.

Associated Press