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Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne has backed Erling Haaland to equal the goalscoring records of Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) ace Lionel Messi.
Haaland has taken the Premier League by storm since arriving from Borussia Dortmund for an initial fee of £51 million earlier this summer. So far, he has scored 24 goals and laid out three assists in just 19 appearances across all competitions for Pep Guardiola's side.
A towering presence in and around the box, the Norwegian shot to fame during his stint for Red Bull Salzburg before shining in the colors of Dortmund for two-and-a-half seasons. To date, he has registered a staggering 180 goals and 42 assists in 224 career games.
Speaking at a pre-match press conference, De Bruyne lavished praise on Haaland and stated that his teammate has the potential to cross the goalscoring landmarks set by Ronaldo and Messi. He said:
"Erling is so obsessed with goals. He already has about 200 goals, so he can probably go to 600, 700 or 800 if he stays fit and does the things that he does. He is a top-level striker. I don't see him as different to a lot of people. He is a normal footballer like everybody else and he doesn't take himself too seriously."
Sharing his thoughts on the left-footed striker, De Bruyne continued:
"When you talk about professional footballers, everybody has that little edge. I don't think you can become a professional player if you don't have that little something to become the best version you can be. He is still a young boy enjoying his life and he takes his football very seriously. He just loves scoring goals."
Haaland, who has 18 Premier League goals this season, is next set to be in action at Leeds United on Wednesday (December 28).
Erling Haaland on rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi: "It's been a positive thing"
During an interaction with Viaplay, Erling Haaland was queried about his potential rivalry with PSG striker Kylian Mbappe. Drawing the example of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi's rivalry, he said:
"I don't like to compare myself with others. I think you need to be your own player when it comes to that so I don't like to compare or anything with that. I think the media has been doing that with Ronaldo and Messi for the last 10 years and I think they've been pushing each other as well. I think it's been a positive thing."
Ronaldo has scored 819 goals and contributed 266 assists in 1145 games for Portugal, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus and Sporting CP. Messi, on the other hand, has registered 793 goals and 387 assists in 1003 matches for Argentina, Barcelona and PSG.
