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Burnley manager Vincent Kompany has compared Erling Haaland to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi and has backed the Manchester City striker to be among the greatest players of all time.
There is a long way to go for the Norway international if he is to match Ronaldo and Messi's achievements and stature. The two have 12 Ballon d'Or trophies between them and are widely regarded as two of the greatest players of this generation.
The 22-year-old is, however, on the right track to achieving greatness. He plundered 86 goals in 89 games in his two-and-a-half-year stay at Borussia Dortmund before joining the Cityzens last summer.
Haaland has brought his rich vein of scoring form to England and has scored 42 goals in 37 games across competitions this season. He has already bagged six hat-tricks for Manchester City and scored a record-equalling five goals in his team's 7-0 thrashing of RB Leipzig on March 14.
After drawing the first leg 1-1 against Leipzig, manager Pep Guardiola's side qualified for the quarter-finals with an 8-1 aggregate scoreline. Haaland scored a treble in the very next game against Kompany's Burnley in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Giving his thoughts on Haaland after his team's 6-0 loss at the hands of Manchester City on March 18, Kompany said:
"I've played against some great players of our time, like Messi, Ronaldinho, Zidane or Ronaldo. Such players are so hard to stop because they always find a way to score and it's the same with Haaland.
Kompany, who won four league titles with City as a player, added:
"He is already a superstar, but he can and wants to improve. His statistics already speak for themselves. If he continues to develop in this way, he will be counted among the greatest."
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both in the fray to win league titles this season
Since the start of the 2004-05 campaign, either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi have won a league title in all but two seasons.
The Portugal international's current team, Al-Nassr, are currently second in the Saudi Pro League, where they trail Al-Ittihad (50) by a solitary point after 21 games. Messi's Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), meanwhile, are comfortably on course to win Ligue 1 with a seven-point lead over second-placed Olympique de Marseille after 28 games.
The Argentine playmaker won the French top division last season and managed to win La Liga 10 times with Barcelona. Ronaldo, meanwhile, has three Premier League titles with Manchester United, two La Liga trophies with Real Madrid and two Scudetti with Juventus.
The 38-year-old could equal the record for most league titles in different countries if he wins the Saudi Pro League.
