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Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has tipped Manchester City striker Erling Haaland to win the Ballon d'Or this season, putting an end to the Messi-Ronaldo era.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated football for more than a decade and a half, having won a total of 12 Ballon d'Ors between themselves.
However, former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has claimed that the era of domination between the two greats is about to come to an end.
The former England striker hailed Manchester City star Erling Haaland as the best footballer on the planet right now for how he has fared for the Cityzens. Rooney wrote in his column for The Times:
“Erling Haaland is the best footballer in the world right now. Lionel Messi is the greatest but, at this moment, nobody is playing better than a striker who — even though I broke records in that position myself — takes my breath away with the levels he’s reaching. He’s the best in the world because of the numbers he’s posting, the performances he’s putting in and the mentality he shows.”
Rooney has also tipped Haaland to win the Ballon d’Or for his exceptional numbers this campaign. He added:
“If you’re looking at who is going to win the Ballon d’Or then it has got to be him, providing he keeps up his form of this season. And why wouldn’t he? A record of 224 goals in 264 games is the mark of a player whose standards don’t drop. We’ve had the era of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, now this is his time, the era of Haaland and Kylian Mbappé. When there is a talent like him around you just have to enjoy it — even if he is wearing a Manchester City shirt."
The former Manchester United striker has tipped Haaland to dominate the game for the next decade. He said:
“One of the things I like most about him is how different he is to nearly all modern players. Everyone wants the ball to feet these days but he wants to run off the ball in almost an old-fashioned way — run in behind and use his power to get clear, then his composure to beat the keeper. There’s something raw about how he plays, his hunger to score is huge. Like Messi and Ronaldo did, he could dominate the game for ten years.”
Haaland has been on fire for Pep Guardiola's side following his £51.2 million move from Borussia Dortmund last summer.
The Norway international has already scored 48 goals in 42 games across competitions while also producing six assists.
Manchester City star dwarfs Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as incredible UEFA Champions League stat emerges
Manchester City star Erling Haaland continues to score for fun and now boasts a better goal-to-game ratio than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Norwegian was on target against Bayern Munich in their 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.
With his strike against the Bavarian giants, Haaland has now scored 48 goals this season across competitions.
His 12th strike in the Champions League also takes his tally in the competition to 35 in just 27 appearances.
The Norwegian is now averaging 1.3 goals per game in the Champions League, making him the only player to have scored over 30 goals to average over one goal per game in the history of the competition.
The Manchester City star is comfortably ahead of the duo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who have 0.79 and 0.77 goals per game respectively. Aged just 22, Haaland looks likely to break plenty of records in the years to come.
