Dec 6, 20205 min read

The Meteoric Rise of Erling Håland

Written By: Robin van Paassen

Edited By: Irtaza Khan

Erling Braut Håland today is seen as Borussia Dortmund's most prolific striker. Playing in Norway's professional leagues lurks not far from where he is now. Over just the last four years, Håland has developed himself from a scoreless forward in his hometown to scoring a goal every 65 minutes as of November 28th in Germany's top flight.

The towering 6'4 Norwegian has always had his sights on European football. Håland's dream of playing in Europe's top five leagues originates directly from his father, Alf-Inge Håland. During the 1990s, his father tore up the English scene as a defender primarily for Nottingham Forest as well as Leeds United and Manchester City. Subsequent to his footballing career, Alf-Inge decided to return to a small town in his home country, where the upbringing of a possible future generational footballer began.

Bryne is a small town with a history in Norwegian football where Håland's started his journey. Despite first league football being a prominent part of Bryne's history, they fell off of Norway's top flight, Eliteserien in 2003. Regardless, this was not going to hinder Håland's way to stardom.

Growing up in Bryne, Håland honed exceptional footballing skills at a young age, playing for Bryne's second team before the age of 14. Through impressive one-on-one offensive abilities and quick acceleration, he gained a natural goal-scoring capability. With these attributes, Håland netted 18 goals in 14 matches during his time with the second team. Finally catching enough attention of the first-team coach, Ingve Bernsten, Håland began his senior debut at just the age of 15. Despite the second team being in very consistent form, the first team ultimately sank with Håland. They were relegated to the third division. During his 16 games on the first team, he struggled to translate his second-team scoring abilities, netting zero goals. However, a bleak situation gave light at the end of the tunnel when Håland's strong persistence was recognizable to the Eliteserien team, Molde.

In a $110,000 transfer to Molde FK, Håland would kickstart his future professional career. Brought in by now, Manchester United head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Håland began with a shaky start in training but would prove himself on his debut. In his debut against Volda TI, he netted his first goal showing a glimmer of future success. His first season would end with four goals in twenty matches, displaying star-like potential. The shadow of his Bryne second-team goal scoring capability came to surface in his second season as he netted an impressive 16 goals over just 30 games. In the Eliterserien, he placed third in the list of top scorers, falling five goals short of the winner Franck Boli. Comparing the two players, Håland scored these 12 goals in a time of 1,586 minutes while top scorer Boli scored his 17 in 2,532 minutes. In its simplest form, Håland scored once every 132 minutes, and Boli scored once every 149 minutes. Håland ranked first overall in goals to game ratio, holding an impressive 0.48 goals per game, only falling short of Boli's 0.59 per game and Marcus Pedersen's 0.61 per game. Potential seen in his breakout second season earned him the Eliteserien Breakthrough of the Year Award. Not only that, he earned European recognition when he netted an impressive four goals against the, at the time, unbeaten team SK Brann. Håland's market value leapt from $220,000 in the years before to a monstrous $5,500,000 when moved to RB Salzburg the following season.

Joining RB Salzburg nearing the end of the season for $8.8 million settled as another sizable stepping-stone in Håland's meteoric rise to the top. A world-class performance saw Håland gain global spotlight as he netted nine goals against Honduras in a 12-0 win in the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The in-form striker only played 150 minutes of football for Salburg though scoring once across ten matches as RB Salzburg wrapped up their 2018/2019 campaign. Following the season closure, Håland was promptly fit into the starting lineup through the integration among other teammates for the next season. The spotlight glistered once more as he demolished the Austrian Bundesliga bagging sixteen goals in fourteen matches as well as four in just two games in a domestic cup competition. Håland's goal-scoring prowess led him to become sixth in goal scoring despite only playing roughly half the season. Scoring thirty-one goals in thirty matches, Shon Weissman maintained a goal scoring ratio of 1.033 goals per game, whereas Håland held 1.143 goals per game over his shorter, yet impressive games. Among the top ten goal scorers of the season, Håland was the only other player besides Weissman to maintain an above one goal per game average. More importantly, Håland broke through on the European level with his debut season in the Champions League in a group with Liverpool, Napoli, and KRC Genk. In the group stage, Håland netted a tremendous eight goals in six matches. Although this was not enough to carry Salzburg through, it was enough for Håland to gain widespread recognition from teams across Europe's top five leagues. Following RB Salzburg's group stage exit, Håland's transfer talks rose. Despite Christoph Freund, Salzburg's director, stating a January transfer would be "too fast," Håland was not hesitant to make a move for the German side Borrusia Dortmund, signing on January 1st.

For a staggering fee of 22 million dollars, Håland joined Borussia Dortmund rocketing his market value to over 49 million dollars. Flourishing wherever Håland seemingly goes, extended to football's highest playing level. Since joining the German side in January, Håland has endured his 2019-2020 season reign as a top player scoring approximately every 56 minutes through mid-May. In total, Håland has produced 41 goals in only 34 appearances for RB Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund as of May in the 2019-2020 season. By the end of the season, Håland tallied 44 goals, and 10 assists in 40 games. With only a partial season in Dortmund, Håland came short of comparison eligibility at top level due to RB Salzburg not being in Europe's top five leagues. Persevering, Håland is currently off to a hot start this 2020-2021 campaign, netting ten goals in eight matches handling top-flight football with ease. In his ten games, he has needed only 65 minutes with 2.63 shots, per goal. Håland's efforts only fell short of world-class striker Robert Lewandowski, netting 12 goals in nine matches, needing 53 minutes, and only 2.45 shots per goal. Displaying his world-class abilities in the Champions League this season has been no issue either, grabbing six goals in four games. Following his record for scoring in his first five Champions League matches in the 2019/2020 season, Håland currently holds the record for scoring fifteen goals in just twelve games. Proving himself time, again, and again, Håland is most certainly showing promising signs of becoming his generation's best striker.

In his journey to stardom, Håland has exponentially increased his market value from $220,000 to a meteoric valuation of $110,000,000 as of November 26th. In just a few short years, Håland’s player valuation score has risen from 5.9 in Molde FK to a whopping 7.7 average across all competition in 2020-2021 for Dortmund, performing at an average of 8.1 in the Champions League. At this young age with finishing quality and ball control nearing the level of the world's top strikers, Messi, Ronaldo, and Lewandowski, Håland will surely be among the top of his generation and surpass his father's legacy in European football to become an idol in Norway.

Robin van Paassen

2nd Year Honours Commerce Student

Sources Used

McMaster Sports Community

The Meteoric Rise of Erling Håland

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