Manchester City forward Erling Haaland has opened up on how a number of personal losses have impacted him on and off the pitch.Haaland has been in sensational form for the Blues this term, taking his ...
Manchester City forward Erling Haaland has opened up on how a number of personal losses have impacted him on and off the pitch.
Haaland has been in sensational form for the Blues this term, taking his tally for the season to 11 with a brilliant brace in a 2-2 draw with AS Monaco in the UEFA Champions League in midweek, after scoring twice last weekend in a 5-1 win over Burnley.
The 25-year-old has been an unrelenting success since his 2022 transfer to the Etihad Stadium from Borussia Dortmund, having spearheaded Manchester City to a historic treble and their maiden UEFA Champions League title in his first season in England.
With a major reshuffle of the Manchester City first-team squad conducted by newly-appointed director of football Hugo Viana this summer, Haaland has been appointed to the club’s captaincy group alongside skipper Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Ballon d’Or winner Rodri.
Haaland has always been a chirpy, no-nonsense figure in the media in his first years at the Etihad Stadium but as the Norway international enters the peak years of his professional career, he has given a peak through the curtain into his life away from football.
Speaking in a new interview on the passings of his grandmother, grandfather and a family friend in the space of a few years, Haaland has let his vulnerable side speak for a fresh change from the ruthless forward who has excelled in every venture since he broke through the academy at Molde.
Haaland said, as quoted by Aftonbladet and relayed by Sport Witness: “It’s a bit scary when you lie alone in bed before you go to sleep and think, ‘What happens the day I die?’
“Are you going to heaven? Are you going to hell? Where are you going?'”
The tragic passing of former super agent Mino Raiola – who brokered Haaland’s transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester City in 2022 – has also left a lasting impact on the Norwegian, who has looked back on the influence of the Italian-Dutch on his life and career.
“How am I going to process it? It’s difficult,” Haaland said on Raiola’s death. “It’s sad that he (Raiola) is no longer here. He would have been here today and teased me. We teased him all the time. I will miss him for the rest of my life.
“I spoke to him just before he died. He said, ‘Go out and smash everything on the pitch’. He wanted me to live my best life, even without him. It’s important to think about. He didn’t want me to lie down and be sad.”
Haaland is in line to start for Manchester City in their Premier League meeting with Brentford on Sunday, with Pep Guardiola’s men set to wear black armbands and hold a minute’s silence ahead of the 16:30 kick-off to honour the victims of Thursday’s terror attack on a Greater Manchester synagogue that took the lives of two victims.
Category: General Sports
