Erling Haaland is not only a scoring machine, but also a genuine “football nerd”. No one expected, Jamie Vardy is one of the models Norwegian striker pursues to perfect himself.
Some players consider football simply as a job, so that after the lights on the field go out, they are free to “let loose” with their own passion. But Haaland is not that type of person. The former Dortmund star confessed to being a football addict. Kevin De Bruyne – Haaland’s teammate at Man City, described the junior as a person “too obsessed with goals”.

Previously, Haaland said that he was fascinated when watching famous players like Cristiano Ronaldo or Zlatan Ibrahimovic play, and learned many useful things from Sergio Aguero’s shooting skills to improve his game. mine. However, there is a rather surprising name that the 22-year-old striker considers “the best striker in the world”, which is Leicester’s Jamie Vardy. Of course, “excellent” here is not an assessment of the whole, but focuses on a certain “super move”.

“I don’t research, but I’ve watched a lot of players,” Haaland said in an interview with Sky Sports in January 2022. “Let’s take an example: the acceleration runs down the back of the centre-back when the No 10 has the ball. Jamie Vardy is the best in the world at this. I’ve watched him a lot and that’s absolutely true. That’s what I am, I always watch football a lot. I still do it every day. When I play on Saturday and rest on Sunday, I stay at home watching football all day.”
Many times this season, fans have seen acceleration, breaking offside traps and getting behind Haaland’s defense to catch passes from Kevin De Bruyne. This is considered one of the strongest skills of the Norwegian striker, because in him he possesses speed, physique and terrifying dashing power. Witnessing Haaland’s quick steps, we really feel like seeing the silhouette of Vardy – the striker who once spread terror to the teams in the Premier League, thanks to his agility, running and finishing skills. benefit point.
Vardy is now 36 years old and has lost his place at Leicester this season. Of his 34 appearances in all competitions for the Foxes so far, half have come from the bench. However, Vardy remains an immortal Leicester legend, who brought the club the 2015/16 Premier League title like a fairy tale, with a top performance. Haaland has bagged 45 goals in all competitions this season, but he still has a long way to go to match Vardy’s record. The English striker has 134 goals in 299 Premier League appearances, ranking 14th in the list of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the tournament. Harry Kane (206 goals) is the only player still playing above Vardy.

With Haaland, he not only learned from Vardy the ability to move wisely, but also learned the skill of timing – one of the extremely important things of a goalscorer. “Vardy is very focused in the game. He is a striker who is rarely offside because he knows how to choose the right moment to run. You have to be very smart to do that,” coach Brendan Rodgers – former coach of the team Leicester, say 2019. The move to pick up a slit from a teammate is like a predator. There is no need to do too much, but deciding which time to run is a success. Haaland is perfecting this skill day by day, and Vardy is his great inspiration.

At 23:30 tonight, Man City will welcome Leicester in round 31 of the Premier League. If lucky, Haaland may be able to witness the Vardy branded runs. In the first leg between the two teams in October last year, Haaland was absent due to injury.