When Erling Haaland started his climb to stardom, Kylian Mbappé was already well established up there. It didn’t take long before the two players were singled out as the great Ballon d’Or duel after Messi’s and Ronaldo’s shared hegemony. Now the two players are no longer young and promising, but deliver as well-established players. On Tuesday, it was time for a direct duel at the Etihad in the Champions League. Then it was natural for the legend Thierry Henry to compare the two goal guarantees.
Manchester City against Real Madrid, Erling Haaland against Kylian Mbappé. 2-3 result in the first leg, 2 Norwegian goals against the Frenchman’s 1. Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was asked after the game which of the two players he would most like to have in his team.
We guess there is a national connection between Henry and Mbappé, but include the Arsenal legend’s explanation of why Haaland is less interesting to have in the team than the Real star.
-Mbappé, every single day. Because he does – or offers – different options. For a coach, he can play on the right, he can play on the left and he can play in the middle. Can Haaland play a different position than a nine?”, says Henry on CBS Sports.
Before he asks one of the co-hosts: Who would you as a defender most like to face of the two?
-I prefer Haaland, because you always know he will run in behind. Mbappé can go either way.
Henry gets questions back from Jamie Garragher about Haaland’s 30+ goals every season, isn’t that enough?
-The perfectionist side of my brain would be like “you score goals, you’re always going to do it, but can you be better? Can you get better for the team? Can you do something when the team can’t help you?”. I keep repeating it, and I don’t care. Scoring goals doesn’t mean you’re playing well,” Henry adds.
-It doesn’t mean that you help your team the way you should have helped them. Sometimes your teammates bail you out, more often than not, it comes from Thierry Henry.
