Maybe he means Modric, but I think he was quite deserved.
But I agree that apart from Lewandowski, the others on the list are debatable. Maybe Sneijder in fact should've gotten one over early Messi, but it's not such a clear decision IMO
Haaland vs Mbappe - Heirs Apparent
- Thread starter Pexbo
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But I agree that apart from Lewandowski, the others on the list are debatable. Maybe Sneijder in fact should've gotten one over early Messi, but it's not such a clear decision IMO
Overreaction. You can't say Haaland is "nowhere near" Mbappe. Come on.
He is nowhere near to Mbappé. Just look at the goals yesterday.
Mbappé has much moré to his game and his technicaly far away from Haaland.
Madrid are not fools. They, again, bought the better player.
Yesterday is just one game that suited Mbappe's style very well, lot's of space, many 1vs1's, it's where he excels. Put him against a team with 10 men in 30m of their goal and see how he does. They are fairly different players with different qualities. Not a big difference between them, even if, I also believe Mbappe is a little better overall.
You're only as good as your last few games.
As a result, Mbappe is the best in the world, and Haaland... does he even exist? At least City had 11 men on the pitch...
As a result, Mbappe is the best in the world, and Haaland... does he even exist? At least City had 11 men on the pitch...
Iniesta’s and Sneijder’s best claims to Ballon d’Or overlap, Suárez never was the best player in the world etc. Henry lost his one to a player from Serie A. Your math doesn’t really add up.
Sleeping off your anger I hope
Mbappé has a lot more abilities in my opinion, even if Halaand is a goalscoring machine.
In terms of first touch, dribbling, speed Mbappé is much better and more enjoyable to watch.
That’s not underating halaand. But Mbappé is one of the best in the World.
I think Sneijder was as deserving - if not more deserving - than Modric.
Did you watch Messi that season? No way any player would've won against him let alone Sneijder.
Modric did not face similar level of competition to win the ballon d'or.
Messi from 2006/7 to 2012/13 had no competition for the bpitw position. He was the default choice for the ballon d'or; only injuries in these years allowed others to win.
Agreed, but Haaland has a better physical presence, can play with his back at the goal, has better heading and can also defend when needed. He is also mentally stronger and composed every game regardless of opponents.
There is not much between them at this moment, I believe.
One is a great goat scorer and the other is a great match winner. This is why Kane was never compared with Ronaldo or Messi or why Shearer was not compared with Henry.
This was not to say that Sneijder should've won instead of Messi, but that I don't think Modric should've won in 2018.
2010 was a strong year for midfielders with Sneijder, Iniesta and Xavi, you could argue Xavi deserved it as much or more than Sneijder in 2010, Sneijder had a great year but was only 4th in the voting so wouldn't have got it even without Messi.
Xavi topped the assist table in La Liga in 2009-10, voted third best player in La Liga after Messi and Ronaldo. Played well in the latter part of 2010 too, integral in their 5-0 demolishing of Real Madrid. Then the 2010 World Cup, made 57 accurate forward passes in the final, most passes in the tournament, most metres covered. That World Cup was a lot of 1-0s where nobody could touch Spain, tika-taka at its extreme and Xavi was the main reason for that. He was arguably better in 2010 than Rodri was in 2024.
And Kane was a better player than Haaland. Outside of goals Haaland is useless, he doesn't contribute much to the passing game, he doesn't carry the ball and his defensive contribution isn't out of the norm for a striker.
Unless the opponent is actually good?
Aye, he's only ever performed against bad opponents or good opponents who were cursed with bad form
Haaland is so much more than a goal scorer. He's a turbocharged tank up front. He creates so much space for the other attackers by his mere presence.
He is blistering fast, and makes the opposition defense set up in a way that makes it impossible to cater for both covering Haaland and stopping the other offensive players.
He contributes with so much more than scoring!
Sure. Xavi is as deserving as Modric, then. Still think Modric shouldn't have won it.
No joke, while I think that he is a very good goalscorer the list of teams he scored against in the CL is not comparable to Mbappé's.
https://www.transfermarkt.us/erling-haaland/bilanz/spieler/418560/plus/0?wettbewerb=CL
https://www.transfermarkt.us/kylian-mbappe/bilanz/spieler/342229/plus/0?wettbewerb=CL
Because he is a great goalscorer otherwise we are talking about a player that averages 12.5 passes per game, that wins 1.5 header per game, that doesn't take on players, doesn't create through passes and can't dribble. If Haaland has a worse goalscoring record, he is useless.
Nah, you got your Noggie glasses on.
On a side note, i still think that both of their clubs would be tempted to exchange them. I could see Haaland score a boatload of goals with Vinicius and Rodrygo while Mbappé would be a better fit for Guardiola's tactical creativity.
Since when can play with his back to goal? His hold up play is mediocre for his physical ability and City actively don't want him involved in their build up play because his touch and passing aren't up to their (usual) standards.
Don't disagree that he possesses some qualities that Mbappe doesn't have, but Mbappe is quite comfortably the better player in my view.
He was better doing that in Dortmund. Haaland is a rare example of a player actually getting worse playing for Guardiola.
Haaland is like those weirdos at the gym that are great at benching, so they literally just bench every session. If you asked them how to work their traps in isolation, they wouldn't have a notion what to do. He's a great finisher and has obviously worked exceptionally hard at that part of his game. Outside of that, he offers zero, nothing.
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Haaland would easily win the Ballon d’Or if he scored 10 goals in 5 games in the CL quarters, semis and final like Ronaldo did in 2017, even if he never touched the ball outside those goals.
Didn't he score 2 goals against Madrid like a week ago?Unless the opponent is actually good?
He did but the point isn't that he never scores against good opponents. The post I responded to alluded to consistency against all teams, Haaland hasn't been as consistent against top teams than Mbappé.
Oh for sure, for all the flack Mbappe takes he's a very good big game player. I just think the Haaland doesn't do it in big games, isn't true either.
But Mbappe has an amazing record in the WC for France and at Madrid will excel in the CL. I think Mbappes record is exceptional as opposed to Erlings being poor.
People saying he's a useless player but great goal scorer can't be taken seriously.
If he wasn't a great goal socrer he would be a better Van Dijk
Yes
Madrid were not good a week ago.
Liverpool? Was in the league, doesn't count. Manchester United? Come on. Arsenal? Rob Holding/consolation goal. And so on.
No True Scotsman's Goal
Why didn't he deserve it and who should have won it?
UCL, WC final with Croatia, WC's best player, best CM in the world. He actually won it by a wide margin by the way. So many journalists can't be wrong.
Didn't watch that many full games of him back then so could be wrong, but from I watched even then he didn't seem great with his back to goal. Most of his good play seemed to come from exploiting the space in behind defences, which naturally was more available playing on the counter for Dortmund.
I ithink Ronaldo or Griezmann should've won in 2018.
And journalists are wrong all the time. Messi won in 2023.
Yeah but we are comparing two very good players, neither has poor records but in the context of world class players there is a gap between Mbappé's consistency against top teams and Haaland's. It's totally flawed but as an illustration here you have in the CL and in order the top 10 teams each players scored the most against:
Haaland: RB Leipzig, Sevilla, FC Basel, Genk, Young Boys, FC Copenhagen, PSG, Napoli, Besiktas and Real Madrid.
Mbappé: Man City, Barcelona, FC Basel, Dortmund, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Maccabi, Real Sociedad, Basaksehir.
I wouldn't claim he was great doing that. Just better than currently.
Even at Dortmund, he wasn't great with his back to goal. He wasn't/is not a donkey but that's never been his game.
Other than defensive work rate (Mbappe is legitimately poor at it, but I'm not sure how much more Haaland really contributes), the only things Haaland has over Mbappe are heading and (arguably) poaching. He'll have to start making better, more consistent use of both, and in bigger games, to ever really warrant the comparison.
Even his physicallity is not as big a threat to opposition defences as Mbappe's sheer pace and skill. The idea he's "stronger mentally" to any meaningful degree seems fairly bizarre to me.
Even his physicallity is not as big a threat to opposition defences as Mbappe's sheer pace and skill. The idea he's "stronger mentally" to any meaningful degree seems fairly bizarre to me.
Atletico were knocked out in the CL group stage. That was a big handicap for Griezmann.
No comparison with Croatia and Portugal at he WC. In the CL, Ronaldo was very poor from the QF second leg until the final. His overall game was no longer what it used to be.
My point isn't that journalists never get it wrong, I'm saying they don't in those proportions, i.e Modric winning it by a mile. Messi in 2023 was close.
Football is a funny game. Mbappe coming into his own, at the same time PSG are the best they’ve been since their takeover, and it’s off the back of moving away from their own galactico project