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By Martin Graham | 1st Mar 2023
Erling Haaland has showered praise on Kylian Mbappe following the Paris Saint-Germain forward’s inclusion in another World XI squad on Monday evening at the FIFA The Best awards.
The FIFA awards was held in Paris, France, at the Theatre du Chatelet on February 27 and rewarded the best performing players of 2022. The Qatar World Cup played a huge role in determining the big winners, but there were some outliers like Erling Haaland, whose performances for Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City in 2022 did not go unnoticed.
The Norwegian finally bagged his second senior global acclaim by making it into the 2022 FIFPRO World XI, the dream team of the best players in the world from the year in review. It was the second year in a row he achieved that feat, which shows the quality that he possesses as a player.
However, he took time to appreciate another inclusion in the 2022 FIFPRO World XI – Kylian Mbappe – for not only making it to the dream team, but for his amazing performances that has seen him make podium after podium since his breakthrough in 2017 as a teenager.
Speaking to Canal+, Haaland said: “There are so many good players and Kylian is one of them. He is so strong! The French are so lucky that he plays for France.
“I would like him to play for Norway obviously, but it’s not the case. But yes, he’s an incredible player.”
Both players are expected to be the next biggest football rivalry after Cristiano Ronaldo – who was conspicuously missing from the awards in every category – and Lionel Messi. The two football giants have held football in a chokehold for the better part of two decades and are now in the twilight of their careers, meaning that their rivalry is almost at its end.
Haaland, 22, also spoke about Mbappe, 24, and his ability at such a young age and what he thinks the future holds for the PSG forward.
“He’s so fast, so strong and he’s been doing it for so many years. What is he? Two years older than me? It’s crazy!,” the Manchester City striker said.
“Sometimes you have to tell yourself that he still has ten years of playing at the top level. He is phenomenal.”
Mbappe recently became PSG’s joint all-time top scorer as he scored his 199th and 200th goal for the club in their 3 – 0 drubbing of Le Classique rivals Olympique de Marseille. It was a poetic moment as Messi assisted both goals for him, making it look like a passing of the torch.
Haaland, on the other hand, is running riot in just his first season in the Premier League. The big Norwegian is projected to hit 40 league goals in the league and 50 in all competitions at the end of the season, which will shatter every single goal record that has stood the test of time in the centuries old history of English football.
Martin Graham is an MFF sports writer
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