Haaland still has a lot of time to win Ballon d’Or, says Guardiola

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said Erling Haaland still has a lot of time to win the Ballon d’Or.

This comes after the 23-year-old striker missed out on the prestigious award to Lionel Messi.

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Fans and pundits were divided after Messi won the award for a record eighth time on Monday after leading Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar last year. Many felt Haaland should have bagged the award, which is given to the world’s best player.

The ‘Norwergian’ cyborg inspired City to a treble last season, scoring over 50 goals.

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Haaland missed out on Ballon d’Or

Guardiola believes that his striker was happy just to be in the running to win the Ballon d’Or 

“I would say that I saw him so happy to be a contender, close to Messi and Mbappe and the rest of the players,” said Guardiola as per SuperSport.

“Erling(Haaland) has all his career ahead of him, so he has to continue winning and say, ‘OK, maybe next season I can be there’.

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“This has to be his target but he was really pleased to be there and he seemed really well when he came back,” he said on Haaland.

Man City are in action this weekend and victory could take them to the top of the English Premier League.

“We love to play every three days but it’s nice to have a break and have one or two days off,” said Guardiola.

“It is what it is. We don’t complain when we have a lot of games in a row and we don’t complain when we have time off.”

Haaland has already scored 13 goals across all competitions this season.

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