Jan Fjörtoft jokes when asked about the pedigree of Erling Braut Haaland: "How will he be a bad footballer if he was conceived in a locker room?"
Fjörtoft knows the story well but, above all, understands the subject. He was forward. He was 71 times international with Norway. He was a teammate of Alf-Inge Haaland, Erling's father, another international. He is a friend of the family and currently works for television in his country with a monothematic role: follow his godson through the fields of the Bundesliga, accompany him, advise him, and, incidentally, comment on his performances live. The young man, just 19 years old, has become a mass phenomenon in Norway and because of the shock in European football since he revealed his scorer authoritarianism, this fall with Leipzig, and at Christmas he signed for Dortmund . In total, since the start of the season he has accumulated 37 goals and eight assists in 28 games. Only in Dortmund, where he has barely played five official matches, has he scored eight goals. This Tuesday (21.00, Movistar LC) will be the main reason for expectation in the duel that will face PSG in Germany in the round of 16.
“There are strikers who are looking for spaces already created by their teammates or by the mistakes of the defense,” explains Fjörtoft. "He is good at creating spaces for himself."
Fjörtoft, who played the United States World Cup, understands the trade that made him go from Lillestroom to Vienna, from Rapid to Swindon Town, from Moddlesbrough to Sheffield, and from Barnsley to Eintracht in Frankfurt. At 53, the man knows what the ultimate difficulty of the goal search is. He learned that appearances, in the decisive meters, are the last thing that counts, and that Erling Haaland is not a magnificent scorer because he measures 1.94 and has a thoroughbred stride. What can turn him into a period nine is his desire to impose himself on defenses through the art of deception and association. He distrusts the onslaught as if it were a subterfuge because he feels called by the inventive genius.
"He grew up in a town called Bryne, playing in indoor soccer fields," says Fjörtoft. “As a child he was one of the smallest of the school. He hit the stretch late. It was of fragile complexion and had to learn to find life without relying on its body, without relying on the superiority of its strength in contact with the defenses. Hence its flexibility and technical versatility. I have seen him on the field in every game he has played in the Bundesliga and in the coming years he will improve aspects such as holding the ball or winning aerial duels. Love football. He has a very good mentality to face the competition and do everything possible to give the maximum. He is a good boy. ”
Scandinavian Enigma
The fascinating thing about Haaland's repertoire is not his vertiginous direct goalkeeping races but the amagues, the unchecking gestures to attract the centrals to dead spots in the field and then attack their backs when they least expect it. Despite his giant physique, Haaland behaves like an alfeñique that dances on the ledge of the offside without ever stop watching all his guards or knitting complicities with his teammates. Restless until when the game seems to move away to the other end of the court, shifting by nature, equivocal in each trajectory, the man lives football against his armor. It's Iago Aspas in Jan Koller's body.
Only one thing inspires suspicion among the analysts of the big clubs. "If he were Argentine, Batistuta would have to kiss his boots, because he would improve it, because he is smarter," observes a scout. “But it is Norwegian, and the Scandinavians are not safe values in the market because their temperament, sooner or later, induces them to take high competition with some calm. Now it is in effervescence. Who knows? If it continues like this we will be facing something of a terrifying forcefulness ”.
Haaland is an enigma for everyone but him. "One day he shook my hand and told me that he would become a great soccer star," said Andreas Vollsund, his primary school teacher, at L'Equipe .
The fantastic obsession of Alf-Inge's son has led him to the most demanding reality of the game. This Tuesday the eyes of the football world will rest on the blond and the tallest of the giants who will jump to the Westfalenstadion.
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