At only 19, Erling Braut Haaland performed a high-flying performance Tuesday against PSG (2-1). With two goals on his counter, he stood out for his surgical precision. But not only. Dortmund's new gem also demonstrated its extraordinary running speed in a 14th minute counterattack.
Returning to defend on a corner kick taken by Di Maria at the end of the first quarter of an hour, the Norwegian was invaluable defensively by removing the danger from the head in his six meters. On his team's counterattack, the attacker then embarked on a mad race to go up the field and catch up with his teammates.
The action will finally end with a crushed shot from Jadon Sancho, far from the right post of Keylor Navas. But this counterattack nevertheless marked the spirits. And for good reason: Haaland's sprint would have been timed in 6, 64 seconds over a distance of 60 m. This figure, which will quickly become viral on social networks, is the subject of a ceaseless comparison: it is only 30 small hundredths of the world record of Christian Coleman (6, 34 '').
"For its size, it has a high speed of execution"
This statistic has been mocked by many athletes such as Rénelle Lamotte, Mélanie Robert-Michon or Kevin Mayer. The world champion in decathlon in 2017 posted a message filled with irony on Instagram towards RMC Sport, author of this dubious comparison: “Thank you for this nugget, connoisseurs of athletics appreciate. "
Guy Ontanon, French athletics trainer at INSEP that we had by phone, also had fun with this incredible analogy: “We compare carrots and madmen. How can we compare the time of an athlete who leaves launched with another which leaves stopped? Leaving launched gives an advantage of 20, 25 seconds. Over this distance, a large sprinter launched puts 4 m to Haaland in sight. They are light years away. "
Marca makes fun of Haaland's mad race against PSG
¡Corre Haaland, correeeeeeeeee!
😂👏 @ 2sporten pic.twitter.com/C0KBf6J3HE
This speed specialist does not however deny the undeniable physical qualities of the player: “It was not Haaland's speed that impressed me the most. For its size, it has a high speed of execution. It is a rather rare profile in the world of football. This statistic is therefore far from having thrilled experts in the field. However, one thing is not disputed: the talent of the Norwegian prodigy, who showed the whole of Europe on Tuesday that a real machine was hatching.