{"id":292033,"date":"2023-09-10T15:34:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T15:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=292033"},"modified":"2023-09-10T15:34:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T15:34:20","slug":"erling-haaland-downplays-kylian-mbappe-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/erling-haaland-downplays-kylian-mbappe-rivalry\/","title":{"rendered":"Erling Haaland downplays Kylian Mbappe rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Erling Haaland downplays Kylian Mbappe rivalry and insists Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were &#8216;CRAZY&#8217; to share the stage at the top of world football for so long<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Erling Haaland believes himself and Kylian Mbappe don&#8217;t share a rivalry<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The pair are expected to take over from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><b>But Haaland admits he only focuses on himself and isn&#8217;t concerned by others<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Erling Haaland doesn&#8217;t believe he and Kylian Mbappe will share a career-stretching rivalry similar to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but is aware &#8216;everyone thinks&#8217; that will happen.<\/p>\n<p>With Ronaldo and Messi in the twilight years of their careers and playing in Saudi Arabia and USA, the European gauntlet has fallen to Haaland and Mbappe to take over.<\/p>\n<p>The Manchester City striker edged ahead of his Parisian counterpart last season by winning the Treble during his first year in English football, while Mbappe&#8217;s Paris Saint-Germain struggled and his future was thrown into doubt.<\/p>\n<p>Both have been shortlisted for the upcoming Ballon d&#8217;Or that crowns the best player in the world, however, Messi is widely tipped to win the award for an eighth time after guiding Argentina to the World Cup last year.<\/p>\n<p>Haaland insisted he doesn&#8217;t focus on other players but understands why people believe he and Mbappe will be the next global football rivalry.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/10\/15\/75267287-12501623-image-m-45_1694355386894.jpg\" height=\"543\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Erling Haaland (pictured) has downplayed an expected rivalry with Kylian Mbappe<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/10\/15\/75267289-12501623-image-a-46_1694355399976.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mbappe (pictured) is widely regarded as Haaland&#8217;s closest competitor in world football<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/10\/15\/75267321-12501623-image-a-49_1694355541019.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Haaland is on the shortlist for the upcoming Ballon d&#8217;Or and recently won UEFA&#8217;s men&#8217;s player of the year award<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That&#8217;s what everyone thinks, but you have to emphasise just how crazy the things Messi and Cristiano have done,&#8217; he told France Football.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You also have to remember that they&#8217;re still doing it, even if they&#8217;re getting older. They&#8217;re still fantastic players.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But I never talk about myself being against other players, it&#8217;s not my way of seeing things. I focus on myself, I only try to be better every day, to continue enjoying what I do and being the best version of myself,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Messi and Ronaldo have shared fierce competition throughout their careers, with their time in LaLiga at Barcelona and Real Madrid the crux of their rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>Their ability to push one another led to them sharing a 10-year stranglehold on the Ballon d&#8217;Or competition before Luka Modric broke the deadlock in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>However, Ronaldo recently explained that their rivalry is now over after they &#8216;changed the history of football&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Scoring 52 goals in 53 appearances for Pep Guardiola&#8217;s side last season saw Haaland cement his status as one of the best strikers in the world having already starred in Denmark and Germany before moving to England.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/10\/15\/75267319-12501623-image-a-56_1694355761146.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Haaland (right) insists he doesn&#8217;t focus on other footballers as he is too obsessed with his own game<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/10\/15\/75267293-12501623-image-m-54_1694355670299.jpg\" height=\"487\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/10\/15\/75267291-12501623-image-a-55_1694355677148.jpg\" height=\"487\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Cristiano Ronaldo (left) and Lionel Messi (right) previously shared a fierce rivalry that dominated European football<\/p>\n<p>Individual accolades have since followed with him recently winning the PFA&#8217;s player of the year and UEFA&#8217;s men&#8217;s player of the year award following a standout season.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Mbappe has previously been shortlisted for a host of accolades and has finished in the top 10 of Ballon d&#8217;Or nominees previously but is yet to force his way into the final three.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman has already won the World Cup and scored a hattrick in last year&#8217;s final against Messi&#8217;s Argentina, but is yet to challenge himself outside of French league football.<\/p>\n<p>Strong links to Real Madrid have followed him in the last few years and he was relegated to train with a separate group of PSG players this summer after stating his desire to leave the club on a free transfer next year. He has since re-joined the first team.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12501623\/Erling-Haaland-kylian-mbappe-cristiano-ronaldo-lionel-messi.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erling Haaland downplays Kylian Mbappe rivalry and insists Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were &#8216;CRAZY&#8217; to share the stage at <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Erling Haaland downplays Kylian Mbappe rivalry - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/erling-haaland-downplays-kylian-mbappe-rivalry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Erling Haaland downplays Kylian Mbappe rivalry - Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Erling Haaland downplays Kylian Mbappe rivalry and insists Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were &#8216;CRAZY&#8217; 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