Haaland values City over Ballon d’Or – Akanji

Erling Haaland is more interested in team trophies than winning the Ballon d’Or, Manchester City teammate has told Manuel Akanji.

Haaland scored 52 goals in 53 goals last season as City won the treble but the Norwegian striker was pipped to the world’s best male player award by World Cup winner Lionel Messi.

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Akanji believes Haaland will win it eventually but says the 23-year-old’s preference is to lift more trophies with City.

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“He did everything he could last year,” Akanji told ESPN in an exclusive interview. “He’s scored 50 goals and won the treble. Of course, it would have been nice for him to win but it’s not just about that. I think he cares more about the team’s success than the individual ones but I hope for him that he will win it one day.”

Akanji knows Haaland better than anyone after spending two-and-a-half years together at Borussia Dortmund before moving to the Etihad Stadium in the same summer.

Haaland took his tally for the season to 15 goals in 17 games with two in the 3-0 win over Young Boys in the Champions League on Tuesday and ahead of games against Chelsea and Liverpool either side of the international break, he’s already top of the Premier League‘s goalscoring chart.

“You can see it in every game we play in, he scores so many important goals,” Akanji said. “He’s a great player and I love him as a person as well. We’ve spent a lot of time together at Dortmund and he came here and then I joined him. You can also see in training that he works really hard to get better. Every day, he never takes it easy.

“Even if it’s shooting from two metres out, he wants to score every goal and that’s also what you get at the weekend.

“Sometimes he misses chances and he’s really frustrated but he goes again and scores with the next one. He’s a really important player for our team.”

– Akanji talks to ESPN about Guardiola’s genius, treble repeat, getting ‘dirty wins’

Akanji missed the win over Young Boys, which guaranteed qualification for the knockout rounds, because of a back injury but Pep Guardiola expects him back for the trip to Chelsea on Sunday.

Guardiola has received criticism from pundit Roy Keane for his animated conversations with players on the pitch, either at half-time or full-time, but Akanji insists he’s got no problem if it happens to him at Stamford Bridge this weekend.

“I think it’s that he just has the urge to say it in that moment,” Akanji said. “It’s also the way he is in training when the cameras aren’t around. It’s just the way he is.

“Maybe people don’t like it and some people do but for us as players maybe it’s easier because if a situation happens just before half-time and he comes to you and tells you about it, the memory is still fresh and as a player you can say what you saw in that situation.

“For me, it’s OK. If people don’t like it, it is what it is, but for me it doesn’t matter.”