Dortmund ST Erling Haaland
Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland makes the word “prolific” seem like a massive understatement. All he has done since the 2019-2020 season as RB Salzburg’s breakout performer in the Champions League is score goals, and he’s scored even more of them with the step up in competition at Dortmund.
Haaland scored four against Hertha Berlin in his most recent game. Just 20 years old, Haaland is already a mature, composed finisher who can grab goals with either foot or his head. In addition to the goals, Haaland is getting better and better at creating for teammates with his movement and short passes into the penalty area. He is turning into a complete striker.
Kylian Mbappe is Real’s No. 1 target. He is unmistakbly the most valuable player in European football and the man who can take Los Blancos to great heights.
But Haaland honestly isn’t far behind and is an even better goal-scorer than Mbappe. That’s what you’d expect from a true No. 9, but since Mbappe is such a great player, it’s still high praise for Haaland. And he’s absolutely earned it with 10 goals in his first 561 Bundesliga minutes of the 2020-2021 season.
Haaland is unstoppable in so many ways. Not only is he a great finisher and a super-athlete who can bully defenders with either speed or strength, but he’s also tremendous at timing his runs to perfection so that he is right on the offside line. You can only imagine what he’d do at Real Madrid with players like Toni Kroos and Martin Odegaard creating for him.