UEFA Men's Player of the Year nominee: The case for Erling Haaland
Thursday, August 31, 2023
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Erling Haaland is one of the top three nominees for the 2022/23 UEFA Men's Player of the Year award.
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Manchester City's record-breaking striker Erling Haaland is one of the top three nominees for the 2022/23 UEFA Men's Player of the Year award.
UEFA.com analyses why he is in the running alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Lionel Messi.
Why he was nominated
Goals, goals and more goals. In his first season at City, Haaland seemingly could not stop scoring, with an impressive 12 in the UEFA Champions League – four more than his nearest challenger, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah – and a record-breaking 36 in the Premier League.
The Norwegian star also became the youngest and quickest player to make it to 35 Champions League goals in total, and picked up his first winners' medal in the competition to go with the ones he scooped as City won the Premier League and FA Cup.
2022/23 in numbers
Achievements
UEFA Champions winner, Premier League winner, FA Cup winner
UEFA Champions League
Appearances: 11
Goals: 12
Assists: 1
Player of the Match awards: 1
Domestic League
Appearances: 37
Goals: 36
Assists: 8
Top three performances
Manchester City 7-0 Leipzig
Haaland ran riot in Man City's round of 16 second leg, becoming only the third man to score five goals in a single Champions League match after Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano.
Man City 3-0 Bayern München
Man City blew Bayern away in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Haaland in inspired form. He set up a headed finish for Bernardo Silva with a delicious cross and then scored a cool close-range volley.
Manchester City 6-3 Manchester United
Haaland's first season in Manchester brought six hat-tricks, including one in his first local derby. The Norwegian became the first player to score three successive Premier League home trebles before setting up Phil Foden – who also scored three – for City's sixth.
Who was last year's winner?
Karim Benzema was the 2021/22 UEFA Men's Player of the Year after winning the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid and the UEFA Nations League with France. His final tally of 15 Champions League goals – including a joint-record ten in the knockout stages – earned him top spot in the competition scoring charts, with 27 in the Spanish Liga also a domestic best.
