When Martin Odegaard first met Erling Haaland, he felt the Manchester City striker was “quite miserable”. The two young Norwegian football talents got along so well that Haaland invited Odegaard to partake in a documentary about his decision to join Manchester City last summer.

Odegaard recalled their terrible encounter when they were brought together to compete in the European U21 qualifications in October 2018.

“It’s different now than it was then,” Odegaard said in the documentary titled “The Big Decision.”

“In the past, he looked quite miserable, but now he seems more mature. Really”.

Haaland has matured significantly since rejecting down offers from major clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and PSG to join Manchester City on a 51-million-pound contract. His 32 Premier League goals matched Mo Salah’s record from a 38-match season.

 

Odegaard and Haaland, who were teammates, will become furious adversaries on Wednesday night when Manchester City hosts Arsenal in what is shaping up to be the season finale. Odegaard, 24, is having a fantastic season after receiving the captain’s armband from coach Mikel Arteta.

And, if Arsenal wins three points in Manchester, he would become the first Arsenal captain to win the Premier League title since Patrick Vieira led the Invincibles Generation to victory when the Norwegian was just five.  

Odegaard and Haaland will be bitter rivals on Wednesday night.

There was originally speculation that Haaland joined Manchester City solely because he was the highest-paid player in England, earning £865,000 per week after bonuses. Prior to this revelation, Manchester City rejected it. CEO Ferran Soriano confirmed that Haaland’s decision was motivated by a desire for titles rather than monetary compensation.

“It was a purely football decision, even though the economic and financial aspects of the deal were also quite attractive,” Soriano said. In addition to the contract release fee with Dortmund, the salary offered by Man City is not higher than the offers of other clubs.

Haaland has had a successful career at Manchester City as a superstar, but that is not why we signed him. We believe Haaland will score a lot of goals and is smart enough to adapt to our system.”

 

Haaland has fulfilled his commitment to Manchester City by showering goals on the Premier League and other arenas where Man City is present. Although he once claimed that the scoring record was meaningless to him, Haaland aspired after the Premier League’s all-time goal record of 260.

“I have never taken any scoring records seriously because I don’t look at them,” Haaland said. I only learned about the number of goals after the match ended. But I know who is the biggest scorer in the Premier League. That is the legendary striker Shearer with 260 goals.”