‘It’s not easy to keep this big body in the air for so long!’: Erling Haaland named acrobatic bicycle kick against Southampton his favorite of the 52 goals he has scored this season, as the Manchester City striker won the FWA Footballer of the Year award
Erling Haaland named his bicycle kick against Southampton his ‘favourite’ of the 52 he has scored for Man City this season, as the Norwegian striker was named FWA Footballer of the Year.
Haaland scored a record 36 Premier League goals this season, guiding City to their third straight title.
He could still lead the Cityzens to a famous treble that would emulate rivals United’s 1999 triumph, as they still have FA Cup and Champions League finals to play for.
The 22-year-old won 82 percent of the FWA vote, beating Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard to the award.
Speaking at the ceremony in London on Thursday night, Haaland said: ‘I have to thank my team-mates, without Kevin’s passes [De Bruyne]the passes I am getting this year will not be possible.
Erling Haaland has scored an impressive 52 goals for Manchester City this season
He was named the Football Writers’ Association footballer of the year on Thursday
‘I just have to thank all the staff at the club and my team-mates for making this possible.’
‘If Manchester City play well the striker will score goals. Last year they scored I don’t know how many goals, so as a striker coming in of course I scored goals.’
The former Dortmund man, who moved to Manchester for just £51 million last summer, also said he ‘loves’ playing and living in England, and thanked manager Pep Guardiola at the club for his support.
Asked if he had a favorite goal this season, Haaland replied: ‘I’ve scored a lot of good goals, I have to say that, I really liked the goal at home against Manchester United, the pass from Kevin, which coming down, seeing how the ball bounced, catching it perfectly.’
Haaland scored a hat-trick in City’s 6-3 win over United in October, but he singled out another goal as his most impressive.
‘The bicycle kick against Southampton was something special,’ he said, ‘so it’s hard to pick one.’
The striker said his bicycle kick against Southampton in April was his favorite goal of the season
He joked about how hard it was to keep his 6ft 4in frame in the air for the goal
Take the bicycle kick, it’s not easy to lift this big body in the air for so long!’
Of City’s chances of completing a famous treble this season, the striker added: ‘The champions league is my biggest dream. See you in the next few weeks.
‘Hopefully it will be a good few weeks I will do everything I can to make it happen, everyone at the club wants it to happen, if we play to the best of our ability it will happen. I hope they do exactly that.’
City play their final Premier League game against Brentford on Sunday, before their potentially season-defining finals against Man United in the FA Cup on June 3 and Inter Milan in the Champions League on Saturday 10.
