Football fans may not like to admit it but Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo days are numbered.
Okay, they’re probably still the two best players in the world but their stranglehold on the Ballon d’Or is weakening as they enter their mid-thirties.
After the cancellation of the 2020 award, the pair may not get the opportunity to win a twelfth award between them again.
But football is in good hands.
There are plenty of potential superstars waiting in the wings ready to follow in the ridiculous large footsteps left behind by Messi and Ronaldo.
Of course, Kylian Mbappe is a Ballon d’Or winner in waiting.
The same could be said of Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland.
After scoring 28 goals in 22 matches in the first half of the 2019/20 season for Red Bull Salzburg, Haaland made the €20 million move to Borussia Dortmund. He picked up where he left off in Germany by bagging a further 16 goals in 18 appearances.
It’s incredible to think he’s still only 20 years old. He's got everything you need to become the world’s greatest striker.
But he’s not there yet.
And that’s according to Haaland himself.
In fact, Haaland believes there are as many as SEVEN strikers better than him in world football right now.
To be fair, we’d struggle to name seven but Haaland is obviously a very humble guy.
On the ‘Top 3’ podcast, he named Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Aguero, Roberto Firmino, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Harry Kane and Timo Werner as all better strikers than him.
We can only assume he’s not considering Messi as a striker…
But it seems Haaland now considers himself superior to Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema and Romelu Lukaku.
But what about Mbappe?
Haaland has decided to leave the PSG star out of the list. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact the French side mocked Haaland after they knocked Dortmund out of the Champions League last season.
This could be the new Messi/Ronaldo rivalry.