The human bulldozer better known as Erling Haaland first caught my eye one August night in 2018 in a Europa League qualifier against Hibs. My memory of that night in Molde was Ryan Porteous smacking Haaland and being booked while he and Efe Ambrose were given the runaround by an 18-year-old superstar in the making. It was initially just the sheer size of him given he was just a big kid but it was soon clear that he was also an absolute machine. He scored twice that night and ripped Hibs apart.
There was a bit of doubt whether he'd even be playing that night as he was in discussion with Red Bull Salzburg over megabucks move to Austria. Football has seen nothing like him. It's not a fluke he's scored 18 times in 13 games since signing for Manchester City as he's grabbed goals by the barrowload at every club he's been at.
He's scored 23 goals in 21 games for Norway's national side and let's be honest, they aren't any great shakes at the moment, so it's astonishing. I've played with boys who just loved scoring goals. Garry O'Connor was one and the other was Derek Riordan.
