'Solskjaer was wrong about Haaland' - Raiola slams Man United boss

The Manchester United boss’ opinion on Haaland wasn’t well-received by the star’s agent, who urged him to focus on something else.

Mino Raiola believes Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s comparison of Erling Haaland and Romelu Lukaku was off the mark, and he urged him to instead focus on making Paul Pogba ‘play like a champion’.

A whirlwind year has seen Haaland become one of the most in-demand youngsters in Europe. He recently won the Golden Boy award for 2020 and continues to hammer in goals for Borussia Dortmund at an impressive rate.

The 20-year-old’s meteoric rise, however, hasn’t gone unnoticed. Several clubs, including Solskjaer’s United, were allegedly interested in signing him before he joined Dortmund last January.

But Solskjaer possibly has an advantage over the competition to sign Haaland in the future, having worked with his fellow Norwegian at Molde in the past.

The Red Devils boss’ comparison of Haaland to Lukaku, though, wasn’t received well by Raiola. The famed football agent likens his client to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and urged Solskjaer to keep the focus on another client of his.

“Haaland is like Ibra when he was 20,” Raiola told Tuttosport.

“Solskjaer is a good guy but he was wrong when he said that Erling is like Lukaku – it would be better if Solskjaer thought about finding a way to make Pogba play like a champion, instead of talking about Haaland.”

Raiola added: “Erling Haaland is like a painting, he is like Munch’s Scream because he causes fear in the defenders.

“He called me after being substituted at 85 [minutes against Hertha Berlin]: he had scored four goals, he wanted to score another. He was furious!

“He wants to be the best, even if he’s playing checkers.”