🏆 Ballon d'OneFootball: And in 7th place is ... | OneFootball

Welcome to the third annual edition of the Ballon d’OneFootball as we continue our countdown of the top 25 players in the world.

Click right here to see the full list so far.

And today we have …

7th: Erling Haaland, Borussia Dortmund and Norway

(Last year: 6th)

Erling Haaland burst onto the stage with RB Salzburg in 2019. He became an overnight star with Borussia Dortmund in 2021. And he just keeps getting better.

A spectacular goalscoring record was behind the Norwegian’s rapid rise. No player has ever taken to the Champions League quite like he did, scoring for fun at Salzburg and then at Dortmund after his move to Germany in January 2020.

But the last year and a bit have seen him develop his all-round game enormously. And he has done that without losing any of his penalty area prowess.

Injuries may have made this a stuttering season but the 21-year-old has had no trouble hitting his stride whenever he is on the pitch; across all competitions in a Dortmund shirt he has scored a goal every 76.7 minutes.

That’s even more regularly than last season (a goal every 86.3 minutes) and Haaland has, in the meantime, become so much more than a poacher.

The Haaland of two years ago was already a huge physical presence but, at just 19, you were sometimes left with the impression that he did not know how to leverage that. He now bullies defenders and has the technical ability to match his size, trapping long balls, holding play up, relieving pressure on his side and using clever lay-offs to bring team-mates into the game.

Add all that to his movement in the area and an incredible turn of pace, and you’re left with a true force of nature who is confident and clinical in front of goal.

That left foot contains every type of finish but he has worked on his right and his heading as well; before this season just two of Haaland’s 59 Dortmund goals were scored with this head, this season he has nodded into the back of the net five times.

If there’s an area of his game that could be improved on, he will put in the work to make those improvements.

At just 21, he might already be the best centre-forward on the planet and he is only going to get better. No wonder he is wanted by everyone.

Click right here to see the full list so far.