Manchester City's record-breaking striker Erling Haaland is one of the top three nominees for the 2022/23 UEFA Men's Player of the Year award.
UEFA.com analyses why he is in the running alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Lionel Messi.
Why he was nominated
Goals, goals and more goals. In his first season at City, Haaland seemingly could not stop scoring, with an impressive 12 in the UEFA Champions League – four more than his nearest challenger, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah – and a record-breaking 36 in the Premier League.
2023 final highlights: Man City 1-0 Inter
The Norwegian star also became the youngest and quickest player to make it to 35 Champions League goals in total, and picked up his first winners' medal in the competition to go with the ones he scooped as City won the Premier League and FA Cup.
2022/23 in numbers
Achievements
UEFA Champions winner, Premier League winner, FA Cup winner
UEFA Champions League
Appearances: 11
Goals: 12
Assists: 1
Player of the Match awards: 1
Erling Haaland: Every Champions League goal of 2022/23
Domestic League
Appearances: 37
Goals: 36
Assists: 8
Top three performances
Manchester City 7-0 Leipzig
Haaland ran riot in Man City's round of 16 second leg, becoming only the third man to score five goals in a single Champions League match after Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano.
Man City 3-0 Bayern München
Man City blew Bayern away in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Haaland in inspired form. He set up a headed finish for Bernardo Silva with a delicious cross and then scored a cool close-range volley.
1st leg highlights: Man City 3-0 Bayern
Manchester City 6-3 Manchester United
Haaland's first season in Manchester brought six hat-tricks, including one in his first local derby. The Norwegian became the first player to score three successive Premier League home trebles before setting up Phil Foden – who also scored three – for City's sixth.
Who was last year's winner?
Karim Benzema was the 2021/22 UEFA Men's Player of the Year after winning the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid and the UEFA Nations League with France. His final tally of 15 Champions League goals – including a joint-record ten in the knockout stages – earned him top spot in the competition scoring charts, with 27 in the Spanish Liga also a domestic best.
bbbbbbba
212
Congratulations 🐐 🎊🎉🥳
hewaimnopu
160
this man right here played 4 finals and scored or assisted nothing (how to is he a winner)😂😂😂
Morry256
119
11 appearances 1 man of the match appearance in UCL 4 finals played No goals or assists . Hate Messi all you want, but this kind of performance by Haaland doesn't win Ballon dor
Mangisha
13
Haaland is great but if he is going to dominate the awards in future, he will need to be as smart as Ronaldo bcos he doesn't have the talent to be like Messi. To win these awards, your performance from quarter finals thru to finals is very important. Ronaldo always knew when to score goals, that's why he has most goals in UCL in the knock outs. These people who vote will look at your performance when it mattered the most, if you were not there in those mosts even if your team won, then you lose some grades. If MESSI was never there for Argentina in the knock outs, in the final, he wouldn't have made this list. It's time for Haaland to work smart. So for me it's btn De Bruyne and Messi.