“IN NORWAY, THERE IS HAALAND- MANIA”

Former Premier League striker Jan Aage Fjortoft covers the Bundesliga for Norwegian TV station Viasat – and he loves his country’s rising star

“I first became aware of Erling because I played with his dad for Norway.

A lot of us had kids who play football, so you ask how they’re doing. But Alfie never got over- excited about Erling; he was always very calm. That’s the advantage of having a dad who’s been there – you don’t have to fulfil your dreams through your kids.

Erling has made great moves so far. People wondered why he didn’t go to Juventus instead of Red Bull Salzburg, and thought that maybe he should go to Manchester United. But they always put his development first, because his dad knows which traps you can fall into.

I can tell you exactly the moment when I realised Erling was very special. I had seen him score a lot of goals for Molde and the youth national teams, but it was against Liverpool at Anfield when I really understood. He came on as a sub and scored, but it was the way that he ran Virgil van Dijk... the way he found space. That’s his biggest skill: this unbelievable hunch to create it for himself. It was how he scored his first goal for Dortmund against Augsburg – a typical Erling goal.

When he went to Salzburg and scored, people said it was only Salzburg. When he scored a hat- trick on his Champions League debut against Genk, people said it was only Genk. But then he scored at Liverpool and at Napoli, and then he came to Dortmund and did the same.

Back in Norway there’s Haaland- mania now, but I’m glad that the two calmest people are Erling and his dad. His attitude impresses me the most. There’s nothing wrong with tattoos, fast cars and dating top models, but I haven’t seen any of that with him yet. The main thing is to love football – and he loves football.”