Haaland sends Anfield warning

He has a famous footballing father, but teenage striker Erling Haaland is already carving out a name for himself as a prolific goalscorer and is heading to Anfield for Liverpool’s next Champions League fixture.

Haaland, 19, kept up his phenomenal scoring sequence by netting three times for Salzburg in the opening 45 minutes of their 6-2 win at home to Genk last night. In doing so, he became the third-youngest player in Champions League history to score a hat-trick, at 19 years and 58 days old. The youngest two players to achieve the same feat were Raul (18 years, 113 days) and Wayne Rooney (18 years, 340 days).

Norwegian Haaland is the son of former Nottingham Forest, Leeds Prolific: Erling Haaland’s hat-trick took his goals tally to 17 in nine games and Manchester City player Alfinge Haaland, who was on the receiving end of an infamous tackle by Roy Keane in April 2001.

Haaland junior has been in sensational form since earning a move to Salzburg in January this year. He made headlines when he scored nine of Norway Under-20s’ 12 goals in their World Cup win over Honduras during the summer, and has now scored 17 goals in just nine games in all club competitions this season.

Born in July 2000 in Leeds, when his father was playing at Elland Road, Haaland broke through at Bryne in his native Norway before joining Molde in 2017. He has two caps for the Norway senior team. Salzburg travel to Anfield in the Champions League on Oct 2.