In a special interview, Manchester City let Alf Ingve Berntsen speak, who was Erling Haaland’s youth coach for seven years. The Norwegian is amazed at the adaptability of the goal machine.
Youth coach beams with pride by Haaland: “99.9 percent does not work”
Haaland broke another career record on Wednesday, scoring his 35th goal in the Premier League. Berntsen recognizes Haaland again. “The goals he scores are quite similar to how he scored in youth. Many of his goals are exactly like when he was thirteen,” he revealed.
Berntsen was a youth coach at Bryne FK and had Haaland under his wing from the age of eight to the age of fifteen. “You could tell he was going to be something special, even at that stage. He was too good to play football with children his age, when he came to play in a higher age category you saw that he was a bit too skinny again. But otherwise he had no challenges to improve himself,” said Berntsen.
Haaland’s smile recognizes Berntsen out of thousands. The coach continued, “He always laughed a lot, scored a lot of goals and trained hard. In fact, he is now the same as he has been for much of his life. Now he only does it on a higher level. 99.9 percent of players who level up can’t do what Erling is doing right now. It is unbelievable.”
Berntsen has had no contact with the striker for a while, a conscious choice. “My job as a trainer ended when he got a lot of good people around him and he was doing well. I was never called for advice again, because he was fine. I haven’t spoken to him for several years now, but I don’t have to. Like all the youth players I’ve had, he’s always in my heart,” he concluded.
City Football Group adds another new club to the collection
The City Football Group has expanded its network a bit further. The investors are now also the boss at the Brazilian Bahia and now have twelve clubs in their portfolio.
Bahia, which became champion of Brazil twice, was promoted from Série B to Série A last season and is therefore playing at the highest level again this season. This Thursday, the club proudly announced “the start of a new chapter in the great history of the club”. In the comments on Twitter, New York City FC and Lommel SK Bahia mentioned “welcome to the family”.
Bahia is the twelfth club acquired by the City Football Group after Manchester City (England), Girona (Spain), Palermo (Italy), Troyes (France), Lommel (Belgium), Mumbai City (India), New York City FC (USA), Sichuan Jiuniu (China), Melbourne City (Australia), Yokohama F. Marinos (Japan) and Montevideo City Torque (Uruguay). Club Bolivar from Bolivia can also call itself an official partner club of the City Football Group.
