Erling Braut Haaland scores hat-trick on his Champions League debut to takes his tally for the season to SEVENTEEN already… and he dreams of playing for Leeds in the Premier League just like his Dad did!
Salzburg wonderkid Erling Braut Haaland hit a stunning first-half hat-trick on his Champions League debut – taking his goal tally to 17 for the season already.
Haaland, 19, struck three times for Salzburg in the opening 45 minutes of their 6-2 win at home to Genk in their Group E opener on Tuesday night.
The teenager is the son of former Leeds, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest player Alf-Inge Haaland and has admitted his dream is to win the Premier League with The Whites.
The Salzburg striker 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).
Haaland, who was born in Leeds, also saw him become the first teenager to mark his Champions League bow with a hat-trick since Rooney’s for Manchester United against Fenerbache back in 2004.
His treble on Tuesday night was his fourth of the season and also saw the Norway international reach the 17 goal-mark in all competitions in just nine games.
The young forward has been in sensational form in front of goal since earning a move to Salzburg from Molde in January.
He hit the headlines in the summer after remarkably finding the back of the net nine times during Norway Under-20s’ World Cup win over Honduras.
Haaland was available to be selected for England but made his international debut against Malta in Norway’s Euro 2020 qualifier earlier this month.
He broke through at Bryne in his native Norway before joining Molde in 2017 and is likely to have a number of top European clubs sniffing around him.
Hwang Hee-Chan, Dominik Szoboszlai and Andreas Ulmer scored in Salzburg’s convincing win on Tuesday night.
The Austrian champions and Genk are in Group E alongside Liverpool and Napoli. Napoli won the other game in the group 2-0 through goals from Dries Mertens and Fernando Llorente.
Salzburg travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in their next Champions League tie on October 2.