Haaland finally responds to exiting Dortmund

Erling Haaland opens up on leaving Dortmund

Erling Haaland says it is time to “move on” from comments he made earlier this month in which he said Borussia Dortmund were pressuring him to make a decision over his future.

Erling, who scored before going off injured in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Hoffenheim, has a contract with Dortmund until the summer of 2024, with a £64m release clause understood to come into effect this summer.

But earlier this month Erling said Dortmund were urging him to decide where he wanted to be sooner rather than later.

Manchester City are thought to be frontrunners for the german forward signature should he decide to move to the Premier League.

Asked why he felt it was important to publicly address his situation, Haaland told Sky: “I don’t really want to say too much about it, but I felt it was time for me to say something.

“A lot of others were speaking – so that was it. Now, I don’t want to say too much. I said what I said, and now we move on.”

Erling has scored 80 goals in 79 appearances since joining Dortmund from RB Salzburg two years ago, but the 21-year-old striker says he is determined to get even better

“I think I can improve on everything,” he said.

“If you say I am good at finishing, I can improve my finishing a lot. I can become faster, so I can improve that. I can become stronger, so I can improve that.

“But if I should improve one thing, it would be to not get injured, because if I am not injured I will play a lot more games and I will deliver even better. If you were to ask what my goals are for 2022, it is to not be injured, and the goals for the rest of my career are not be injured. That’s the main thing.”

Asked how his recovery from the muscle injury he sustained at the weekend, Haaland added: “It’s going good, I’m training good and I’ll soon be back.”

Erling was recently named in the team of the year at the recent FIFA Best Awards, where Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski was named as the top men’s player.

Asked what his selections would have been, he said: That’s a good question but I think you would have to say Lewandowski number one, then you have, for me, Benzema has also been amazing, but Messi has also been outstanding – so Benzema and Messi in shared second and third place.”