Comment: Does Erling Haaland deserve the UEFA Best Player award more than Kevin De Bruyne?

Erling Haaland won the UEFA Player of the Year award, receiving more votes than Lionel Messi and Kevin De Bruyne. But is it a deserved victory? Let’s take a look at a few factors that speak in favour of the Belgian midfielder.

On Thursday, the awards for the best player of the year were announced along with the Champions League group stage draw. Scoring 52 goals in 53 games is an admirable feat that eventually convinced most voters to give their vote to the Norwegian hitman.

1.erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 352 points
2.lionel Messi (PSG, Inter Miami) – 227 points
3.kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) – 225 points

Decisive matches

Champions League

Haaland scored goals regularly in last season’s Champions League, eventually racking up 12 in total, mainly thanks to a five-goal haul into RB Leipzig’s net. However, he hasn’t made a mark in recent games, especially against Real Madrid and Inter.

De Bruyne, on the other hand, helped significantly with his performance to advance over Bayern Munich and especially over Real Madrid, where he scored 3 of the 5 goals. Each goal or assist has a different weight and the Belgian midfielder’s were extremely important.

Premier League

In the top English league, they were both unstoppable. De Bruyne notched up pass after pass, Haaland converted chances like clockwork.

The Norwegian striker even broke the Premier League record when he eventually stopped at number 36, adding 8 assists. De Bruyne scored 7 goals and added 18 assists.

Conclusion

But while Haaland’s contribution is plain and simple to see on the stats, De Bruyne’s is not, however, anyone who has watched Citizens games regularly is clear that the Norwegian striker in particular wouldn’t have got more than half of his chances without his midfield colleague.

This is what Pep Guardiola himself once spoke about in a press conference when asked whether Messi or Haaland was better. “Messi can score goals on his own, while Haaland would not have done well without his teammates.”

In my opinion, De Bruyne was much more valuable for Manchester City’s success, as he was supplying the strikers in the middle of the pitch, especially with final passes, and scoring goals himself.

Of course someone has to convert those chances, which Haaland is really made for, but the highlight of both players has one winner for me and that is De Bryune. This is also evidenced by the fact that although Haaland got the most votes, he didn’t win by nearly as much of a margin.

Meanwhile, the Belgian midfielder was second in the three previous votes, the closest he came to winning was in the 2020/21 season when he was pipped by Jorginho by 8 votes.

But his season of a lifetime was the last one and it’s quite likely that won’t happen again. For this heroic performance, in my opinion, he simply and simply deserved this award! However, goals are rare in football and whoever can score them wins.

Who would you give your vote to?

Source: UEFA, Transfermarkt