Erling Haaland is not the chilly type. Leonardo Balerdi can attest to this.
During the 2019-2020 season, Leonardo Balerdi played eight matches for Borussia Dortmund. Within the German club, the central defender crossed paths with a certain Erling Haaland, who had just arrived from RB Salzburg.
During an interview given to The Teamthe one who now plays for Olympique de Marseille revealed an anecdote about the Norwegian striker. “(Erling) Haaland was younger than me. He said to me one day: 'Do you want to be like (Nicolas) Otamendi? Come on, come on. We head to the sauna, then the cold baths, then sauna, then cold baths. We go back and forth. At the end, I'm shaking all over, my arms are frozen. But for him, we have to do this program for all the matches,” remembered the native of Villa Mercedes.
Haaland celebrates his goals on every occasion
And Balerdi continues: “In every training session, Haaland scored seven, eight goals, even in the mini cages, he celebrated! I don't remember him not celebrating a goal. At one session, I told him: 'You're not going to score'. He scored a hat-trick.”
Balerdi and Haaland will have spent very little time together in Dortmund. In July 2020, the Albiceleste international was loaned to OM, a club to which he was transferred permanently a year later. As for the Premier League's top scorer, he stayed at BVB until 2022, before joining Manchester City.
