- Erling Braut Haaland, 19, scored a hat-trick on his Champions League debut
- The striker struck three times in the first half of Salzburg’s 6-2 win over Genk
- Haaland has now scored 17 times already this season from just nine matches
- His dream is to play for hometown club Leeds just like his dad Alf-Inge Haaland
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.
Erling Braut Haaland struck three times as Red Bull Salzburg thumped Genk 6-2
The 19-year-old netted a first-half hat-trick to inspire his side to a comfortable victory
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 became the first teenager to mark his Champions League bow with a hat-trick since Rooney’s for Manchester United against Fenerbahce 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.
He became the third youngest player in history to score a Champions League hat-trick
The youngster wants to emulate dad Alf-Inge Haaland by playing for Leeds – he was born there
He is the first teenager to score a hat-trick on Champions League debut since Wayne Rooney
The young forward has been in sensational form in front of goal since earning a move to Salzburg from Molde in January this year.
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 the other goals 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 thanks to goals from Dries Mertens and Fernando Llorente.
Salzburg travel to Anfield to face defending champions Liverpool in their next group tie on October 2.
The Norway striker scored a record nine goals in a single Under-20 World Cup game
Haaland scored four in the first half and five in the second as Norway beat Honduras 12-0
He made his full senior international debut during Norway’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Malta
https://youtu.be/RgrbFH-r0qc
source:dailymail