Erling haaland has not kicked a ball in Euro 2020, as the Norwegian team failed to qualify for the tournament. By contrast, the Borussia Dortmund striker has spent most of his time posting pictures from his holidays in the Greek islands; However, it could be said that the 20-year-old has improved his already high reputation, despite not being part of the competition.
With the knockout stages scheduled to kick off this weekend, we are still waiting for the emergence of a forward who will serve as a more affordable alternative to Haaland, whose pass is valued at € 180 million, for those clubs seeking sign a reliable center forward this summer.
There are quite a few teams in search of a gunner on the market this summer. Manchester City are looking for a replacement for Sergio Aguero, who arrived at Barcelona through a free transfer. For their part, Tottenham Hotspur must make plans to take on life without the presence of Harry Kane, in case the England captain gets the pass you want. Also, Chelsea is in the search to improve their options in the attack; while Manchester United may have postponed their search for a new striker for up to 12 months, after conceding to the Uruguayan Edinson cavani, 34, a new one-year contract at the end of the season just concluded.
The only big clubs that don’t really require a scorer at the moment are teams of the stature of Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Liverpool, who already have Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski Y Mohamed salah, respectively. But they will need it soon, as Benzema is currently 33 years old, Cristiano 36 and Lewandowski 32, while Salah is 29 years old.
If we take a look at the race for the Golden Boot of the Euro 2020, it is not surprising to see Ronaldo, a figure in the Portugal national team, tied for the top (3) with the striker Patrik schick from the Czech Republic; closely followed by the Belgian Romelu lukaku (28 years old), and the star of the Italian team Ciro Immobile (31 years old), who are part of the list of seven players who add a pair of goals each.
At the age of 25, Schick, a forward for Bayer Leverkusen, is approaching the best years of his career; while the Ukrainian Roman yaremchuk (2) is the same age and is doing a good job of improving his chances of leaving KAA Gent in Belgium this summer. However, both Schick and Yaremchuk have worked in Europe long enough for the big clubs to assess their potential to make a big impact at the highest level, and neither of them have managed to get their way to an elite team.
A talent screener working for one of the Premier League’s big clubs told ESPN that there is concern within the soccer industry that the pool of first-class center-forwards is shrinking dramatically. Euro 2020 has done little to change that perception.
That is why all the big clubs want to sign Haaland if, or when, Dortmund are ready to let him go. The dream scenario for all clubs is to hire a footballer of the stature of “Kun” Agüero, who gave City 10 years of incredibly constant service (with 260 goals in 390 games) after his arrival from Atletico Madrid in 2011; and Haaland is considered part of that class of forwards.
Kylian mbappe is another one of them; However, the Paris Saint-Germain star is not a center forward in the classic sense of the word, similar to an Agüero or a Haaland. Despite this, his scoring record with PSG (111 goals in 127 games) is still impressive. And despite the imminent expiration of his contract, scheduled for 2022, the prodigious Frenchman has a pass valued beyond € 150 million.
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The JR&SB board discusses the role of top picks on the world stage.
At Euro 2020, the gap between top-tier forwards and the rest is huge. The persistent concern among talent screeners working for the big clubs is that the best players are too old to be signed; while the rest simply do not reach the required level.
Could it be that football has changed in recent years, and perhaps the center-forwards now require more time to mature and reach their best level? With the exception of Haaland, we no longer see young sensations like Michael Owen or Wayne Rooney at the time. However, the names of the leading goalscorers so far suggest to us that there has been a drought of top-quality center-forwards in Europe.
Cristiano, Immobile, Lukaku and Lewandowski have lived up to their reputations so far at Euro 2020; while Kane, a figure in the England national team, is perhaps the only renowned center-forward to have had a slow start to the tournament. However, the still Tottenham man has time to rectify it.
It is clear that Spain lacks an elite gunner, as the difficulties suffered by Alvaro Morata in La Roja’s first two games have shown. Morata made it a 1-1 draw against Poland; although he has failed an alarming number of opportunities in his games played so far, and the forward Gerard MorenoThe 29-year-old is their only option in the middle apart from the Juventus player. In the meantime, Scotland could have secured their Group D qualification by having a forward with greater skills than Lyndon dykes, who spent the previous season wearing the Queens Park Rangers jersey in the English Championship. Russia lives a similar story in Group B, continuing to depend on the imposing but limited Artem Dzyuba.
The Euro has not been without surprises: the Cardiff City striker Kieffer moore has proven crucial to the cause of Wales, while Joel pohjanpalo, owned by Leverkusen, has made a pleasant impression with his trade and physical display with the Finnish team. For its part, Alexander Isak, a Real Sociedad player, has shown potential with the shirt of the Swedish national team. Despite this, it is an inescapable fact that pre-tournament concerns about a shortage of emerging center-forwards have proven to be a reality.