Gary Lineker reveals Erling Haaland private chat after Man City striker loses to Lionel Messi

Gary Lineker was left stunned by Erling Haaland’s hunger for goals at the recent Ballon d’Or ceremony.

Many believed the Manchester City talisman should have scooped the prestigious award, given to the best player over a given season. Lionel Messi earned the crown for a record eighth time following his World Cup exploits as Haaland, who bagged 52 times across all competitions in a City side that won a historic treble, missed out.

The Norwegian superstar has continued his ruthless goalscoring streak this season and will likely scoop the honour later in his career. While Haaland missed out on the Ballon d’Or, he did collect the Gerd Muller Trophy, awarded to the highest-scoring player in Europe from the previous campaign.

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England legend Lineker presented him with the award and, ironically, finished as runner-up for the Ballon d’Or himself in 1986. The former Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Barcelona striker revealed his off-the-record conversation with Haaland at last week’s ceremony.

“It’s quite interesting,” Lineker told The Rest Is Football podcast. “During the Ballon d’Or when I gave him the award, they showed all of the goals that (Erling) Haaland scored and put them all together in a montage.

“We were standing there just watching them, and it was like tap-in, tap-in, tap-in. Then I said to him ‘Ooo I like this finish’, and he would say ‘Yeah, that’s a good one’. There was another one where he said to me ‘This is my favourite, look at this one, look at this one’.

“It was the kind of scissor kick one. It went on and there was a mutual appreciation of his finishing. We were just basically chatting