'Erling sees space before anyone else. He knows the weakest defender to bully, how to make the ghost-like runs that should take years to learn': Jan Age Fjortoft on why Haaland is ready for his next step up as the focal point of Pep Guardiola's Man City t

When did I first realise that Erling, the son of my former team-mate Alfie Haaland, was a phenomenon? Was it from all the talk of Alfie’s boy among our group of old Norway players? Or when I first saw him play at Molde at 16?

Was it when he scored nine goals in one game for Norway’s Under-20s? Or when he texted to tell me I’d gone to the wrong game after I missed him hit a hat-trick on his Champions League debut aged just 18.

Erling moved to Molde from his home-town club Bryne, a small place in Rogaland county on the west coast of Norway.