Haaland-Mbappe rivalry will replace Messi-Ronaldo debate, Kolo Toure predicts

Kolo Touré sees no reason why Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe cannot take on the role of football's great rivalry.

Haaland scored his 49th goal of the season as Manchester City beat Arsenal 4-1 on Wednesday, while Mbappe is enjoying another outstanding campaign at Paris Saint-Germain, as well as winning the Golden Boot at the Qatar World Cup.< /p>

Mbappe's 34 goals in all competitions this term is only surpassed by Haaland's extraordinary tally when it comes to players in Europe's top five leagues.

With Mbappe's team-mate Lionel Messi reaching the twilight of his career and Cristiano Ronaldo having left Europe for Saudi Arabia, former City and Arsenal defender Touré is in no doubt that the French star, 24, and Haaland, 22, will be the players. fight at the top of the game.

“Absolutely, absolutely. They are both incredibly great players,” Toure told Stats Perform.

"Hungry young players with great qualities, playing for top clubs. You can see the rivalry coming, you can feel it, because they are both goalscorers.

“They obviously have different qualities. There is one who is a really good goalscorer and there is one who – yes he can score goals, but at the same time he can provide, he can dribble.

"It's going to be really interesting to watch them both fight, because they're definitely the next generation."

Haaland, who provided two assists for Kevin De Bruyne against Arsenal, lacked his usual clinical advantage in the game, seeing several attempts saved by Aaron Ramsdale before he finally got his goal in the fifth minute of downtime.

That took Haaland to 33 league goals for the season, a new record for a 38-game Premier League campaign and a far cry from the competition's best tally of 34 (held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole).< /p >

"He's a very dominant striker," Toure said of the Norway international.

"But, one thing I have to say is that he chose the right thing for him, because he is a goalscorer and he has to play for a team that provides him with the ball.

"When you have De Bruyne, you have [Bernardo] Silva, you have [Ilkay] Gundogan, you have Jack Grealish, incredible players around him who provide the ball, the quality they show to support him is incredibly large.

"That's so smart of the boy, he made the right choice.

"He joined the right team. We will do the work for him to finish, because he is a finisher.

"His control, the way he handled the ball to get the team going when Arsenal were pressing them, it was amazing. I saw a player who can get the ball from his feet, take the ball, dribble two, three, three players and shoot.

"It shows the quality he has and there is plenty of room for him to continue improving. He is in the right team, he has the right manager and he will definitely continue to improve. But what he showed is amazing."