Messi, Cristiano or Haaland? Guardiola picked his favorite and shocked everyone

Pep Guardiola is one of the most influential coaches in soccer history. His intelligence, knowledge, attention to detail and hard work has allowed him to build some of the greatest teams of all time. In fact, many believe that his Barcelona (2008-2012) was the best team ever, while his current Manchester City is among the winningest in the Premier League.

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In his more than 15-year career as a professional manager, he has managed or faced absolutely all of soccer's biggest stars. When he was with the Catalan side, he had players like Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Thierry Henry, Carles Puyol and Sergio Busquets. Then, at Bayern Munich, he had Phillip Lahm, Thomas Muller, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arjen Robben. And at Manchester City, Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundongan.

However, he has always highlighted Lionel Messi as the best of all. It was with Pep as coach that Leo became the best player in the world, when he moved from being a right-winger to occupy a central place in attack. In the four years they were together, Los Blaugranas won the Champions League twice and the Argentine forward was voted several times as the best player in the world at the Ballon d'Or awards.

But now Guardiola seems to have found a new favorite player. This week, during a press conference ahead of the Champions League round of 16 first leg against Copenhagen, the coach compared Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to Erling Haaland and shocked everyone.

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What did he say?

Pep Guardiola was asked about the Norwegian striker, who was key in the victory against Everton last weekend with two goals. Speaking about his virtues, he explained: "He's so strong mentally. You always know score one goal, go another one second, and will the third". He added: "You see his numbers at his age. In the Champions League not even Messi or Cristiano had these numbers at his age."