Joshua Zirkzee turned down a move to Premier League outfit Everton and is now showing in Serie A that he can overtake Erling Haaland while becoming ‘the best striker in the world’, Voetbal International reporter Suleyman Ozturk claims.
It took the £7 million signing from Bayern Munich just 41 minutes to open his Bologna account on his full Serie A debut over the weekend; sweeping a Haaland-esque first-time finish into the back of the league leaders’ net.
Zirkzee might only be 21 years of age. But, since making a key contribution to Bayern’s Bundesliga-winning 2019/20 campaign, the Dutch U21 international continues to prove that, when given the right service and a run of games, the goals will flow at a very impressive rate.
In 39 senior league starts, he’s hit the back of the net 21 times already.
Then again, Zirkzee it will take more than one admittedly well-taken strike against Napoli before the wider footballing public start taking claims that he is ‘better than Haaland at everything’ seriously.
Can Joshua Zirkzee really be ‘better than Erling Haaland’?
“Zirkzee is better than Haaland at everything,” Ozturk says of a striker linked with Fulham, Newcastle United and West Ham over the summer; fully aware of how outlandish those claims first sound.
“Now you may be dismayed because of this statement. But I will frame it. (Zirkzee) has vision, technique, strength, charisma, flair, footballing ability. He is therefore better than Haaland in almost everything.
“Imagine if Zirkzee had the energy and focus of Haaland. Then he would be the best striker in the world.”
‘Energy and focus’; two attributes Zirkzee has been accused of lacking on more than one occasion. Particularly after making headlines for all the wrong reasons with a bizarre miss against Ajax in pre-season last year.
Zirkzee was a target for Everton in early-2021; turning down the Toffees due to concerns over a lack of game-time at a team already boasting Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Not for the first time either.
“I could have gone to Everton,” he explains when asked why he chose to leave Feyenoord for Bayern Munich instead back in 2018. “(Everton) pushed hard. But breaking through in England is difficult,”
“Bayern was different. They really wanted me. Bayern made a great effort. Who would say no?”
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