Reported Liverpool and Arsenal target Dusan Vlahovic believes he has the talent to reach the standards set by the irrepressible Erling Haaland, as he told La Repubblica.
Well, the Fiorentina striker has never been short of confidence.
During his teenage years at Partizan Belgrade, Vlahovic would boast that he was the second coming of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And, like AC Milan’s evergreen superstar, he has the ability to back up his iron-clad self-belief.
With two more goals against Atalanta on Sunday, Vlahovic has now scored 15 times in his breakthrough Serie A season.
His ruthless finishing skills have caught the eye of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, according to Tuttosport, while Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are also sniffing around a striker who continues to resit Fiorentina’s attempts to tie him down to a new contract (Calciomercato).
Vlahovic has been compared with increasing regularity to Dortmund goal-machine Haaland in recent weeks.
And it is no surprise that the 21-year-old believes he can reach Haaland’s level. As we said, self confidence is not in short supply here.
“I watch Haaland. I try to understand his finishing and how he moves. Then I focus on my strong points and my weaknesses. It may be presumptuous but, with commitment, I can get there too,” he said.
“I try to improve every day. I always try different things in training. The trick is to repeat the same movements over and over. (Cristiano) Ronaldo always wants to improve. That’s the secret of the champions.
“I am focused and grounded. I don’t know where I’ll get to. But I don’t want to have any regrets.”
Natural talent only takes you so far but, fortunately, Vlahovic appears to understand the benefits of an insatiable work ethic too.
La Repubblica reported in March that Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur side are also interested, as are a West Ham team still pushing for Champions League qualification (Calciomercato).
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