Pep Guardiola has outlined what Manchester City forward Erling Haaland must do to win the Ballon d’Or.
Haaland finished as runner-up to Lionel Messi for football’s greatest individual accolade last season after scoring 52 goals in all competitions during the Citizens’ treble success.
However, the Norwegian’s all-round game has been criticised of late with Roy Keane and Rafael van der Vaart among the ex-players to have taken aim at the 23-year-old in recent weeks.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Luton, Guardiola said he believes there is always room for improvement as Haaland looks to win the game’s biggest prizes.
“He needs to play more minutes, to learn from what you have to do,” Guardiola said on how Haaland can win the Ballon d’Or.
“But the target is not the Ballon d’Or, the target is to win trophies and he did. Would we have won five trophies last year without him? Not a chance.
“It’s not about Erling or any other player. Until you retire, you can [always] be better.”
Guardiola’s side face another huge showdown with Real Madrid next week after a thrilling draw in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday evening, but the Spaniard warned his team can not overlook Luton this weekend.
“We have to [focus], the Premier league so important.
“It’s 11 months we’ve been fighting for the title, we know what position we are in.”
