ONE of my all-time favourite goals was Romario’s finish against Holland at the quarter-final stages of the 1994 World Cup in America.
Brazil had beaten the off-side trap, Bebeto claimed possession down the left hand side and put in an early low cross for his strike partner.
The ball came to Romario at pace and at an awkward angle, bouncing just before he made contact, the worst kind of pass to control.
A lesser striker would’ve ballooned the ball over the crossbar. Romario, on the other hand, made the finish look easy, thudding the ball into the net from eight yards out.
It was sublime and never ages.
Seemingly every goal Romario ever scored in his career had artistic merit.
He could even make tap ins look good.
I was reminded of the World Cup winner’s brilliant finish against the Dutch in Dallas 18 years ago when Erling Haaland stretched out his left foot to prod home his second goal against Manchester United last Sunday.
While Kevin De Bruyne’s curling right-footed cross deserved praise, Haaland’s finish was outrageous.
Not only was he stretching to meet the cross, the ball bounced just before he made contact.
The measure of control the big Norwegian displayed in meeting the ball as it came off the turf is something you don't see too often.
The fact that he made it look easy shouldn't take away from just how difficult a chance it was to convert.
It was no surprise Haaland went on to score his hat-trick for City, his third in just eight appearances for his new club.
Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen was the quickest man to score three hat-tricks in the English Premiership. To realise the swiftness of Haaland's three hat-tricks, it took Owen 48 games.
In City's painfully one-sided Champions League victory over Copenhagen on Wednesday night, Haaland had nine touches, four shots and two goals by the 32nd minute mark.
Barring injury, Haaland is already on his way to being the best foreign import the English Premier League has ever hosted.
Of course, the EPL is less competitive than the days of Thierry Henry, Gianfranco Zola and Dennis Bergkamp.
But, regardless of the era and no matter how much scrutiny Haaland is placed under over the next few years, he is the real deal in every sense.
He mightn't have the artistic merit of Zola, Bergkamp or Henry – but he easily has the potential to outstrip them all.
Pep Guardiola once said during his managerial days with Barcelona, if it wasn’t for Lionel Messi he’d be coaching in the third division of Spanish football.
He could quite conceivably sit in the stands every week between now and the end of the season because Haaland has transformed Man City on so many levels that they are in the best possible position to win that elusive Champions League title the club and the Catalan so desperately crave.
But the managerial folly in all of this is that it has taken Guardiola too long to add a powerful target man to City's armoury.
For all of his lauded coaching, inverted full-backs and clever overloads, Guardiola's Man City team have always been found wanting at the business end of the Champions League.
There has always been a sense of narcissism about Guardiola's style of play, that it was his vocation to unearth another, more intricate way of winning football matches when what was needed two or three seasons ago was a central striker with presence.
In fairness, City tried to bring Harry Kane to Manchester last year and failed. Haaland, though, is a significant upgrade and while brilliant, he is shining an unforgiving light on where City were failing.
Under Guardiola, central strikers have been the great unloved. At Barcelona, David Villa struggled in the central role at times.
Thierry Henry was more effective on the left side of the Barcelona attack too because the central role had become a bit of a graveyard at Camp Nou, as Alexis Sanchez found out.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic never convinced in the role either and quickly became disillusioned under Pep.
Much to Ibrahimovic's chagrin, everything revolved around Messi, who played in the false number nine role. Those corridors Messi would run into were now being clogged up by Ibrahimovic.
The big Swede simply didn't fit into the Barcelona way and was living proof that a central striker's life under Pep could be miserable.
The more mobile Luis Suarez was always a better alternative.
At City, you sensed that Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus never sufficiently convinced their manager because so many passes had to be made at the back and midfield before it reached the strikers.
Sometimes Guardiola's style of football has smacked of being a vanity project.
A blonde bombshell from Norway comes along and renders a huge chunk of the manager’s philosophy obsolete.
That directness and playing slightly more vertically ensures that Man City will retain their Premier League crown, helped by Liverpool’s challenge falling off the face of the earth.
Erling Haaland is the undoubted star of Man City and is the reason why they can win their first Champions League.
Pep no longer has to experiment and uncover some new footballing truth to develop the modern game and haul it to a different, urbane level.
Sometimes you don't have to set trends - just win games.
And maybe old-fashioned central strikers will make a comeback in the game after Haaland's explosive escapades over the last few weeks.
