Meant that he is still very much below Ibra in terms of a footballing personality - a response to the post saying Haaland has overtaken Ibra.
Fast catching up yet he’s still not the legend Zlatan is.
Hmm... Zlatan's "personality" went through stages in his own active career. At Ajax, he was outrageously cocky and sure of himself, but his game only sort of backed that up. He had numerous lulls where I don't think he was taken particularly seriously as a top-end talent, but that sorted itself out in his late 20's where his game was in alignment with his words - the framing of "Zlatan" really took off then and he also became more universally understood, which leaned into the personality aspect as [a lot] more people got on board with what he was selling around that time. I'd also say that goal against England did wonders for him.
When you say "Zlatan" now, it'd be easy to assume it was one linear line with his charisma and personality as we're going to remember the peaks a lot more than the troughs where in reality, he didn't have a rock solid "aura" or presence about him in like, say, a Romario, Cantona or that kind of out there controversial yet entertaining character had.
I think Haaland is only now beginning to embrace the spotlight as a "personality" so it's not like he's been trying for years or acting out - it's the first time he's let people behind the curtain, and seems to be going all-in with his own platform for social media content that is being really well received by all quarters, even rival fans can't help but like him. So when you say catching up, I don't really see that he made any effort whatsoever before now to show larger portions of his personality. I also think we're in an age of gagging for players where, by comparison, players got to express themselves way, way more in Zlatan's time so that is factored in as things aren't 1:1 in terms of relativity - Haaland is "out there" compared to others these days by even having discernable character for people to relate to and connect with.
Haaland's likability is based entirely on his football ability — no one would give a damn about him if he wasn't a world-class footballer. Zlatan is clearly way more of a character — yes, his football talent gave him a clear headstart but he's very unique as a public persona and it's not hard to imagine him getting famous even in a completely different field of work. Haaland is this archetypical media-trained model footballer. I'm eating healthy, I'm doing down to earth photoshoots in the summer etc. He does look a TV viking but that's about it. The difference is quite clear. He scores tons of goals and plays for the most successful (currently) team in the most popular league, City has a lot of fans, especially in younger demographics. And City market him as their main star (to be fair, he clearly is this season — before that it was at least a three-way tie between him, KDB and Rodri for their most important player on the pitch).
P.S. not really sure what's likable about him... I mean, actively likable. He's a fairly decent kid, at least from what we know. Yet being down to earth is hardly something that can be described as a personality, especially since you don't really spend all of your free time working on your family's rural farm.
I think Zlatan is more a product of a different time who would likely have been neutered or toned down greatly if he came through the ranks in the same time period as Haaland.
I'd say Haaland has more "personality" than you're giving him credit for, but if you are talking about the difference between what represented character decade(s) ago and what represents it now, there's going to be a massive, unassailable gap because you simply can't be as out there now as you could in times gone by. Personally, I'm not looking for outrageous or even massively outwardly charismatic - if I want to give you the time of day, or am intrigued enough to want to know more about you, you've got "it" even if it's not some eccentric soul that is a perfect rent-a-quote.
Comparing players to their contemporary peers is a fairer way of assessing what they bring to the table. When you go cross-generational, you have to factor in just how far the envelope could be stretched in that time contrasted to what it's being compared to. The quirky guys of Zlatan's time don't exist in this time, so it's not just Zlatan, it's a whole bunch of players who were the personalities of their own timeline.
