Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland heaps praise on ‘American dream’ Gio Reyna, thanks PSG players for mocking celebration

Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland believes Gio Reyna can go right to the top, and is thankful that the PSG players mimicked his meditation celebration.

Reyna, who made his Borussia Dortmund debut alongside Haaland in the 5-3 win over Augsburg in January, has enjoyed a meteoric rise since joining the Black and Yellows last summer. The 17 year old has appeared off the bench in every game since, and even assisted Haaland’s winner in the first leg of Dortmund’s Champions League round of 16 tie against Paris St. Germain.

His cameos before the coronavirus pandemic earned him many admirers, including Erling Haaland, who is full of praise of Gio Reyna. Haaland revealed that he drives Reyna to training, and that he calls him the ‘American Dream’.

"In an interview with ESPN FC, Haaland said: “He’s 17-and-a-half soon, so in such a young age to be so calm on the ball and play for such a big team, it’s very fascinating to see how calm he is and he doesn’t care about anything, he just jumps right into it. The same with Jadon (Sancho), he’s a top talent and we are lucky to have him here.”"

The 19 year old also said that he was ‘thankful’ of the Paris St. Germain players for mimicking his meditation celebration both during and after their Champions League round of 16 second leg win over Borussia Dortmund. Neymar and his PSG teammates tried to mock Haaland by imitating his meditation pose, but Haaland insists he wasn’t too bothered by it.

"“I think they helped me a lot to get meditation out in the world and to show the whole world that meditation is an important thing so I’m thankful that they helped me with that.”"

Haaland was also asked about his incredible start to life at Borussia Dortmund. The Norwegian international has scored 12 goals in his first 11 games for Der BVB, and thanked his teammates for helping him make an immediate impact.

"“Yeah, it’s been a very good start and from my debut I’ve been enjoying it a lot and smiling a lot and these kind of things and that’s what’s the most important about my life, to smile a lot and these kind of things. That’s what I try to do the most.”“I feel I’m Improving every day and now that I play with even better teammates than what I played with in Salzburg – all respect to Salzburg — but yeah, they can find me in even better situations and this, so yeah it’s been good. It’s been a good first months.”"

Asked about which players he used to watch growing up, Haaland said that five time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo has always been an inspiration to him. “You could just see it in Ronaldo’s face that ‘today I’m the man’ and ‘today, I will score goals’ and that’s what he did. That’s what I like the best, how dedicated and hungry they are to succeed and to be the man in the moment.”