Norwegian goalscoring sensation Erling Haaland has blown away the the competition to win 90min’s latest fan poll for Welcome to World Class.
We asked our followers who they would choose to join to our established best three strikers on the planet in 2021 – Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski – to complete the top five. The options were: Romelu Lukaku, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane.
The player with the most votes would take fourth place in our rankings, while the runner-up would come fifth and the man with the smallest percentage would miss out altogether.
Perhaps inevitably, Haaland stormed to victory with a whopping 69% of the vote, leaving Kane and Lukaku in his dust, and deservedly taking his place in our top five.
Although he may not have got his hands on any silverware and he’s endured an injury-hit start to the season, the 21-year-old has still been a force of nature in 2021 – evidenced by his obscene goals per game ratio of 1:1 in the matches he has played, a minutes per goal rate of just 88, and a ludicrous 29.2% shot conversion rate.
Stats aside, football followers the world over have become enamoured with the Borussia Dortmund man’s rangy style of play and explosive finishing ability, combined with his cheeky, carefree demeanour.
While the winner may have been a foregone conclusion, the race for second place was an incredibly close-run thing, with just three percent between the two names after more than 4,200 votes were cast.
Which striker would you add to the World Class list? ?
You can only pick ONE ?Welcome To World Class | #W2WC21
— 90min (@90min_Football) December 24, 2021
It may raise a few eyebrows, but Kane secure his place in our top five with a 17% share of the spoils left behind by the rampant Haaland. Lukaku was forced to settle for just 14%, which means he misses out altogether despite his goalscoring exploits helping Inter to a first Serie A title in a decade this year.
Kane sneaks in despite a poor start to 2021/22 – a reward for yet another strong goalscoring year overall (including a Premier League golden boot) and captaining England to the Euro 2020 final.
All statistics are provided by StatsPerform over the period of January 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021 (inclusive of domestic and continental cup competitions).
