Erling Haaland has brushed aside Neymar mocking his meditation celebration and instead, thanked the Paris St-Germain superstar for helping him spread an important message.
The 19-year-old wonder kid, Erling Haaland made a sparking beginning at Borussia Dortmund after the German club signed him in January.
In February, Haaland scored twice against PSG in Dortmund’s 2-1 victory in the first leg of the Champions League round 16.
However, a fake Snapchat picture that showed the Dortmund striker poking fun at the French club with “my city, not your” and “Paris” handwritten across his jumper circulated.
In the return leg, PSG defeated Dortmund 2-0 and Neymar who soccer the opening goal mocked Haaland by doing his meditation pose.
Haaland who was snapped up for £17.1m from RB Salzburg has finally broken his silence on the matter. He admitted he wasn’t unhappy at his celebration being mocked.
The youngster produced a mature response saying, “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.”
PSG players were heavily criticized for collectively trolling Haaland after Dortmund were knocked out of the Champions League.
The players also continued their brutal mocking by doing Haaland’s celebration in the dressing room. Match of the Day presenter, Gary Lineker slammed PSG’s behavior at the time and called them out for poking fun at the 19-year-old.
Haaland’s reaction has earned widespread praise from football fans, who believe this type of response is typical of a player who possesses the mentality to reach the very top of his profession.
He could have snapped back and caused a further rift between himself and the PSG players plus additional unwanted media attention. But the youngster is smart enough to realize it wouldn’t be worth the hassle.