Opinion – The World Is a Ball: It can be sonorous and playful, but it’s wrong to say ‘comet Haaland’

Erling Haaland, a 22-year-old Norwegian born in England, is the most important striker so far this season.

The Manchester City player returned to shine on Sunday (2), when, in the classic against Manchester United in the Premier League, he scored three goals and also provided two assists in the 6-3 rout.

With these goals, he has 14 goals in the Premier League in eight games. In the Champions League, it’s three goals in two games. Overall, 17 goals in ten lineups and a spectacular average of 1.7 per game.

Since the time of Borussia Dortmund (Germany), when Haaland scores, narrators have been quick to call him “Comet Haaland”, in allusion to the famous Halley comet. Journalists also do it in their texts and chronicles.

Is it sound? Yup. (The pronunciations, Ráland and Rálei, are similar.) Is it impactful? O. Is it playful? Also. But nothing could be more wrong from a comparative point of view.

The intention of the narrators, and also of others who speak or write “Comet Haaland”, is to praise the attacker, to convey the message that he is grandiose, magical, charming. And he has been just that.

However, another term is needed, because comet is an astronomical distance from being adequate – Menon, a journalist colleague, addressed the topic a while ago, at UOL.

Let’s go to some dictionaries, for the definition of comet in the figurative sense, which is what matters in the context of this text.

• Aulete: Person, animal or thing that appears and disappears in a brief and ephemeral passage.
• Houaiss: Person, animal or very fast thing, which appears and disappears suddenly.
• Michaelis: Anything or anyone that appears and disappears quickly.
• Priberam: Person or thing that appears and then disappears.

Thus, Haaland could only be classified as a comet if his time in football, or a football team, be it good or bad, lasted very little, only a few games or a short period of time (days or weeks).

The shirt 9, 1.95 m, good header, left-handed, skilled in positioning, owner of good mobility, authentic striker, with great presence in the area, has been attracting the attention of the football planet for at least three seasons.

Haaland emerged. Only he didn’t disappear. So you can classify it using various words, but that word cannot be a comet.

The player’s ponytail, in addition to its blondness, even collaborates for a desired visual comparison, as comets are known for their glowing tail the color of fire.

But not! Let’s stop. For the above reasons, “Comet Haaland” does not work.

Do you want to figuratively equate it with a celestial body? Let it be “star Haaland”. The stars occupy a fixed place in the universe and emanate their own light. It makes a lot more sense.

About Comet Halley, named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656-1742), it is the best known that exists. It is visible on Earth every approximately 76 years.

I looked at the sky in 1986, to see it, there was a huge interest of many people in admiring it. But I didn’t see it, and it’s said that almost no one did, unlike 1910, when Halley was a big attraction.

Science explains. In this most recent passage, 36 years ago, the comet and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun, which made observation unfavorable.

In this circumstance, Halley’s Comet, for me, who was 13 years old at the time, was not even ephemeral. did not exist.

Haaland already exists, and how. Week after week, sometimes twice in the space of seven days, he is on the field leaving a trail of luminosity, which every day wins more admirers.

The only regret is his absence from this year’s World Cup. Norway did not qualify, and without them the World Cup is also without a star.

The “star Haaland”, then yes, “star” in this case works as a synonym for “star”, which is what the centre-forward has already become in England and walks -not like a comet, but with its speed- to return to the world.