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Borussia Dortmund head coach Marco Rose lauded Erling Haaland’s “extraordinary” maturity amid mounting transfer speculation.
Haaland is a player in demand, the Dortmund star linked with Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite the ongoing rumours, Haaland has stayed focus for Dortmund with 13 goals in 10 Bundesliga appearances this season, while the 21-year-old has 19 across all competitions.
Rose hailed Haaland ahead of Saturday’s Bundesliga trip to Hertha Berlin.
“With all the things that are coming at Erling [Haaland], the speculation, and not just since day one, week one, or since they started talking about an exit clause in his contract,” Rose told reporters.
“Actually almost every day he is confronted with some outrageous speculation, and the way Erling handles it as a young player is extraordinary, I think. All of us who work with him are used to it by now.
“There will be more and less of it and at some point someone will have an idea or someone will think they have to stir up a hornet’s nest to make a fuss. We are prepared for that and we know what the facts are.
“We meet every day, we talk to each other, we exchange ideas. It shouldn’t affect us too much now. If someone thinks that they have to force things from the outside, that they have to interpret certain things, then we’re not really interested.”
Haaland has scored 30 Bundesliga goals this calendar year – a new club record for a Dortmund player in a calendar year, surpassing Lothar Emmerich (29 goals in 1966) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (29 goals in 2015).
Rose picked up 34 points from his first 16 Bundesliga games as coach of Dortmund. Among all BVB coaches, only Lucien Favre (39) and Thomas Tuchel (38) surpassed this.
