Even great sports stars sometimes have time to dive into the world of Pokémon. One has presented his team, and one thing stands out.
Who is it? Erling Haaland is a football player contracted with Manchester City and is also representing the Norwegian national team at the World Cup. He is currently regarded as one of the best footballers and was named Europe’s Footballer of the Year in 2023.
Besides his professional sports career, he also finds time to be a Pokémon trainer. On the way to the World Cup, he shared a photo of his current team in Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen and asked people to evaluate his team. And as a Pokémon expert, one thing stands out to me.
Good monsters, but a fundamental problem
What kind of team does Haaland have? The image that Haaland posted on Snapchat and has been uploaded on countless platforms like X shows the following team:
- Charizard at Level 54
- Snorlax at Level 31
- Cadabra at Level 36
- Jolteon at Level 26
- Dragonair at Level 31
- Lapras at Level 25
How good is the team? It is immediately noticeable that Haaland has a very balanced team when looking at the different types and their coverage against opposing monsters. Both the Top 4 and the rival should, given reasonable attacks, be quite manageable with these Pokémon types.
Lorelei can be easily defeated with Jolteon and Charizard, Bruno will have little to counter Cadabra and Lapras. Cadabra can also defeat Agatha on its own. And Siegfried will have no chance against Lapras and, if Dragonair evolves into Dragonite and is faster than Siegfried’s team, either.
Even the rival will ultimately have major problems dealing with Haaland’s team.
What could be improved? Personally, I would try to evolve Cadabra into Alakazam through a trade. Although Cadabra’s stats, especially Special Attack and Speed, are already good, Alakazam still has stronger stats.
Additionally, I would consider whether Jolteon might not be better swapped out for Zapdos. Although Zapdos has the additional Flying type and thus more type weaknesses than Jolteon, it is overall a better monster as it can take significantly more damage than Jolteon and can still deal well.
A mistake that almost everyone has made
Furthermore, there is a fundamental point that stands out in Haaland’s team: the level differences. While Charizard at 54 is already at a stable level, the rest of the team lags significantly behind – a typical phenomenon that many trainers have likely experienced in their first runs of the Pokémon games.
Regarding the battle against the Top 4, Haaland should still do some training sessions off the field and strengthen the rest of the team as well. Otherwise, he could face major issues here.
It should be noted that he likely just received Lapras recently, and apart from Cadabra, the rest of the monsters may have only recently joined his team, which would explain the current significant differences.
What do you think of his team? Would you choose different Pokémon here? Feel free to let us know in the comments. If you’re also playing Pokémon GO as a trainer, you should definitely check the game this weekend. Because the GO Fest, the biggest event of the year is happening there.
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