Xabi Alonso did not reach for a modest comparison. He went straight for the elite.
Chelsea’s Brazilian striker Joao Pedro, he said, is not only cut from the same cloth as his former Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema, but already operating at a level comparable to Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.
The numbers backing up that bold claim are starting to stack up. At 24, Joao Pedro has opened the new Premier League season with two goals and two assists in his first three matches, form that earned him the division’s Player of the Month award on Friday. It is his first such prize, and he took it ahead of team-mate Cole Palmer, who carried the honour for Chelsea back in September 2024.
Asked directly whether Joao Pedro belongs in the same conversation as Haaland, last season’s Golden Boot winner with 27 league goals, Alonso did not flinch.
“I would say yes,” the Chelsea manager replied. “If you count how many top strikers we have in the Premier League, I’m sure that Joao is there, Haaland for sure is there. So I would rate him that way.”
Chelsea have nailed their colours to that belief. Last month Joao Pedro signed a new contract at Stamford Bridge running to 2034 and inherited the club’s number nine shirt at the start of the campaign. The responsibility suits him. In his debut season he became the first Chelsea centre-forward since Diego Costa to hit 20 goals in a single campaign.
The output since his arrival last summer underlines why Alonso is so bullish: 25 goals and 11 assists in 57 appearances. Haaland’s return over his last 57 matches for City – 42 goals and nine assists – remains more explosive, but the contrast in styles is part of the story.
Haaland lives on the shoulder, a ruthless specialist in finishing moves. Joao Pedro roams. Across his career he has operated as a midfielder, a number 10 and a winger, and Alonso leans heavily on that versatility. The Brazilian links play, drifts wide, drops into pockets and still finds his way into the box.
That blend of craft and penalty-box menace is what takes Alonso back to Madrid.
The Spaniard spent years feeding Benzema at the Bernabéu, making 195 appearances alongside the Frenchman, and he sees the same all-court profile in his current talisman.
“In many things he reminds me of Benzema, because he is good in the box, he is good out of the box, he is good coming to his left side, he is good with the head, he is very complete, he is intelligent,” Alonso said. “So yes, he is still young, still things to develop, but many, many absolutely outstanding qualities that he has.”
Benzema’s career numbers frame the scale of that comparison. Now 38 and a free agent, he has scored 523 goals in 994 games for France, Lyon, Real Madrid and Saudi Arabian clubs Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal. To even be mentioned in that company says plenty about how Alonso views Joao Pedro’s ceiling.
On the international stage, though, the Chelsea forward is still fighting for recognition. He did not make Brazil’s squad for this summer’s World Cup, a surprise omission given his club form. The decision came from Carlo Ancelotti, the Brazil coach who once guided Alonso at Real Madrid.
If that snub was supposed to crush him, it had the opposite effect. Joao Pedro has since been recalled for Brazil’s September fixtures against New Zealand and India, and Alonso insists the striker did not need external slights to sharpen his focus.
“He had enough motivation,” Alonso said. “He already had enough within him, so I didn’t need to go there. It was painful for him, but that is in the past. We are now focused on what he is doing well and what he can do better.
“He has been outstanding. Not just in football terms, but in his personality, his maturity and his desire. He has a very clear goal this season, which is to have a great campaign and score a lot of goals.”
Chelsea have heard big promises before about the next great number nine. The difference now is that Alonso has nailed his reputation to Joao Pedro’s rise – and placed him in the company of Benzema and Haaland. The Brazilian’s response over the coming months will tell whether that faith marks the start of a new Stamford Bridge era or another false dawn.
