Haaland is magical but can’t reach Ronaldo and Messi
Erling Braut Håland has worn the Manchester City jersey for just 10 months, yet his name is already in the club’s record book. Time to go over his most impressive achievements for the Premier League side.
August 7, 2022: Haaland – let’s continue with his more common name – scored a brace in his Premier League debut against West Ham. Until that, only the club’s legend Sergio Agüro had managed to do the same. The Norwegian became the second Premier League player who earned (and scored) a penalty in their debut.
August 27, 2022: Haaland destroyed Crystal Palace in 19 minutes by scoring the 13th hat-trick of his young career. No other player has reached this number at a such young age (22).
August 31, 2022: Nottingham Forest suffered a similar fate as Haaland scored another hat-trick. The striker scored 9 times in August (a new record), needing only 5 matches to do so.
September 3, 2022: A goal against Aston Villa raised his total tally to 10 goals, which set another record – the fastest to double-digits in the Premier League.
September 6, 2022: Haaland x Champions League x another goal. The young striker found the back of the net against Sevilla, making him the first Citizen who has scored in both his Champions League and Premier League debut.
September 6, 2022: You read it right, same date, same match. Haaland scores his second of the night, which takes his Champions League tally to 25, making him both the youngest (22) and fastest (20 matches) to do so.
September 17, 2022: Haaland became the first Premier League player to score in his first four away games with a goal against Wolves. Of course, 11 goals in 7 games was also a new record.
October 2, 2022: Hat-trick against Manchester United. Thus, Haaland became the first Premier League player to score hat-tricks in three consecutive home games. Also, the Norwegian needed only eight matches for three hat-tricks: the previous top mark was 48…
October 5, 2022: Two goals against Copenhagen and Haaland became the fastest player to reach 28 goals in Champions League history. At that point, the Norwegian was moving at a pace of 1.27 goals per game, which was better than 98 other clubs.
October 8, 2022: Southampton < Haaland as the striker scored his 20th goal of the season in just 13 games.
December 28, 2022: The goal scored in his hometown of Leeds was his 25th of the season. All this in just the 20th match of the season. Never before had anyone reached that mark so quickly under Pep Guardiola’s mentorship: the previous record holder was Lionel Messi (28 games).
December 28, 2022: Same place, same match. The second goal scored against Leeds meant crossing the 20-goal mark in the Premier League. No other player had been able to do so before January. Don’t forget – there was also a six-week break in November-December due to the World Cup…
February 15, 2023: Haaland scored his 32nd goal of the season against Arsenal. It was his 26th in the domestic league, which equals City’s record. Sergio Agüero did the same in the 2014/15 season.
February 25, 2023: Agüero’s record falls against Bournemouth.
March 14, 2023: With a goal against RB Leipzig, Haaland becomes the youngest player to reach 30 Champions League goals. It took him just 25 matches to do so.
March 14, 2023: Haaland didn’t limit himself to just one or two against Leipzig, he hit five! Thus, he became only the second player, next to Lionel Messi, to do so in Champions League play-offs.
What next?
To sum things up, across all competitions, Haaland has scored 42 goals in 37 games for City. This is of course a new club record: the previous top mark belonged to Tommy Johnson, who scored a total of 38 goals in the 1928/29 (!) season.
It is difficult to predict where Haaland will end up this year. But we can still try.
Considering that City has 11 matches left to play in the Premier League, and depending on other competitions, three to seven may be added. Crunch some numbers with his momentum so far and one can calmly dream of 55 hits for the entire season. Brave souls can also aim for 60.
Were he to do so, Haaland would rise alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Namely, they are the only ones so far (considering only the serious leagues, not those of Iran and Zambia) who have reached the corresponding milestone in one season.
Ronaldo scored 60 goals in all leagues for Real Madrid in the 2011/12 season and as many as 61 goals in the 2014/15 season. Messi scored 60 goals for FC Barcelona in the 2012/13 season, but a year before that he managed a whopping 73 goals. Just to put things into context.
