It has to be Haaland!
You’re not laughing now…
There’s been a lot of talk about footballing legends recently
We’ve witnessed the crowning achievement of the Messi era at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Mbappé trying to steal the show in the final and Pele’s recent passing
However, a 22-year old Striker from Man City looks to be laying his own claim to become the world’s next top player
Erling Haaland has just smashed a Premier League record by being the fastest Premier League player to score their first 20 league goals, doing so in only 14 matches, beating Kevin Phillip’s previous record of 20 goals in 21 games in the 1999/2000 season for Sunderland¹
He’s now on a select list of 87 Premier League players who have reached the 20 goal mark in a single season. This isn’t his only impressive achievement this season, or of his career so far
How many goals has Haaland scored through his career so far?
Haaland has now scored 161 senior goals in all competitions throughout the 203 matches of his professional career (as of 30 Dec 2022)
His first prolific season was with Molde FK in 2018, scoring 16 goals in 30 games (aged 18). From here he moved to Red Bull Salzburg where he netted 30 goals in 30 matches, winning two league trophies and one cup and becoming the only teenager to score in 5 consecutive UEFA Champions League matches
After one year, he was snapped up by Borussia Dortmund which saw Haaland hit the big time. He scored 88 goals in 95 games, becoming the only teenager to reach the 50 goal mark in the German league
This included an impressive 15 goals in 13 matches in Europe for the German club, making him the youngest player to score 20 Champions League goals
At international-level, he scored an impressive 42 goals in 46 matches for Norway’s junior and senior teams (and 21 in 23 matches at senior level)
How does this compare to his City career so far?
If anything, his goalscoring record has only improved in Manchester
He’s scored 1.4 goals per game in the Premier League, rising to 1.6 goals per game at Home (his Away goals record is much weaker at 1.2 goals per game)
In terms of the 20 league goals he’s scored:
- The Norwegian is clearly most comfortable with his left foot, scoring 13 of his Premier League goals this way, 3 of which from the penalty spot
- On top of this, he scored another 4 with his right foot and 3 headers
- He scored these 20 goals with 60 attempts on goal, which is also one of the highest this season, behind only Fulham’s Aleksander Mitrovic (63) although Haaland has had more strikes on target than the London-based striker (33 vs. 26)
Part of his goalscoring record is thanks to his 3 hat-tricks (scoring three goals in one game) vs. Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Man United
He’s the only player to ever score a hat-trick in 3 consecutive Premier League home matches, and he’s now reached 3 hat-tricks quicker than any other Premier League player (Michael Owen previously held the record, scoring his third PL hat-trick after his 48th game)
On top of his 20 Premier League goals this season, Haaland’s scored:
- 6 goals for Man City in other competitions (5 in the Champions League and 1 in the League Cup), bringing his club total for the season to 26 in 20 matches
- 6 goals in 6 games for Norway in the UEFA Nations League (sadly, he didn’t feature in the World Cup)
So which records might he be breaking next?
Surely, the next record in sight is the most goals in a single season
Andy Cole and Alan Shearer have the joint-record for the most goals in a single Premier League season, each scoring 34 goals in the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, respectively¹
No one has come close to this scoring record since Cristiano Ronaldo scored 31 goals in the 2007–08 season, although if Haaland continues his 1.4 goals per game until the end of the season, he’d finish the season on 54 league goals!
While this would be a huge achievement in English Premier League terms, it would put him in the same league as the other top Strikers in history. For example, Lionel Messi holds the record for the most goals in all competitions in a single season (73 goals, including 50 league goals)
Next up would be getting to 100 goals and then the all-time Premier League goal scoring record, both of which are held by Shearer:
- The Blackburn and Newcastle forward reached 100 goals quicker than any other player, after only 124 games. The next quickest was Harry Kane who achieved this in 141 matches
- His all-time goals record has held since 2006 when he retired on 260 Premier League goals, followed by Wayne Rooney on 208
And there are two more goal records that Haaland may break…
When it comes to scoring hat-tricks, Shearer holds the record of scoring 5 hat-tricks in one season (one that could be broken this season) while City’s former striker, Sergio Aguero, has the all-time record for the total number of Premier League hat-tricks at 12 (this may take a little longer to break)
Note¹: some of the next quickest players, after Phillips, to score 20 goals were Andy Cole (23 games), Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Tony Yeboah and Diego Costa (both 26 games), Fernando Torres (27 games) and Alan Shearer (29 games)
Note²: the Premier League was reduced from 42 matches to 38 matches at the end of the 1994–95 season, which has made scoring this many goals more difficult. Ronaldo, along with a handful of other strikers, have scored more goals per game than either Cole or Shearer
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