Erling Haaland, 25, Norwegian born in England, is one of today’s great players. Not only in size and weight (1.95 m, 90 kg), but in talent and effectiveness.
Center forward for Manchester City since 2022, he is going through a wonderful phase. This season, there are 19 goals in 15 matches: in the Premier League (English Championship), 14 goals in 11 games; in the Champions League (European Champions League), 5 goals in 4 games. For Norway, in three matches this semester, nine more goals. Total: 28 goals in 18 games.
His dazzling performance made Man City’s coach, the Spaniard Pep Guardiola, one of the best and most successful in history, compare him to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the supreme figures of this century when it comes to football.
Guardiola said that “the influence” of the top scorer “is so great that it’s like you can count on Messi or Cristiano”.
Exaggeration? No. At the time of writing this text, Haaland is 25 years, three months and 22 days old. Considering only games valid for each competition, including clubs and the main team, he accumulated 336 goals in 387 games in his professional career (average of 0.87).
At the same age, both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (mostly) were far behind. The Argentine had 276 goals in 395 matches, and the Portuguese, 167 in 404. Averages, respectively, of 0.70 and 0.41.
Messi, now 38 years old, and Cristiano, who is 40, were still enjoying their scoring peaks, the first with Barcelona (for which he played from 2004 to 2021), the second with Real Madrid (from 2009 to 2018).
Even so, their career statistics leave them considerably behind Haaland. Excluding friendlies, Pulga has 809 goals in 1,048 matches (average of 0.77), and Robozão, 908 in 1,214 (average of 0.75).
If the comparison with the greats of the 21st century puts the Norwegian at the top, the comparison with the best of all time is valid: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé.
First, an aside. The presentation of some numerical data, no matter how much research is done in different sources (which sometimes provide disparate information), is subject to imperfections. The further back in time you go, the more this gets worse. Accuracy may not be 100%, and a margin of error, even if small, must be considered.
That said, at 25 years, three months and 22 days, Pelé had a spectacular average of 1.25 goals per match valid for each competition (376 games, 469 goals). No chance for Haaland in this dispute.
Which doesn’t stop the number 9 from trying to chase the most famous number 10 to level up with the King of Football in terms of artillery.
Disregarding games not valid for championships (which allowed him to score more than 1,280 goals), Pelé would have scored 724 goals in 773 matches (average of 0.94).
Is Haaland capable of reaching this average? At the current blistering pace (1.5 goals per game), yes. Guardiola believes, he says that Halaand “lives to score goals”. However, it is very difficult to believe that this regularity will be maintained.
On the part of the goalscorer, who says he is in his “best version”, humility when he is placed at the level of Messi and CR7. “No, not at all, far from it. No one can get close to them.”
Maybe Haaland doesn’t know it, but he not only arrived, he surpassed it. The two superstars are in his rearview mirror.
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