Erling Haaland has reinvented the wheel, pushed the limits, and redefined the possible in the art and science of attack in football.
From back-to-back Premier League Golden boots to a streaks of hat-tricks, including five and four-goal hauls, the Norwegian is arguably football’s finest attacking talent now.
As expected, this has seen analysts and fans begin to draw comparison and juxtapose his performances with the sports’ finest and legendary attackers such as Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo is on the twilights of his career, plying his trade with Saudi club Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League. Doing justice to some sort of comparison between the Portuguese and the Norwegian means bringing Ronaldo’s prime-time performance to the equation.
And Haaland seems to be falling below the benchmark set by the Portuguese when the stats are compared despite his terrific goal-scoring run.
Particularly in the mention is the time Cristiano Ronaldo took to score his 100th goal for his new club Real Madrid compared to Haaland for Manchester City.
Ronaldo set a record becoming the fastest footballer to hit the 100-goal tally in his 105th match for Real Madrid. A Champions League brace against Lyon in November 2011 saw the legendary forward attained the feat.
Now, note that Erling Haaland has been on his best form as a forward for Manchester City. In his first season with the club, he clinched both the Premier League and Champions League Golden Boot award with 36 and 12 goals, respectively.
In his second season, he netted a league-leading 27 Premier League goals and leveled up the tally with 6 Champions League goals.
Overall, after his back-to-back hat-tricks against Ipswich Town and West Ham United, including a match-winning brace against Brentford, Haaland reached 99 goals for Man City in 103 matches.
Manchester City’s 2024/25 Champions League opening match against Inter Milan was an opportunity for the forward to match or break Cristiano Ronaldo’s 100th goal in 104th match record but he couldn’t find the back of the net in the game.
Consequently, Ronaldo still has the bragging the rights with impeccable goal-scoring form during his prime when compared to Erling Haaland despite the latter’s heroics.
