On Wednesday night, Erling Braut Haaland broke yet another record when he scored a brace to guide Borussia Dortmund into the quarter-finals of the Champions League. He became the fastest and the youngest player to reach the 20-goal tally which he attained at the age of 20 years and 231 days in only 14 Champions League fixtures.
Borussia Dortmund defeated Sevilla 5-4 on aggregate. Out of the 5 goals, Dortmund scored, 4 of them were scored by the 20-year-old. Along with breaking that record, he also became the highest-scoring Norwegian in the Champions League, surpassing his former coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
By reaching the landmark, Haaland overtook Harry Kane who had previously held the record of scoring the same in 24 games. He also became the youngest player to score in 6 consecutive Champions League fixtures. Moreover, since his debut in the Champions League, no other player has scored more goals than him.
Erling Haaland – the goal scoring machine
Honestly, if he keeps breaking records, he’ll rob the fun from the word record. We knew that he was built different, but he is literally scoring goals for fun! He has already scored 10 goals in just 6 games in the Champions League. By progressing to the quarter-finals, he got 2 more games, for now, to break his record of 10 goals.
Erling Haaland made his Champions League debut for RB Salzburg. And what a debut that was. He scored a hattrick which was surprisingly also his 4th for Salzburg. He soon drew attention from across Europe. At the end of his Salzburg career, he scored an astonishing 29 goals in just 27 games. He ultimately joined Bundesliga side, Borussia Dortmund for a fee of €20 million. And he continued where he left off.
In only six months of his first season, he racked up 16 goals to his name in 18 appearances. He had set his position in the club as a regular starter. He is currently in his second season with Dortmund and has no plans of slowing down even a little. This season, he has already matched his Champions League tally from the previous year. In the Bundesliga, he has scored 19 goals in 19 games, only behind a hot-running Robert Lewandowski.
For better insight, let us compare him with 2 of the greatest players, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi scored 20 goals in 41 matches, whereas Ronaldo took a little more and scored the same in 56 matches. Sounds unthinkable right? Well, that’s Erling Haaland for you.
He can join anywhere he prefers
Every transfer window, we can link players with a set of clubs where they will end up. It will be impossible when it comes to the Norwegian. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are a few of the many prominent clubs that have shown interest in the player.
If we even look at the possibilities, he can end up anywhere. Real Madrid is the favourites to land Kylian Mbappe, but if that doesn’t happen, why would they not go for Haaland? Barcelona was not in the race until now. Their newly elected president Joan Laporta is a huge admirer of Haaland. Also, he has a good connection with his super agent, Mino Raiola, which he’ll look to take advantage of. Bayern Munich, well, they currently don’t have any interest but they seem to land every great player Dortmund produce. Robert Lewandowski is the best example.
Coming to the Premier League clubs, Chelsea has been strongly linked with the player. If he is to come here, it will be at the cost of Timo Werner. Manchester United has a bad CV to lure Haaland. Roy Keane had made a brutal intentional challenge on Erling’s father, Alf-Inge Rasdal Haaland in 2001 that ended his football career. It happens to be seen if his son would take this as a reason to not join the Red Devils. But United has a wildcard in the form of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who managed him at Molde and has the national connection. As for Manchester City, they have the money. Citizens need a striker and they have sufficient money. That’s it.
