Dortmund: Haaland's goal record crushes Ronaldo, Pelé, Eusebio
The Norwegian is worth four goals every 90 minutes since his move to Dortmund, a record that eclipses anything ever seen before in football.
Erling Braut Haaland continued his incredible scoring form for Borussia Dortmund in the 3-2 DFB Pokal defeat against Werder Bremen on Tuesday night, finding the net in a 44-minute cameo to take his tally for the Bundesliga side to eight in four games at a rate of a goal every 22.5 minutes.
That gives Haaland, who completed a €20m move to Dortmund from RB Leipzig in January, a ratio of two goals per game for his new side. The Norway striker has played only 180 minutes, or the equivalent of two full games, which means he has scored four for every 90 minutes on the pitch. At the Austrian club, he managed 29 in 27 games, a ratio of 1.07 per game.
To put the 19-year-old’s scoring exploits into context, the all-time goals-per-game record stands at 1.77 and is held by Sporting Lisbon striker Fernando Peyroteo. The Portuguese banged in 331 goals in 187 games for Sporting, including 34 in 14 in his debut season, a rate of 2.5 goals per game. Like Haaland, Peyroteo scored nine goals in a single game, the Norway striker doing so for the under-20s in a World Cup game against Honduras.
Haaland on course to join Ronaldo, Messi and Eusébio
Another Portuguese goal machine, Eusébio, was worth a 0.9 goals a game as he racked up 532 goals in 590 official matches while Pelé’s tally stands at 0.93 goals per game.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid’s all-time leading scorer, managed a ratio of 1.03 goals per game at the Bernabéu on his way to 450 in 438 games, while Leo Messi’s LaLiga all-time record of 433 goals in 469 appearances gives the Argentinean a ratio of 0.92 in domestic action.
In 2018-19, the most prolific scorer in Europe was Paco Alcácer, who scored a goal every 67 minutes for Dortmund.
Whether or not Haaland can continue his incredible run remains to be seen but he is likely to be handed more starts under Lucien Favre given the circumstances. Easing Haaland into his new side was the logical course of action but with his striker in such prolific form Dortmund have to let him loose. Haaland has started just one of his four games for the club so far and chalked up two goals and an assist in a 5-0 destruction of Union Berlin.