MANCHESTER CITY
Erling Haaland is slowly creeping towards Messi’s ‘impossible’ 50 goal record in the league
The Norwegian striker has scored 32 league goals and has Messi’s magic 50 in his sights.
Erling Braut Haaland, as well as all the records he has already broken so far this season, has a chance to make yet more history in the Premier League. He has managed to score 32 goals this season and is just two behind the record of 34 in a single campaign set by Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer. They are clear goalscoring figures that will take him to his Golden Boot and which put him firmly in Round 12 of the fight for Messi’s record. Haaland is in unchartered territory, genuinely battling for one of those extraordinary, unattainable records that Messi set during his golden period at Barcelona.
The World Cup-winner managed to score 50 goals in LaLiga during the 2011-2012 season in the blaugrana shirt. It is a mind-blowing feat that until recently seemed impossible for any player... until Haaland landed in England. The Norwegian striker has blitzed the Premier League, scoring 32 goals in 28 games under Pep Guardiola.
Eight games remain for Haaland to break Messi’s record
The Leeds-born striker has one goal every 70 minutes and, just to top things off, Haaland hasn’t played more than an hour and ten minutes across the last two games. Against Leicester he was substituted at half-time with the result pratically sewn-up. Three games ago, against Liverpool, the striker was absent as a precaution.
Haaland has managed to score four hat-tricks this season as well as five braces. With eight games to play, Haaland has an impossible and improbable challenge to reach Messi’s 50, but with the Norwegian’s goalscoring ability one cannot be completely sure. Manchester City are in a nerve-wracking battle for the Premier League against Arsenal; City are still alive in two other competitions (Champions League and FA Cup), and the striker is the key figure in the race for all the available trophies.
Lionel Messi still holds the goal record
Messi managed to score four goals twice in his 2012 feat (against Valencia and Espanyol) and the goal binge continued with six hat-tricks in the 37 league games he played that season. Only Cristiano Ronaldo was close to equaling his total in the 2014-2015 season with Real Madrid, but he finished on 48. They are numbers reserved for the greatest of players, although with Haaland involved, any impossible challenge becomes a reality.
