Erling Haaland, the Manchester city star has been actively contributing on national duty.With an impressive 48 goals in 45 games averaging 1.19 goals per game, he looks to be threatening the global superstar’s record.
What’s the news?
Norway on Tuesday night annihilated Macedonia with a 11-1 win. Almost breaking the all-time record of 12-0 win for Germany back in 1969. To no surprise the Star striker made the score card with no less than 5 goals to his name. Again just falling short of the record of Hans Krankl who managed 6 goals for Austria.
Head to Head(All-Time)
| Player | Matches Played | Goals | Goals per 90 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 169 | 119 | 0.74 |
| Erling Haaland | 35 | 39 | 1.19 |
Now you might ponder, how can Haaland be even remotely close to beating Ronaldo’s legacy. But here is where we start considering two factors.
- Age: We have to consider the fact that the Portuguese superstar is 15 years ahead of the Norwegian striker. The crux being that to make it fair we need an even playing surface with regards to matches played.
- Ratio:With respect to the earlier point,this is of similar context, After comparison of the matches played to goals scored we can devise an estimation of when the youngster will be able to catch up.
To combat the above drawbacks, let’s look into a balanced comparison.
Head to Head(First 30 games)
| Player | Goals | Assists | Total(GA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erling Haaland | 30 | 3 | 33 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 15 | 10 | 25 |
As seen above, The Norwegian beats the Portuguese super star in terms of efficiency in the first 30 spells for their nation.With this information, we are now open to speculate if Haaland could potentially break this record.
Will Haaland Surpass Ronaldo?
Erling Haaland’s international scoring rate (1.19 goals per 90) suggests he could surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s 117-goal record in about 66 more games.Given Norway’s average of 8 competitive matches a year, that would take around nine years. To achieve it, Haaland must maintain his prolific form well into his mid-30s, just as Ronaldo has.
Writer’s Take
The prediction above is driven by a lot of uncertain factors like maintaining the consistent ratio, qualifying for the world cup, injuries etc. We also still have to factor that the Portuguese is still actively scoring goals in his sleep.
Even if we deem this dataset to be final and Haaland stays consistent, he will still have to be active and perform at his mid 30’s which is where most football players hang their boots. In my view, this record will not be touched for a long time,but it’s a motive for the youngster to get close to.
Written by: Hubaish
