Erling Haaland’s relentless goalscoring rampage in his first season at Manchester City has written a new chapter in the Premier League’s history books.
Haaland is now the highest scorer across all competitions in a single campaign since it began, eclipsing the 44 goals scored by Ruud van Nistelrooy at Manchester United and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
The 22-year-old’s past deeds at RB Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund created a frenzy of expectation when he signed for City, but the rate at which Haaland has racked up goals has surprised even the most optimistic observers.
In covering every Premier League season since its inception, I do not recall a striker with a more voracious appetite for goals playing in a team so ideally placed to satisfy it.
Haaland, from a defensive perspective, is a terrifying cocktail of physical power, lightning pace and a desire to score and score again. And again.
And the worrying thing for those hoping the well will run dry is that it is not a stretch to suggest Haaland and City are still getting used to each other, still perfecting the marriage of manager Pep Guardiola’s passing game with the sheer power and menace the Norwegian offers.
This will not be the last record Haaland breaks.
Dixie Dean’s 60 league goals in a season for Everton 95 years ago might be out of reach but elsewhere all bets are off, the real unknown being how long Haaland will stay in Manchester.
Football did exist before 1992 – I know because I was there – but what follows here is a look at some of the most prolific strikers in the Premier League era.
Magicians such as Eric Cantona and Dennis Bergkamp have not been ignored here. They deserve examining in the wider context away from just goalscoring, such was the breadth of their talent.
But Haaland’s latest record has made me revisit some of the great strikers that I have seen in my career as a football journalist.
And it is a tribute to Haaland’s first season in the Premier League, and the almost-frightening room for development he still has at City, that if he stays long enough he could put the records of all these great players in the shade – and quickly.
‘Identikit world-class striker’ – Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer still leads the Premier League’s all-time standings, the identikit world-class striker.
Powerful in the air despite not being especially tall, he was physically imposing and a goalscorer of the highest quality, as proved when he inspired Blackburn Rovers to the title in 1995. He later lived the dream wearing the number nine shirt of his beloved Newcastle United, the statue outside St James’ Park testimony to his club record 206 goals in 404 games.
My first sighting of Shearer came when I saw the 19-year-old playing for Southampton against Liverpool in October 1989 as part of a gifted attack alongside Paul Rideout, Rod Wallace and Matthew Le Tissier.
Liverpool were already on their way to what would be their last title for 30 years but Shearer, supplied with concrete-clad self-belief even as a teenager, destroyed Liverpool’s celebrated defensive duo of Alan Hansen and Glenn Hysen in Saints’ 4-1 win.
‘The King’ – Didier Drogba
Didier Drogba was another centre forward in the classic mould. His speciality was the big game. Could anyone deliver when it mattered quite like Drogba?
I was in attendance for his greatest hour, the 2012 Champions League final when Chelsea claimed the crown for the first time against Bayern Munich in their own Allianz Arena.
Drogba scored Chelsea’s late equaliser before calmly tucking in the deciding penalty in the shootout. He even gave away a penalty, which Bayern missed, but put matters right spectacularly.
In the aftermath, in the bowels of the stadium, Frank Lampard just pointed at Drogba as he walked past and said: “He’s my hero. The King. The man who produces.”
And King Didier also scored winning goals in three FA Cup finals, against Manchester United in 2007, Portsmouth three years later and again against Liverpool in 2012. He also scored the equaliser in Chelsea’s win against Everton in 2009.
‘Brutal ruthlessness’ – Thierry Henry
Arsenal fans will bow to no-one in their admiration for Thierry Henry, who could mix brutal ruthlessness and brilliance when it came to scoring, with 228 goals in 377 games – not forgetting Ian Wright’s 185 goals in 288 games.
One moment witnessed in person was truly special, when Henry made a surprise Arsenal comeback on loan from New York Red Bulls to face Leeds United in an FA Cup third-round tie in January 2012.
Henry emerged as a late substitute at Emirates Stadium, taking four touches to get a feel for the old place again before scoring the winner. It may not have been the most important goal in the career of an Arsenal “Invincible” but it was a magical moment.
‘Unalloyed hysteria’ – Sergio Aguero
Has there been a more famous Premier League goal scored by a great striker than the one Sergio Aguero scored after 93 minutes 20 seconds to win Manchester City’s first title for 44 years, snatching it away from Manchester United on goal difference?
To be inside Etihad Stadium on that day in May 2012 was to experience despair, hope, expectation and then pure unalloyed hysteria, all in the space of five stoppage-time minutes, as City scored twice to beat QPR 3-2.
As even those of us in the press box tried to unscramble minds, Aguero took Mario Balotelli’s poked pass, his thought processes a sharp contrast to the manic atmosphere, one touch with his right foot to make the space, another to beat goalkeeper Paddy Kenny.
It was what Aguero did – 184 times in 275 league games for City.
‘Naturally blessed finisher’ – Robbie Fowler
Harry Kane has rightly taken his place among this elite group of strikers as record scorer for Spurs and now England, while the Egyptian King Mohamed Salah overhauled Liverpool’s previous highest Premier League tally of 128 goals by scoring twice in the recent 7-0 win over Manchester United at Anfield.
This brings me neatly to Robbie Fowler, the man whose record Salah overcame.
Liverpool have had a collection of brilliant strikers in the Premier League era, from Michael Owen to Fernando Torres and the flawed genius Luis Suarez, but I would contend none were as naturally blessed as finishers as Fowler.
Fowler had not even played a game for Liverpool when then manager Graeme Souness made the boldest of claims to a group of us sitting on a bench at the old Melwood training headquarters.
The shy Fowler walked past, head down not wanting to attract the attention of his manager or anyone else. Souness pointed at the 18-year-old with the words: “The best finisher at the club.”
Eyebrows were raised as Ian Rush was still at Liverpool, although not in his previous pomp, but lowered shortly after when Fowler scored all five goals in a 5-0 League Cup win over Fulham at Anfield.
Fowler won a mere 26 England caps in the era of Shearer and Teddy Sheringham, scoring 183 goals in 369 appearances for Liverpool. You felt you could blindfold Fowler anywhere on a football pitch and he could tell you exactly where the goal was.
‘Barely had a weakness’ – Wayne Rooney
Fowler had a natural gift and street wisdom for the game shared by another Scouse teenage prodigy, Wayne Rooney.
Rooney was a wild, untamed talent when he burst on the scene as a 16-year-old for Everton with his famous winner against Arsenal before illuminating the global stage with England at Euro 2004 in Portugal.
In his early days at Everton, few visits to their Bellefield training ground passed without someone asking: “Have you seen him?” “Him” was Wayne Rooney. And this was when he was 14.
Rooney had barely a weakness, scoring a record 253 goals in 559 games for United and creating countless others. Five Premier Leagues, the Champions League, the FA Cup and three League Cups justify his status as a great.
Manchester United’s greats are many, including the man some would say is the greatest of all, Cristiano Ronaldo. Forget his acrimonious departure this season. He will always be a legend at Old Trafford.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was another, with a remarkable 150 goals in 2019 games for United, and yet his five-year career at Old Trafford only brought one title and one FA Cup, a surprising statistic given his sustained, clinical goalscoring.
‘Quicksilver and lethal’ – Andrew Cole
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the goal poacher supreme but Andrew Cole is still, in my opinion, underrated.
Quicksilver and lethal in the area, he scored 121 goals in 275 games for United after scoring 68 in just 74 for Newcastle United before a then British record £6.25m move.
Unlike Van Nistelrooy, Cole got full value for his goals with five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and of course the Champions League in 1999.
Largely overlooked for England, Cole even rounded off his silverware collection by scoring the winning goal for Blackburn Rovers in the 2002 League Cup final against Tottenham.