Erling Haaland surpasses Messi, Mbappe, Ronaldo to enter elite club, rewrites FIFA World Cup history in Brazil vs Norway
In the Brazil vs Norway match, Erling Haaland scored twice to send the South American team home. With this, he entered an elite club that even Messi, Mbappe and Ronaldo don't have ticket to.
Norway's Erling Haaland has rewritten FIFA World Cup history with his remarkable goalscoring run. His brace against Brazil took his tally to 7 goals in 4 appearances in his FIFA World Cup debut.
He is the first player to achieve this since Germany's Gerd Muller in 1970. Muller scored 8 goals across his first 4 World Cup matches.
Haaland is also the 4th player to score 4 match-winning goals in a single World Cup edition. Grzegorz Lato achieved 5 in 1974 and Salvatore Schillaci 5 in 1990. Muller also scored 4 match-winning goals in 1970.
His World Cup journey started against Iraq. In the 29th minute, he muscled through the penalty area to convert an Antonio Nusa cross in trademark fashion. He doubled his tally shortly after, capitalising on a goalkeeping error following high pressing.
Against Brazil, Haaland contested 4 aerial duels and won every single one. He has won 14 of his 18 aerial duels across the entire tournament. This is the best aerial duel success rate of any striker contesting more than 15 duels at a World Cup since 1966.
To contextualise his extraordinary start, consider how other legends started their FIFA World Cup journey. Lionel Messi, aged 18, scored just 1 goal on his World Cup debut in 2006.
In the same year, Cristiano Ronaldo made his World Cup debut. CR7 scored 1 goal that year.
Kylian Mbappe scored 4 goals on his debut tournament in Russia in 2018. France won the trophy that year. Haaland's 7 goals in 4 appearances comprehensively eclipses those iconic debuts.
Social Media Reaction
Fans reacted to Haaland’s achievement after the Brazil vs Norway match. They took to social media to express themselves.
“People wondered if he could do it on the biggest international stage. 4 games later, he’s knocked out Brazil and equalled a 56-year-old record. Golden Boot incoming,” wrote one of them.
“Numbers don’t lie and everywhere he goes he backs himself up as the best “tap in merchant” they’ll ever see!” wrote another fan.
Another fan commented, “Matching numbers that haven't been touched since Gerd Müller in 1970 is absolutely absurd. Erling Haaland is casually rewriting modern World Cup history in his very first tournament. Inevitable.”
“The scary part is he is still writing his World Cup story. If he keeps this pace, more historic records are going to fall,” came from another.
Some are now calling him “The man of the moment” while others name him “The goal machine himself”.