Erling Haaland turns 25: How does his goalscoring record compare to other great goalscorers such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo?

On Erling Haaland's 25th birthday, Sports Mole looks at the Norwegian extraordinaire's goal record, and how it compares to other greats from the past.

Despite only just turning 25, Erling Haaland already has a goalscoring record that many strikers would be proud of across an entire career, illustrating just how extraordinary his achievements have been in front of goal.

Whether it was during his breakout at Molde, his rise to prominence at Red Bull Salzburg, his remarkable numbers at Borussia Dortmund, or his record-shattering start to life at Manchester City, Haaland has scored relentlessly wherever he has been.

His numbers span numerous competitions too, whether that be in the domestic league, the Champions League, or at international level, Haaland always finds himself near the top of the scoring charts.

On his 25th birthday, Sports Mole looks back at Haaland’s career stats to date, and how they stack up alongside some other modern greats when they hit 25.

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Haaland's record at the age of 25:

Starting from his breakout as a full professional at Molde, Haaland has played 312 club matches, netting an astonishing 259 goals across all competitions.

Scoring 20 goals in 50 games for Molde was enough for the Red Bull group to take a punt on Haaland, as he went to Salzburg in the winter of 2019, and in just 12 months in Austria, he plundered another 29 in just 27 matches.

Dortmund were sold, and parted with just under £20m to bring the Norwegian to the Westfalenstadion, where he kept up that staggering feat of averaging virtually a goal every game, with 86 in 89 matches.

Haaland could have chose any club in world football to move to next in 2022, but he decided to link up with Pep Guardiola and Man City, and that was justified, as the club won the treble, and the striker won the European Golden Shoe, thanks to scoring a record-breaking 36 Premier League goals that year.

The goals have hardly slowed either, as Haaland has scored another 72 in 93 games in the last two seasons, collecting another Premier League Golden Boot.

Across his career, Haaland has scored 23 hat tricks, and 11 of them have come for Man City, with eight being in the Premier League, ranking him fourth alongside English football greats Harry Kane, Thierry Henry and Michael Owen

At international level, that trend continues, as Haaland has scored 42 goals in 43 caps for his country, and has finished as the UEFA Nations League’s top scorer twice, being the competition’s all-time record scorer.

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Haaland at 25 vs. Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe, Lewandowski, Kane

Looking at those numbers, it is no surprise that Haaland has the best goals-to-game ratio out of all of the modern day’s elite-level attackers.

Even the great Lionel Messi has seen his number of goals before 25 eclipsed by Haaland, with Norwegian scoring 301 to Messi’s 279, doing so in 44 fewer games too.

Kylian Mbappe has been the standout player alongside the Man City man during this era of Haaland dominance, and even his numbers are not at the same level, because despite netting 309, eight more than Haaland, before turning 25, he played 66 more matches to do so.

Cristiano Ronaldo will die by the sword that he is the finest goalscorer football has ever seen, but it is already well documented that his earlier years, in particular at Manchester United, did not produce that many, as he had only notched 160 in 407 games before turning 25.

Haaland’s tally of 301 also blows Robert Lewandowski (172 goals) and Harry Kane (213 goals) out of the water, with the City man needing just two years and three weeks to match the number of Premier League hat tricks Kane managed in a decade at Tottenham Hotspur.

It is therefore no surprise that he has the most number of competitive hat tricks out of this sextet, with his 23rd against Kazakhstan for Norway in November taking him one ahead of Messi, who managed 22 before his 25th birthday.

Across all competitions, Mbappe put away 17 hat tricks in that time, Kane 11, Lewandowski three, and surprisingly just one for Ronaldo, despite his record-shattering career in front of goal.

There is one record that Haaland does not have though, and that is the highest number of Champions League goals scored before 25, as Messi edges that one with 51, but the Barcelona legend did play more matches, as Haaland has, to this point, notched a whopping 49 goals in 48 matches in the competition.

Haaland’s tally still eclipses that of the rest too, with Mbappe (42), Ronaldo (21), Lewandowski (11) and Kane (nine) all lingering a fair distance back.

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