Erling Haaland scoring goals has become so normal that perhaps we have stopped appreciating how ridiculous it actually is. Crystal Palace discovered that again.
Manchester City left Selhurst Park with a 4–1 victory on the Friday Night Football, and Haaland left with another two goals.
His first was a beautifully controlled header from Antoine Semenyo’s cross. His second was classic Haaland: Phil Foden releases him, one touch, left foot, finished. Nothing complicated. Nothing wasted. That simplicity is precisely what makes him terrifying.
Haaland now has 112 Premier League goals. He reached 100 in only 111 appearances, smashing Alan Shearer’s previous record of 124 matches. Last season brought another 27 league goals and a third Golden Boot.
At 26, the question surrounding him is changing. It is no longer whether Haaland can become a Premier League great. It is whether he can become its greatest goalscorer.
Shearer’s 260 once felt untouchable. Haaland still needs another 148, which sounds enormous until you remember who we are discussing. The Premier League calculated last year that, maintaining his scoring rate, Haaland could reach Shearer around 2031. His Manchester City contract runs until 2034; the opportunity is there.
Yet one strange omission remains in his career: the Ballon d’Or.
Haaland finished second to Lionel Messi in 2023 despite scoring 52 goals during City’s treble-winning season. He has not returned to the podium since. Perhaps that exposes football’s complicated relationship with him.
Haaland does not always produce the artistry voters romanticise. He destroys teams through movement, strength and an almost frightening understanding of where a goal is about to exist. There is beauty in that too.
If Manchester City return to the summit under Enzo Maresca and Haaland keeps scoring, another Ballon d’Or conversation becomes unavoidable. Shearer’s record remains distant, but every goal makes it slightly less comfortable, and perhaps that’s the most frightening thing about Erling Haaland.