Erling Haaland surpasses Messi and Ronaldo, but he’s a long way short of the record

After missing out on silverware last season, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland looks back to his destructive best this year.

With a red-hot start to the season Haaland has now scored goals in 12 consecutive matches between Manchester City and the Norwegian national team. It’s an incredible goalscoring streak, one that has us dusting off the record books in search of the world record.

Impressively, Haaland has already seen off two of the greatest goalscorers in soccer history; Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. CR7’s best streak dates back to 2014, when he found the back of the net in 11 consecutive games. Messi has twice manage a ten-game scoring streak, the first in 2010 and the second spanning 2012 and 2013.

The longest scoring run in Europe’s top five leagues is held by Robert Lewandowski, who scored in 14 consecutive games between Bayern Munich and the Polish national team. Lewandowski, now with Barcelona, set the record in 2021 and ended that season with 41 goals in 29 Bundesliga appearances.

Elsewhere in European soccer history, former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy scored in 12 consecutive games in 2003. Until this week, Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé looks to be on track to change Haaland for the record but he drew a blank in the midweek Champions League victory over Juventus. That ends Mbappé‘s streak on 11 consecutive games.

Across the entirety of soccer history, the all-time record is held by Austrian-Czech striker Josef Bican, who scored goals in 22 consecutive matches between 1939 and 1940. He is credited with 950 goals scored in 624 official games, considered by some to be the greatest goalscorer in soccer history.

Looking further afield, Chilean forward Jaime Riveros scored in 15 consecutive games for Santiago Wanderers in 2004. He scored 21 goals across those record-breaking 15 matches and is still thought to hold the record to this day.

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