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Lionel Messi in top 50
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Erling Haaland is unquestionably the greatest goalscorer of his generation and the 25-year-old has enjoyed a remarkable start to the season. The prolific striker’s hat-trick against Israel for Norway on Saturday night means Haaland has scored 21 goals in just 12 games already this campaign.
Haaland has scored 12 goals in just nine games for Manchester City and an incredible nine goals in just three games for his country. The former Borussia Dortmund striker became the quickest player to reach 50 goals in the Champions League and he reached a similar milestone at international level against Israel. Haaland’s second goal in the 5-0 rout was his 50th goal for Norway in just his 46th game for his country. And we’ve ranked where Haaland ranks amongst players to score 50 international goals in the fewest games.
50 international goals: Players to reach milestone in fewest games
Haaland ranks fourth across history but the Norwegian striker has the best goals to game ratio (1.11) of any player with a minimum of 40 caps - narrowly eclipsing Gerd Müller and Sándor Kocsis (both 1.10). Poul Nielsen is the quickest player ever to reach 50 international goals, requiring just 36 games to reach that milestone for Denmark. Nielsen made his international debut in 1910 and his last match for Denmark arrived in 1915. The aforementioned Kocsis and Muller rank second and third respectively, with legendary Brazilian striker Pelé completing the top five alongside Haaland.
As the graphic above illustrates, Harry Kane completes the top ten list with the Bayern Munich striker reaching the milestone in 71 games. Some famous faces sit narrowly outside the top ten with Neymar in 14 and Kylian Mbappé in 26th. Argentina legend Lionel Messi and Portugal icon Cristiano Ronaldo are widely regarded as two of the greatest footballers in history but they required 107 and 114 games respectively, which puts Haaland’s modern-day achievement in context.
