Erling Haaland continues to fascinate world football. With Norway, the striker once again demonstrated his talent in front of goal on Saturday during his team's big victory (5-0) against Israel in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The Manchester City star scored a hat-trick (27th, 63rd and 72nd) to bring his total to 51 goals in just 46 caps, including 24 in his last 15 meetings with his country.
Figures which confirm his status as a phenomenon and his historical trajectory towards the best European scorers of all time. And the worst part is that the Norwegian cyborg missed a penalty at the start of the match! Once his attempt was repelled by Peretz, the Israeli goalkeeper, Haaland passed the second and dragged his comrades with him.
The “world” will discover Haaland
No other Norwegian player scored in this game, since it was thanks to two own goals from Oscar Gloukh's teammates that the Norwegians scored their two other goals of the day, Khalaili and Nachmias.
Norway will return to the World Cup since it is at the top of this group with 6 victories in 6 matches, in a group where Italy is struggling. The world stage will finally be able to describe Erling Haaland and his gang, while the Norwegians had missed the major events of recent years.
Erling Haaland is on a goal base in the selection that even the greatest have never known. The 50-goal mark has been reached and even exceeded and he literally crushes the standards established by the giants of world football. Where Harry Kane needed 71 matches, Neymar 74, and Mbappé or Lewandowski around 90, Haaland took almost half as many matches.
Even the absolute monuments that are Lionel Messi (107) and Cristiano Ronaldo (114) took more than a hundred selections to reach this milestone. At this rate, the Manchester City striker could shatter all European goalscoring records if he maintains his average.
