Powered by Haaland’s insatiable hunger for goals, City chased down long-time Premier League leaders Arsenal to win a third successive title. He also led them to win the FA Cup, enjoying a satisfying win in the final over arch-rivals Manchester United.
Most importantly, Haaland inspired City to win the Champions League, the trophy they had craved the most and which they had seemed incapable of achieving until the arrival of the Norwegian, who also finished top scorer in Europe’s elite competition.
With an achievement list like that, it’s a wonder why there even needs to be a voting process for this year’s Ballon d’Or. As for goals, he explains, no one can rival Haaland for the most prestigious individual award in football. Not even Messi…
Haaland arrived in England last year already renowned for his logic-defying goal-scoring feats with previous clubs Red Bull Salzburg, where he had scored 17 goals in 16 league matches, and Borussia Dortmund, where he had posted 62 goals in 67 Bundesliga appearances. Few people expected him to be able to maintain such a prolific strike rate in the toughest league in the world, however.
Haaland, who had just turned 22 at when he signed for City for £52 million ($65m), quickly put his doubters in their place, scoring nine goals in his opening five games, including back-to-back hat-tricks. Far from being slowed down by the step-up to English football, he sped up and went on to score more goals than he had in any previous season, breaking new records with each passing week.
By October, Haaland had become the fastest player to score three Premier League hat-tricks, doing so in eight games. The previous record holder was Michael Owen, who needed 48 games to reach the milestone for Liverpool. By the end of February, he had scored 27 league goals, breaking Sergio Aguero’s record for the most goals in a Premier League season for City.
Haaland also went past Alan Shearer and Andy Cole’s record of netting 34 Premier League goals in a season, which had stood for 28 years. He finished the campaign with 36 Premier League strikes in 35 matches and only 32 starts, averaging a goal every 77 minutes.
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