by When Pep Guardiola positively claimed that Manchester City could not replace the outgoing Sergio Agüero in May 2021, he did not create a single meme. Guardiola was launching a global trial for his team’s new attacking talisman. The unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Kane in the summer of 2021 came between two title-winning seasons in which Ilkay Gündogan (13) and Kevin De Bruyne (15) were the club’s top league scorers. Guardiola’s slick creative machine needed a new front man, and they found him in Erling Haaland.
Like Agüero before him – and in contrast to many of City’s most successful signings since the Pep era – Haaland arrived as a bona fide superstar, adding plug-and-play to an already stellar line-up. . Whether it was a bargain is another question. The release clause paid was €60m (£51.2m), but some reports suggest Haaland’s five-year deal could cost the club around £300m. And while there was a terrible logic to City’s rivals’ move, there were still questions.
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Just 21 when he arrived, Haaland had built his reputation on sheer numbers and raw physical attributes. Could he have a place in Guardiola’s sophisticated system, where players are required to fulfill multiple roles? And would his new manager break with tradition and reshape his team to accommodate a goalscoring goalie? He had a problem with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Barcelona. The Swedish striker said Guardiola “bought a Ferrari, filled it up with diesel and drove it around the country”.
Would Haaland also struggle to get the best equipment? A stirring, spirited display in the Community Shield in August 2022 raised concerns, but in his first league game at West Ham he showed his killer instinct. Two precise runs at goal – the first to win a pin, which he converted, and the second to take a pass from Kevin De Bruyne and finish with ease. The doubt evaporated; the goals were not. Haaland scored 36 times in 35 league games in his first season – a Premier League record.
The goals often came in giddying bursts – three against Palace in 19 minutes, a fatal first-half trick in defeating Nottingham Forest. In the Manchester derby, another hat-trick is delivered with commanding swagger, as was the case with this scintillating finish to De Bruyne’s perfect cross. This generational goalscorer has successfully assimilated into a team brimming with creative talent, and has been tackling Premier League defenses at will. One goal against Brighton was almost comical in its brute force, Haaland heading to Ederson’s clearance and smashing everyone in his path.
Guardiola doesn’t build route one teams, but Haaland’s qualities give City a second edge, another key on the chain to de-select defences. There was only one of his 35 goals score from inside the box, where it is devastatingly accurate. Haaland can look like a deceptively simple player – he’s very big, and very fast – but he’s also got great attacking awareness, a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
From bursting into the public consciousness with nine goals in one game for Norway’s under-20s to reaching the top of our rankings, Haaland has maintained his undying love for football, an unrelenting desire to score, no matter what way he can. Take this acrobatic finish against poor Southampton, or the moment he unlocked a new achievement against Chelsea. “I’ve never scored with my ball before,” he revealed cheerfully afterwards.
In the Champions League, Haaland stretched himself even further when City claimed the hitherto elusive European trophy. In the group stages against Dortmund, he scored a late winner by kicking the ball home at the height of his head. His most devastating goal of the year came against Leipzig in the last 16, scoring five goals in 35 minutes before being substituted, perhaps unhappily. Despite his domestic scoring exploits, Haaland looks set to save extra gear for Europe.
The 23-year-old’s Champions League scoring record is 40 goals in 35 games; he is behind Agüero having played less than half as many games as the Argentine. Although Haaland was less prolific as City progressed towards the trophy, he was still a vital presence. He scored twice in the quarter-final against Bayern Munich, the second a competition-killing counter-punch in Germany’s second goal. Haaland also created a key goal at the Etihad; after finding space on the left, he opted to cross Bernardo Silva to head home and bring the treble a step closer.
It was the sign of a subtle evolution, the goal man tweaking his game to align more closely with his teammates. In last season’s battles with title rivals Arsenal, Haaland set up three goals and scored two as City put on a final clinic. He scored the fourth at the Etihad – his 49th of the season – having already let his hair down, literally. It almost felt like a dig, an example of the sense of spontaneity Haaland has brought to a team often accused of lacking personality.
Undoubtedly ambitious and driven by the pursuit of records and silverware, Haaland still cuts an extraordinary figure as the game’s new global superstar. While another contender for the throne, Kylian Mbappé, is embroiled in politics at PSG, Haaland seems impossibly laid back, making headlines for his casual clothing choices. If there were tactical issues surrounding his move to City, his signing made no sense. An untroubled hero for a club whose fortunes and public image are more complicated, the striker also had the world at his feet. the boy in a sky-blue shirt his father, Alfie, played at Maine Road.
A fan favorite after an extraordinary 18 months in Manchester, Haaland still has room to improve in this all-powerful team. It’s amazing that there are still long spells in games when it looks marginal. His teammates could make better use of his speed and control in those small spaces behind the defence. He has yet to score against Brentford. From an international perspective, it was a disappointment that he failed to lead Norway to Euro 2024. But even in that area, he has 27 goals in 29 appearances. The numbers don’t add up.
Haaland finished his first season with 52 goals, including 36 in the Premier League, breaking a record that had not been used since 1995. Even when City have been in comparison this season, their strike rate has barely let up up; overall he is currently at 71 goals in 75 games. He is already 12th in the club’s top scorers list, and there is little reason to think the goals and trophies will dry up anytime soon. The question is not whether Haaland can stay on top of the world, but who in the world can replace him.
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