When Pep Guardiola tearfully claimed in May 2021 that Manchester City could not replace the outgoing Sergio Aguero, he did not just create a meme. Guardiola was launching a global audition for his team’s new attacking talisman. An 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 scorers. Guardiola’s slick creative machine needed a new frontman, and they found it in Erling Haaland.
Like Aguero before him – and unlike many of City’s most successful signings of the Pep era – Haaland emerged as a bona fide superstar, a plug-and-play addition to an already stellar line-up. Whether he was a bargain is another question. The paid release clause was €60m (£51.2m), but some reports suggest Haaland’s five-year contract could cost the club around £300m. And while there was an ominous logic to City’s rivals’ move, questions remained.
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At just 21, Haaland had built his reputation on big numbers and raw physical attributes. Could he take a place in Guardiola’s advanced system, which requires players to fulfill multiple roles? And would his new manager break with tradition and reshape his team to accommodate an all-out goalscorer? It was a problem he had experienced with Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Barcelona. The Swedish striker said Guardiola “bought a Ferrari, filled it with diesel and drove it through the countryside”.
Would Haaland also struggle to get into top gear? An awkward but enthusiastic display in the Community Shield in August 2022 caused concern, but he showed his killer instincts in his first league match at West Ham. Two precise runs from behind – the first to win a penalty, which he converted, and the second to meet Kevin De Bruyne’s pass and finish effortlessly. The doubts evaporated; the goals are not. Haaland went on to score 36 times in 35 league appearances in his debut season – a Premier League record.
The goals often came in dizzying bursts: three against Palace in 19 minutes, a deadly first-half hat-trick in a defeat to Nottingham Forest. The Manchester derby saw another hat-trick delivered with dominant swagger, typified by this lunging finish to De Bruyne’s perfect cross. This generational goalscorer had successfully incorporated himself into a team packed with creative talent, throwing himself into Premier League defenses at will. One goal against Brighton was almost comical in its raw power, with Haaland racing onto an Ederson clearance and bulldozing everyone in his path.
Guardiola doesn’t build route-one teams, but Haaland’s quality offers City a second edge, another key in the chain to unravel the defence. All but one of those were 35 goals scored from the penalty area, where it is devastatingly accurate. Haaland may look like a deceptively simplistic player – he is very tall and exceptionally quick – but he also has great attacking awareness and a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
From breaking into the public consciousness with nine goals in one match for Norway Under-20 to taking his place at the top of our rankings, Haaland has retained his boyish love of football, a desire to score ruthlessly in any way then. Take this acrobatic finish against poor Southampton, or the moment he achieved another feat against Chelsea. “I have never scored with my balls,” he revealed cheerfully afterwards.
In the Champions League, Haaland went even further as City claimed the previously elusive European trophy. In the group stage against Dortmund he scored a late winner by kicking the ball home at head height. His most devastating goal this year came against Leipzig in the last sixteen. He scored five goals in the space of 35 minutes before being substituted, perhaps out of pity. Despite his domestic goals, Haaland appears to be saving an extra kit for Europe.
The 23-year-old’s goalscoring record in the Champions League stands at 40 goals in 35 games; he is one behind Aguero and has played less than half as many games as the Argentinian. Although Haaland became less productive as City drew closer to the trophy, he was still a crucial presence. He scored twice in the quarter-final against Bayern Munich, the second being a match-killing counter-punch in the second leg in Germany. Haaland also created an important goal at the Etihad; After finding space on the left, he opted to cross to Bernardo Silva to head home and take the treble a big step closer.
It was the sign of a subtle evolution, with the goalkeeper adapting his game to better align with his teammates. In last season’s battle with title rivals Arsenal, Haaland scored three goals and netted two as City put on a closing clinic. He scored fourth at the Etihad – his 49th of the season – having literally already let himself down. 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 unusual figure as the game’s new global superstar. While another candidate for the throne, Kylian Mbappe, is bogged down in politics at PSG, Haaland seems impossibly relaxed and is only making headlines for his casual wear choices. If there were tactical questions surrounding his move to City, his signing was a marketing no-brainer. An unproblematic hero for a club whose success and public image are more complicated, the striker with the world at his feet was also the boy in a sky blue shirt whose father, Alfie, played at Maine Road.
Loved by fans after an extraordinary 18 months in Manchester, there is still room for Haaland to improve in this all-conquering team. Incredibly, there are still long periods in games where he can seem peripheral. His teammates were able to make better use of his pace and control in the small spaces behind the defense. He hasn’t scored against Brentford yet. Internationally, his failure to lead Norway to the 2024 European Championship was a disappointment. But even in that arena he has 27 goals in 29 appearances. The numbers don’t lie.
Haaland finished his first season with 52 goals, including 36 in the Premier League, breaking a record untouched since 1995. Even with City relatively out of step this season, his strike rate has hardly budged; Overall, it currently stands at 71 goals in 75 games. He is already 12th on the club’s all-time top scorer list and there is little reason to believe the goals and trophies will dry up any time soon. The question is not whether Haaland can stay on top of the world, but who on earth can replace him.
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