Manchester City striker Erling Haaland broke Norway’s all-time goalscoring record at the age of 24 in their Nations League win against Slovenia.
He netted his 33rd international goal early in the game to go level with Jorgen Juve, who played in the 1920s and ’30s, and then took the outright record in the second half with his 34th Norway goal.
Haaland, who made his Norway debut in 2019, has only taken 36 games to reach the record mark.
Juve reached the previous record total in his first 27 games. He played at centre-back later in his career and ended on 45 caps without adding to his goal tally.
He became a newspaper journalist after retiring from football.
His record was finally matched after 90 years when Haaland slammed home a rebound through Jan Oblak’s legs.
Haaland was captaining his country in the absence of the injured Martin Odegaard.
The striker broke the long-standing record with a first-time finish from 16 yards out, ending the game with 10 shots, seven on target.
Alexander Sorloth scored Norway’s other goal.
Afterwards, Haaland shared a picture on social media of him with the ball under his shirt – and an emoji of a baby and the word soon, suggesting his partner Isabel is pregnant.
While Haaland’s 34 goals is a low tally compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 132 international goals for Portugal or Lionel Messi’s 109 for Argentina – or even the 68 of Harry Kane (England) and Robbie Keane (Republic of Ireland) – it is still higher than many other nations’ top scorers.
Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law are Scotland’s top scorers with 30 goals each.
- Some of Haaland’s other records…
Haaland has already reached many goalscoring landmarks in his club career – hitting 236 goals for Molde, Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund and City.
- His record 100th goal for Manchester City – in his 105th game – equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record at Real Madrid of fewest games needed to reach a century for a team from Europe’s top five leagues.
- He holds the record for most Premier League goals in a season – the 36 he managed in 2022-23.
- In Germany, he became the youngest player to ever hit 50 Bundesliga goals – aged 21 – and needed the fewest games to do it (50).
- He reached 40 Champions League goals in 35 games, 10 fewer than Ruud van Nistelrooy, the previous record holder.
