Erling Haaland's incredible 2024 saw him break the 87-year-old record and he is on track to achieve Cristinao Ronaldo's impressive feat

There was a period when it seemed like we would never see players as great as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi again.

Then Erling Haaland arrived.

While the couple of soccer legends were fighting in The Classic and setting records that seemed insurmountable, Haaland was ticking off the radar in Mold and Salzburg, which later became seismic in Borussia Dortmund and city ​​of manchester.

In the latter team, the Norwegian striker has done it all, winning City's first Champions League and European treble in his debut season in 2022/23 with a staggering 52 goals in 53 games.

Since then he has not let his guard down and is, according to many, the best scorer in world football.

Haaland's first mistake on the radar came when he scored a ridiculous nine goals for Norway in the 12-0 victory over Poland as a teenager at the U20 World Cup.

However, despite topping the charts in Salzburg and Dortmund in the years since, Haaland has not reached the same heights with Norway until now.

With 11 goals in ten games for his country this calendar year, Haaland is living up to the hope placed in him by a nation.

No player currently has more goals than the 24-year-old. League of Nations campaign, bringing his total to seven in six games with a hat-trick against Kazakhstan that promoted Norway to the A-League.

In fact, earlier in the campaign, against Slovenia in October, he became his country's all-time leading scorer with two goals that surpassed the 87-year-old record held by Jorgen Juve.

Haaland is now accelerating well beyond that feat, and with 38 goals in 39 internationals, the sky is the limit.

Getting to the top will be a tall order, however, especially considering the man there is still adding to his total.

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Ronaldo is the second top scorer in the 2023/24 Nations League with five goals, and now has 135 for his country, leaving him far behind the Argentine captain and old rival. Lionel Messi who is in second place with 112.

The 39-year-old Al Nassr striker also recently became the first footballer in history to score 900 goals and, from all indications, seems ready to aim for 1,000.

Haaland, however, is already undermining a number of your recordsparticularly in a competition that Ronaldo made his own with five titles, the Champions League.

The number 9 is the fastest and youngest player to score 40 goals and, for the first time, Ronaldo's record of 140 goals in Europe's top competition appears to be under threat.

However, Haaland has been able to do so playing for arguably the best manager of all time on potentially the best team in Europe since joining, something that cannot be said for his situation with the national team.

Even with other elite talents, the Arsenal star Martin Odegaardand several other high-caliber stars in the Norway team, the Scandinavian team is miles away from Portugal and is therefore a guarantee of additional games in the tournament for Haaland to fill his boots.

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Haaland is currently scoring goals for Norway at a rate of 0.97 per game, compared to Ronaldo's 0.62, meaning that if Haaland maintained that rate he would break the Portugal captain's record in his 140th game.

Reaching 140 games is far from a guarantee given playing time, and there are questions about whether that will change soon.

Norway hasn't been to a major tournament since Euro 2000 and even with the firings of Haaland and Odegaard, they haven't seen the level of improvement needed.

After missing Euro 2020 by four qualifying points, they then missed the 2022 World Cup qualifying play-offs by three points against Türkiye.

Even with their success in the Nations League, in terms of major tournaments things are on the decline, with Norway falling to within six points of Scotland in Euro 2024 qualification, meaning a place at the 2026 World Cup is by no means a certainty.

Such disadvantages mean Haaland plays an average of 6.5 international matches per year, as opposed to Ronaldo's 9.7; At that rate, Haaland wouldn't reach the 140-game mark until 2040, when he'll turn 40.

With Ronaldo turning 40 in February, the math suggests Ronaldo's record is indeed under threat, particularly if Norway can improve enough to give their star the necessary extra games.

Ronaldo, however, is known as one of the fittest players to ever play the sport and has remained virtually injury-free throughout his career, unlike Haaland who was blighted by a series of problems. in Dortmund.

However, all caveats aside, it's clear that fans are once again witnessing a level of greatness that many thought was impossible, and Ronaldo may have to stick around a little longer if he wants to maintain one of his longest records. famous people under lock and key.