Manchester City are on the verge of signing Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund.
A deal has been reached between City and Borussia Dortmund to take the much sought-after striker to the Etihad Stadium in a deal worth around £51milllion. The initial outlay is lower than the widely reported £51m release clause.
Haaland has a history with City as his dad, Alf-Inge, played for the club and his son has attended many games over the years. Here, the Manchester Evening News have had a look at some interesting stats about the club’s latest signing.
ALSO READ: Erling Haaland is taking Man City into a new transfer realm
A future Champions League recordbreaker
Erling Haaland has scored 23 goals in 19 Champions League appearances. That’s more than Cristiano Ronaldo (none), Lionel Messi (eight), and Kylian Mbappe (12) managed after the same number of games.
Scores the equivalent of more than a goal a game
Erling Haaland has scored 61 goals in 66 appearances in the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund. However, when you take playing time into account it works out at more than one a game for the Norwegian. Haaland has played a total of 5,298 minutes in Germany’s top flight. That means his league goals have come at the rate of one every 87 minutes that he’s been on the pitch.
Scoring record against English clubs
Encouragingly for Manchester City fans, Haaland’s goalscoring record against English clubs is pretty good. So far he’s played four, scored four. Two of those appearances and goals were against City, and the other two were against Liverpool.
Norwegians at City
Haaland is, famously, the son of former City player Alf-Inge Haaland. When he joins, Erling Haaland will become the ninth Norwegian at Manchester City. Aside from his Dad, his predecessors are - Oscar Bobb, Omar Elabdellaoui, Age Hareide, Abdisalam Ibrahim, Kare Ingebrigtsen, Erik Johansen, and Egil Ostenstad.
Leeds lad
Erling Haaland was born when his Dad, Alfie, was playing for Leeds. Much has been made of his supposed support of the club and Leeds did reportedly try to sign him before he moved to Red Bull Salzburg. When he joins City though, Haaland will become only the second Leeds-born player to sign for Manchester City. The first was James Milner. For those of you shouting “Micah Richards” at their screen, he was born in Birmingham but grew up in Leeds.
Hitting the ground running
It takes Haaland no time at all to start scoring at a new club. He scored 11 goals in the first seven league games of the 2018/19 season at RB Salzburg - his first full campaign at the club. He scored a hat-trick on his league debut with Borussia Dortmund, going on to score nine in his first six league games there.
Goal droughts
Goal droughts aren’t something that Haaland is used to. His longest run of league games without a goal four Dortmund is four. That was between March 13 and April 8 this year, came after Haaland had been out for a month with muscular problems, and included two games where he played a total of 60 minutes.
Salary
Haaland’s rumoured salary of £400,000 a week works out as £20.8m a year. That’s roughly the same as the entire wage bill of Millwall last season (£20.84m). It’s also more than the wages bills of at least 30 EFL clubs, though likely more as not all clubs publish their wage bill in their accounts.
Transfer fee
The £51m transfer fee Manchester City are spending on Haaland is more than the wage bills of 20 of last season’s Championship clubs, and as many as 12 League One clubs combined.
Versatility
Haaland favours scoring with his left foot. Almost three-quarters of his league goals this season (15) have come from his left peg. He’s scored three with his right leg, and three with his head.
Sign up to our City newsletter so you never miss an update from the Etihad Stadium this season.
