The human bulldozer better known as Erling Haaland first caught my eye one August night in 2018 in a Europa League qualifier against Hibs. My memory of that night in Molde was Ryan Porteous smacking Haaland and being booked while he and Efe Ambrose were given the runaround by an 18-year-old superstar in the making. It was initially just the sheer size of him given he was just a big kid but it was soon clear that he was also an absolute machine. He scored twice that night and ripped Hibs apart.
There was a bit of doubt whether he'd even be playing that night as he was in discussion with Red Bull Salzburg over megabucks move to Austria. Football has seen nothing like him. It's not a fluke he's scored 18 times in 13 games since signing for Manchester City as he's grabbed goals by the barrowload at every club he's been at.
He's scored 23 goals in 21 games for Norway's national side and let's be honest, they aren't any great shakes at the moment, so it's astonishing. I've played with boys who just loved scoring goals. Garry O'Connor was one and the other was Derek Riordan.
Del didn't have the power or the pace of Garry but he was absolutely lethal in front of goal with both feet. If anything dropped to them then it was 'bang', the ball would be in the back of the net, they shared that love of scoring goals.
Big Gaz was a bit of a Haaland as a teenager, nowhere near as good but he would batter into defenders and I remember playing Everton at Hibs one pre-season and Gaz was up against Alan Stubbs and David Weir. He was only 18-years old and he rattled Weir inside the first minute and then put Stubbs on his backside while scoring after about 20 minutes.
I remember David Moyes having a look of bemusement on his face and wondering who this kid was. I had seen enough of Haaland a few weeks ago to be convinced he's about to break every scoring record in English football.
It's not only because of how outstanding he is as a goalscorer but it's more to do with the quality of the team he's with and the calibre of players he has around him. It's also about having Pep Guardiola as his manager. Manchester City are just going to attack, attack and attack in every single game, home and away and no matter who they are playing against.
I look at the ball from Kevin De Bruyne for Haaland's second goal against Manchester United on Sunday, it was curled around the defence and all Haaland has to do is make the runs. If he continues to do that then he has creative talents as team-mates who will pick him out nine times out of ten.
Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan and De Bruyne as back-up? Even I would have hit double figures with that amount of ammunition behind me. Haaland is the first EPL player to score three consecutive home hat-tricks, it's not going to stop there as he will shatter record after record down south if he can stay fit.
People are talking about how many league goals he will score and my estimate would be around 40. It could well become an underestimate. Alan Shearer's 34 tally has stood for 30 years but Haaland could surpass that with a cigar out.
Kylian Mbappe is the only player on the planet who comes close to Haaland but it's the Norwegian every time for me when it comes to who is better and it's because of that scoring record. The stats are just frightening and from day one he's been prolific on each step of the ladder. Molde, Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund and now City where he's amongst world class players. Perfect club, perfect manager and for opposition defences it's a perfect storm.
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