Haaland has scored goals at a ridiculous rate throughout a career that has taken him from Bryne and Molde in Norway, to Austria with Red Bull Salzburg, across the German border to Dortmund and now back to the country of his birth with City. He is on the verge of joining the ‘Premier League 100 Club’ having already found the back of the net 93 times in 103 appearances.
However, despite this impressive feat, Shearer used Haaland’s relatively short spell in England against him during Topps FC’s blind ranking of iconic Premier League strikers, telling BALLGM Global this was the reason behind being dropped to fourth position.
The first striker put to Shearer was Chelsea hero Didier Drogba, which prompted a reply of, “I’m hoping that you’ve got some absolute superstars on there, so I’m going to say three.” Directly after the Ivorian was Haaland, and longevity was the explanation behind Shearer’s ranking: “He hasn’t been here as long, so I’m going to say four.”
Without hesitation nor comment, Shearer placed Thierry Henry at No.1 and Mohamed Salah as the runner up. The last striker up was Shearer himself, to which he retorted: “There you go, I’m happy, I’ll put myself in fifth.”
However, clearly the ex-Blackburn forward wasn’t too ‘happy’ with the final ranking. When asked if he wanted to make any changes to his order, Shearer laughed and replied: “In my prime, I might put myself one.”
Haaland is actually close to surpassing Drogba’s Premier League goals tally. In 254 matches for Chelsea, Drogba scored 104 times, meaning the City striker needs only 12 more goals to leapfrog him in the all-time standings.
Shearer is still well respected as not only one of England’s best strikers of all time, but as the Premier League’s leading scorer since its inception in 1992, scoring 260 goals across stints with Southampton, Blackburn and Newcastle. Haaland has been backed to be the man to relieve Shearer’s grip on top spot.
Back in January, Shearer said to BBC Sport: “If he stays for that long, no doubt he will break that record. My record will go one day. It might be somebody else’s by then – like Harry Kane or Mohamed Salah. There were great goalscorers before I was born that have incredible records as well. My record will go one day, I’m sure of that.”
As he mentioned, Kane has long been considered one of the other major contenders to take the mantle from Shearer. The current England captain’s Premier League tally currently stands at 213 across 10 years in Tottenham‘s first team, but this number will not increase so long as he is playing abroad with Bayern Munich. Kane has been tipped to return to his home country, perhaps even in an emotional reunion with Spurs, in order to take down Shearer and cement his place in Premier League history.
Meanwhile, Salah is continuing to break all sorts of records with Liverpool, and he is currently on the hunt for his third Premier League title representing the Reds. The Egyptian has so far scored 188 goals in England’s top tier, with the majority of those for the Merseyside club, but with two coming during a forgotten stint with Chelsea between 2014 and 2015.
