The 3 players who have scored more goals under Pep Guardiola than Erling Haaland
In just over two seasons of playing under Pep Guardiola, Erling Haaland has managed to score a whopping 97 goals in just 102 matches.
Since making the move to Manchester City, the Norwegian robot is averaging a goal every 84.9 minutes and he’s started the 2024-25 season with a bang, scoring seven goals in his first three matches.
During Guardiola’s illustrious managerial career, only three players have managed to score more goals under him than Haaland has.
Raheem Sterling
During his prime, you’d struggle to find a better goalscoring winger in Europe than Sterling. In 292 appearances under Guardiola, Sterling scored 120 goals and provided 65 assists.
There’s no doubt that he played the best football of his career under Guardiola and the statistics back up that notion.
Under Guardiola, Sterling averaged 0.41 goals per game whereas in the games he’s played under different managers, he’s only averaged 0.19 goals per game which is quite a sharp drop off.
“[We left on a] good relationship,” Guardiola told reporters while discussing Sterling’s exit from the club.
“We worked six years here together every day, working, playing a lot of games. Playing the most important games. Probably the most important game we played in the final of the Champions League, he was there. If he’s happy, we’re happy.”
Sergio Aguero
“We cannot replace him. We cannot.” Is what Guardiola famously said upon Aguero leaving the club in 2021.
The Argentine forward was already a world-class striker by the time Guardiola arrived in Manchester, but Aguero did enjoy the best scoring season of his career under the former Barcelona coach.
During Guardiola’s debut season in 2016-17, Aguero scored 33 goals across all competitions which was his best ever tally in a single season.
In total, he scored 124 goals under Guardiola in 182 appearances, averaging a goal every 102 minutes.
While Guardiola and Aguero did have some disagreements over the years, the Argentine forward often delivered the goods for City.
“He speaks a lot, demands a lot. He doesn’t allow you to relax, and that is good,” Aguero said when describing Guardiola’s coaching methods.
During Guardiola’s career so far, only one player has scored more goals for him than Aguero managed.
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Lionel Messi
Who else?
It’s no surprise that Guardiola continues to laud Messi to this day, especially when the Argentinian scored 211 goals in 219 appearances under his management.
Of course, it was Guardiola who initially moved Messi into the false nine role and his goalscoring numbers exploded from that point onwards.
Under Guardiola, Messi averaged a goal every 85.8 minutes and he averaged a goal contribution every 59.4 minutes.
“During my time at Barca, I had many great players in the team, and without Messi we would have won trophies… but as many trophies as the ones we won with Messi? Impossible,” Guardiola once said.
“With Messi I had the sensation that Phil Jackson [Basketball coach] had with Michael Jordan. Jordan won six NBA championships, and I won many trophies with Messi.”