The 10 fastest players to reach 100 goals at a club: Haaland, Ronaldo…
Erling Haaland has eclipsed some of football’s biggest names and greatest players to become one of the fastest players to reach 100 career goals.
Strikers make it look easy, but scoring goals is actually the most difficult job in the game, hence why the best centre forwards command such outrageous transfer fees – most of the time.
After the Norwegian freak’s exploits, we’ve looked at the 10 fastest players to reach 100 goals for a single club in the 21st Century. Read on to see where Haaland ranks.
10. Christian Vieri (Inter Milan) – 138 Games
Before his eyebrow-raising move to La Liga also-rans Atletico in 1997, Vieri was on top of the world at Juventus. He’d starred for the Old Lady they’d won the Serie A title and reached the Champions League final, and averaged a goal a game in his one season in Spain, before swiftly returning to Italy with Lazio.
The Italian striker seemed to get itchy feet through the 90s, transferring seven times in seven seasons between 1992 and 1999, before eventually settling down in Milan. He only won one Coppa Italia during his six years at the San Siro, but notched 123 goals in 190 appearances, and started like a house on fire.
9. Kylian Mbappe (PSG) – 137 Games
Given he burst onto the scene as a teenager in Monaco’s extraordinary run to the Champions League semi-finals, as well as winning the Ligue 1 title, in 2016-17, it should be no surprise that PSG broke the bank for Mbappe’s signature (originally on loan) in the same summer they spent €222million on Neymar.
He never managed to fire them to European glory but, now finally wearing the iconic white of Real Madrid, that’ll be his main aim.
8. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) – 136 Games
Lewandowski had already established himself as one of Europe’s best No.9s with a key role in back-to-back Bundesliga titles for Borussia Dortmund, as well as unforgettably scoring four goals in one game against Real Madrid in the 2013 Champions League semi-final.
It was no surprise, then, that the prolific centre-forward continued to keep banging in the goals after joining Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich on a free transfer the following summer.
He was unable to eclipse Gerd Muller’s outrageous record of 365 Bundesliga goals before moving to Barcelona, but came close with 312 and did take the record off him for most goals in a single season, scoring 41 in 2020-21.
7. Edinson Cavani (Napoli) – 135 Games
Things weren’t so successful in year two at Old Trafford, but Cavani became an instant fan favourite with his Indian summer stint at Manchester United, having arrived in Manchester in 2020 after overtaking Zlatan Ibrahimovic to become PSG’s all-time top scorer.
But it was arguably at Napoli where the Uruguayan was at his very best, scoring 104 goals in 138 appearances across three seasons between 2010 and 2013. That kind of record could have seen him become a Maradona-esque diety at the Stadio San Paulo if he’d played in a better side.
=5. Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Man Utd) – 131 Games
Sir Alex Ferguson had to be patient for the Dutch striker to eventually show up at Old Trafford, with his original proposed move to a cruciate knee ligament injury.
That didn’t stop his poacher’s instinct, though, and he was worth the wait once he eventually did arrive, hitting the ground running from day one.
“He’s just a ruthless, ruthless goalscorer. He just lived for scoring goals. Whenever he did score or didn’t score, the first thing he would do when we got on the team bus, after the game, was see if Henry scored,” Paul Scholes later told the UTD Podcast.
“If Henry had scored, he wouldn’t talk to anybody for the full trip home because he was so engrossed in being the leading goalscorer. Not just at United but in the league, in the world, everywhere.”
READ: A tribute to Ruud van Nistelrooy and the playground art of goalhanging
=5. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) – 131 Games
Five-time Ballon d’Or-winner Ronaldo had won the Champions League in four of his last five years at Real Madrid and is the competition’s all-time top scorer.
So there was a certain degree of logic when Juventus signed him in 2018, as the final piece of the puzzle to win Ol’ Big Ears, having long since conquered domestic Italian football.
Things didn’t quite work out that way, with shock exits to Ajax, Lyon and Porto, but Ronaldo at least did bang in the goals in Italy, scoring his 100th goal in just 131 appearances in all competitions – even if it did cripple the Old Lady financially.
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4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG) – 124 Games
Ibrahimovic had already won four Serie A titles with three different clubs, two Eredivisie titles with Ajax, and a La Liga title with Barcelona when he became a statement signing for newly-minted PSG in 2012.
Not only did he win the title in each of his four years in the French capital, but he scored at least 30 goals in each, peaking with 50 goals in 51 appearances in his final season there. Fair to say he delivered what was expected.
3. Luis Suarez (Barcelona) – 120 Games
Norwich City fans still have nightmares about Suarez at his terrifying best at Liverpool, but they could breathe a sigh of relief when he left, becoming Barcelona’s record signing in the summer of 2014.
Having served a four-match ban for all football activities, dished out by FIFA after he chomped on Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup in Brazil, he was quite literally chomping at the bit once he was able to get started at the Camp Nou, fitting into an irresistible attack alongside Neymar and Lionel Messi.
Suarez scored 25 goals in 39 appearances as Barcelona won the treble in 2014-15, and didn’t slow down from there, scoring 59 goals the following year, and eventually 198 across his six years there.
Needless to say, Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert struggled to fill his shoes at Anfield…
READ: Where are they now? Liverpool’s nine Luis Suarez replacements from 2014
=1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 105 Games
Florentino Perez’s second Galactico project kicked off with the world-record signing of Ronaldo in 2009, arriving off the back of three successive Premier League titles with Manchester United.
The Portuguese icon had to be patient for silverware, with nothing in his first season, and only the Copa del Rey in his second, but goals were not a problem.
He scored a respectable 33 goals in 35 appearances in his first season under Manuel Pellegrini, which was actually his worst return in nine years, going on to score at least 50 goals six seasons running between 2010 and 2016, and eventually comfortably surpassing Raul as Los Blancos’ all-time top scorer.
=1. Erling Haaland (Man City) – 105 games
Equalling arguably the greatest goalscorer of all time, Haaland continues to defy the laws and conventions of football at Manchester City.
Signing for a bargain £51million in 2022, a brace on his Premier League debut against West Ham was just the beginning of a brain-melting campaign, which only snowballed in 2023-24 as he scored 38 goals in all competitions and won the continental treble.
Haaland hit his century for City at the beginning of his third season with the club with a well-taken strike against Arsenal, just seven games into the season. 100 goals in 105 games and he’s only 24 – the guy is a complete and utter freak.