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Mbappe to break record?
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It’s widely accepted wisdom in football that scoring goals is the hardest thing to do. There’s a reason why clubs spend more money on attacking players than any other positions and forwards are generally paid the highest wages. The most expensive transfer in history is PSG’s €222 million acquisition of Neymar from Barcelona and the top five biggest fees ever paid are all for attacking players.
Supporters generally gravitate towards players that can regularly find the back of the net and the majority of the most famous footballers in history are attackers; Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pelé and Diego Maradona. Erling Haaland is unquestionably the greatest goalscorer of his generation with 327 goals in 390 appearances in his professional career. The Norwegian has been on fire at the start of the season with 24 goals already and he’s closing in on another notable record.
The longest goalscoring streaks in history
Haaland’s opening goal in Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Villarreal on Tuesday in the Champions League ensured the Norwegian has now scored in 12 consecutive games for club and country. It’s the 25-year-old’s best scoring run of his career and he surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo’s career record of 11 games scored in succession for Real Madrid and Portugal in 2014. As the graphic below illustrates, Robert Lewandowski holds the record for longest scoring streaks this century for top five league players.
Between February and May 2021, Lewandowski scored in 14 consecutive games for Bayern Munich and Poland, but Haaland will match his record - if he scores in Man City’s next two fixtures. Interestingly, Kylian Mbappé is also currently on an incredible scoring run and he will match Haaland on 12 consecutive games, if he scores for Real Madrid against Juventus tonight in the Champions League. Lionel Messi famously scored in 21 consecutive LaLiga games but his longest scoring run across all competitions stands at 10 games, which he reached twice while at Barcelona.
