“Erling Haaland’s Phenomenal Season at Man City Falls Short of Lionel Messi’s Record-Breaking 2011/12 Season with Barcelona”

Erling Haaland is a phenomenon. Nobody can dispute that. Manchester City knew they were getting a top striker when they paid Borussia Dortmund €60m for the Norwegian last summer – but they never imagined he would be so outrageously good.

Haaland scored his 50th goal in all competitions for City against Fulham on Sunday. It was his 34th in the Premier League, equaling the previous season record set by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer. He then scored the 35th Premier League goal against West Ham on Wednesday night.

And City’s goalscorer will no doubt score a few more goals before the season is over. Because Pep Guardiola’s team is still on the hunt for the triple. Despite this, it is extremely unlikely that he will match the record for most goals in all competitions in a single season in any of Europe’s major leagues. That feat is still held by a certain Lionel Messi, who scored 73 goals for Barcelona in the 2011/12 season.

Guardiola was coach of at the time Barça and had a simple message for the football world trying to understand Messi’s performance. “Don’t write about him, don’t try to describe him. Just watch him,” he gushed.

Messi’s individual performances that year will never be surpassed.

Haaland deserves all the praise he gets at Manchester but Messi was on another planet then.

GOAL looks back on the Argentinian magician’s best season.