Words by Paul Brown
Design by Merle Driver and James Wright
Goalscoring legends Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry and Sergio Aguero give their verdict on Erling Haaland
Gary Lineker enjoyed a Mexican Wave of goals in the 1980s, Alan Shearer fought like a lion to bring football home in the 1990s, Thierry Henry was invincible in the 2000s while we drank it all in as Sergio Agueroooo achieved statue status in the 2010s.
We’ve spoken to this quality quartet - the greatest strikers of modern times - to find out their opinions on 2020s hero Erling Haaland.
We begin with one of English football's finest-ever forwards, Gary Lineker.
Gary Lineker watches a lot of football.
He has to in his role as host of hugely popular podcast ‘The Rest is Football’.
His eye tends to gravitate towards the strikers, not surprising given a playing career which saw him sparkle up front for both club and country across a quarter century.
And one thing that really excites him when Manchester City are on the TV is the sight of Erling Haaland in full flow storming at the opposition.
“I love his desire for goals,” said Lineker.
“You can see he absolutely lives for scoring.
“If Manchester City have a breakaway, I often just watch him charging forward, going past everybody in sheer desperation to get into that box to try and score.
“If you were building a centre forward, it would definitely be someone like Haaland.
“He’s incredibly agile, he has breathtaking speed when he gets going and he knows exactly where the net is.”
It's not just Haaland’s physical attributes either that Lineker thinks has catapulted him to the very top of his game.
It's also the professionalism the huge hitman displays off the field that Lineker has profound admiration for.
“I always say to footballers that it’s a short career and absolutely give yourself the best possible chance to succeed,” he continued.
“Being that professional makes total sense. There’s a lot of life to live after football.
“That’s what’s taking him to the top in the first place as well as his ability, his pace and his physicality, it’s also that absolute ambition to be the best.
“To do that you have to live the right way.”
Haaland, of course, arrived in the Premier League to huge acclaim after his exploits in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund and before that with Red Bull Salzburg in Austria as well as Molde and Bryne in Norway.
And he wasted little time in showcasing his talents here, bagging a record 36 goals in the Premier League and 52 in all competitions en route to winning the Treble with City in his first season on top of picking up the Premier League Golden Boot award, European Golden Shoe, along with the Premier League Player and Young Player of the Season and FWA Men’s Footballer of the Year prizes.
Lineker knows all about making an impact.
The former fab forward, who Bobby Robson described as the best finisher he ever worked with, won not one but two Golden Boots in 1986 – domestically in his debut season with Everton in the First Division and then internationally with England at the World Cup before being voted Footballer of the Year.
For the Toffees in that only season at Goodison Park before Barcelona came calling, Lineker fired home 40 goals in 57 first team appearances with 30 of those coming in the league. As if that wasn’t enough, he stormed the world stage in Mexico 86, with six goals - including a vital hat-trick against Poland in the final group game - as the Three Lions reached the quarter-final stage before Diego Maradona’s Hand of God slapped England in the face and out of the tournament.
Robson’s men went a step further in Italia 90, with Lineker scoring four goals en-route to the semi-final, including the goal which took that fateful match against West Germany to extra-time and ultimately penalty shootout defeat.
If Lineker had the World in Motion back then, he thinks Haaland has wowed the Premier League at Supersonic speed.
“Looking back, I was really excited for him to come to the Premier League because I’d followed his career quite closely because we’d all been made aware that there was this special young striker whose dad had also played the game,” Lineker added.
“I followed him particularly closely at Dortmund and you could see he was always going to be an absolute top-level player and the big clubs would come in for him and it was great to see him arrive in the Premier League.
“His start at City? It was amazing because it’s not always easy coming from a different country.
“But he’d obviously got experience of growing up here in England and also, importantly, I think his style suited the Premier League.
“In Germany you’re going to get more opportunities to score. If you play for one of the top clubs there, like he was, you’re going to get a few goals.
“It’s a different matter coming to the Premier League where it’s incredibly competitive right down to the bottom.
“But I think it was hugely impressive to hit the ground running like he did – and he’s not stopped since.”
Lineker was most closely associated with No.8 and No.10 shirts during a career that took in Leicester, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham and Grampus Eight.
But, despite what was printed on his back of his shirt, he was a No.9 thanks to his penchant for leading the line and his predatory instincts in front of goal.
He sees a kindred spirit in Haaland.
“Erling is a proper No.9!” he added.
“The game has changed since my time when we played with two up top. Now they tend to play three with one down the middle.
“So it’s slightly different particularly for the wide players but in many ways it suits someone like Erling and myself, too, because while I’m very different in many ways, in other ways I had a similar style in that I liked to stay within the width of the penalty box and I loved to spin defenders and use my pace and he’s exactly the same.
“The nice thing for a No.9 these days – despite it being a tough role to play – is when you have two players either side you don’t have to make those runs out wide like before.
“Back in my day when you played two up top, you had to work the channels so I would quite enjoy playing that way.
“But he’s absolutely suited to it and I think Manchester City are suited to him because of the amount of times that they get to the byline and get crosses in and create chances for him to score.”
And score he has – a staggering 133 goals from 153 games in City Blue – an astonishing strike rate.
That includes 93 goals in 102 Premier League games as he eyes the famed 100 Club.
Sitting atop that exclusive set of strikers is Alan Shearer – more from him below! – who hit a record 260 goals during 11 seasons.
While Haaland wouldn’t be so bold as to suggest he has the Geordie hero in his sights, Lineker believes the Norwegian could one day climb to the top of that mighty mountain.
“If he stays with Manchester City, he might beat Alan Shearer’s Premier League record,” he added.
“He obviously needs to stay a few years for that, but we will wait to see what happens.
“I think he will be a generational talent and certainly one of the best strikers ever in English football.”
Alan Shearer simply loved scoring goals – and he notched up a lot of them, it’s fair to say!
He has 260 in the Premier League, a tally which puts him right at the very top of the competition’s all-time charts.
The former Southampton, Blackburn and Newcastle talisman was a team player, no doubt, but it was in front of goal where his eyes lit up as he banged home an assortment of efforts – headers, volleys, rockets and, like all good strikers, his fair share of poacher’s tap-ins.
That hunger to find the net is an attribute he sees in Erling Haaland.
“I recognise that ruthlessness he has,” said Shearer.
“I recognise how much goals mean to him. I recognise that he’s in the business to score goals.
“It doesn’t matter how, either. He doesn’t care how he scores just as long as that ball goes in. I love that about him.
“I love his attitude towards goals. You can see his frustration when he doesn’t score and his joy when he does score. I can see that he lives for goals.
“When I’ve spoken to him, you can sense his passion for scoring. That’s what I love about him.
“He has a very good shot. He’s strong. He’s quick. He’s good in the air. He has everything you need. And he has that knack of being in the right place at the right time for the simple finish. There’s no doubt he’s top quality.”
Haaland’s exploits for City in three seasons to date are the stuff of dreams.
He has seven major trophies already, including the Treble in his very first campaign in Blue, as well as a plethora of individual honours including two Golden Boots in succession.
In fact, the first was earned thanks to 36 goals in his debut season, a tally that overtook the previous record of 34 held jointly by Andrew Cole and, yes you guessed it, Alan Shearer.
Has the way Haaland has taken to English football surprised Shearer? Not one bit.
“He’s had a huge impact,” he said.
“We all knew what he was. However, he was coming to the best league, the toughest league in the world. But from my point of view there was never any doubt he was going to do anything but be a brilliant goal scorer.
“I’ve not been shocked at all. Also putting him with an incredible manager in an unbelievable team that were flying, when you marry that together, you’re going to get a fantastic goal scorer scoring tons of goals and that’s exactly what’s happened.
“I was lucky enough to score a few. I was lucky enough to play in very good teams, maybe not as good as the Manchester City one because it will go down as one of the best in our time in the Premier League. But it’s not surprised me the numbers he’s scored.
“I would have loved to have played with some of the players he’s playing with so I’m sure he wakes up every morning going ‘here we go again’ and then goes to every game thinking ‘I am going to score goals’.
“There’s no doubt that if he gets in the right positions with his ability, he will always score goals.
“I was just so pleased to see him come to our league in the first place.”
Shearer himself made quite the impact when his big break in English football arrived.
On his First Division debut in 1988 he notched up a hat-trick as the Saints defeated Arsenal 4-2 at the Dell.
Blackburn paid a then British-record £3.6 million to take Shearer to Ewood Park in 1992 and he won the title with Rovers two years later as part of the SAS strike force with Chris Sutton.
He won the Golden Boot for England at Euro 96 before Kevin Keegan signed him for his beloved Newcastle in a world transfer record fee of £15 million following that memorable tournament.
Rumour has it that the only requirement on joining was the chance to wear the famed No.9.
Over the next decade, Shearer confirmed his status as a Geordie legend by bagging 206 goals, a number that saw him surpass the club’s previous great strikers to have worn that shirt: Hughie Gallacher, Jackie Milburn and Malcolm Macdonald.
It's a number Haaland dons in the sky blue of City, the team he also supported as a boy.
While Shearer followed in the footsteps of Tyneside legends Gallacher, Milburn and Macdonald, Haaland now treads the same path walked by icons like Brian Kidd, Francis Lee and Neil Young in a beautiful bygone era and modern-day heroes such as Paul Dickov, Niall Quinn and Trevor Morley.
Shearer also believes Haaland could have excelled back in those halcyon days.
“He is a proper number nine and there’s not many of them around,” he continued.
“He’d have been scoring goals 30 years ago in the same, similar style because he loves to be aggressive and he doesn’t mind centre-halves being tight with him or having to scrap and fight with them.
“He’s 6ft 4in so he can handle himself. It was a lot tougher then than now in terms of physicality, but he could have handled himself without doubt. He is a throwback.”
Talking about numbers – how about 260, Shearer’s celebrated and venerated top-flight tally we mentioned earlier.
Does he think Haaland can get near – and even surpass it - in the near future, especially now he’s signed a 10-year deal at City.
The big man is currently on 93 goals from 102 games and showing absolutely no signs of slowing down.
“His numbers so far are outrageous,” Shearer added.
“They’re so impressive. But above the numbers, I just love everything about him. He can do everything a centre-forward needs to do.
“Speaking today, it’s very realistic he could break my record. But come back to me in three or four years and I might give you a different answer.
“He obviously believes strongly in the whole project at Manchester City but 10 years is a lifetime. Without doubt he has a chance, though.”
Manchester City fans know talent and class when they see it.
Football is such a tribal sport but on the afternoon of 22 February 2003, the sky blue faithful applauded the performance of opponent Thierry Henry as the iconic Invincible departed the field at Maine Road following an irresistible display in a 5-1 Arsenal win, scoring one and setting up two.
If the City supporters can pick out genius, it’s fair to say Henry himself isn’t a bad judge of what it takes to reach top-class levels. And that’s exactly where he thinks City’s hitman Erling Haaland is right now.
Although, terrifyingly for defenders in England and across Europe, Henry thinks there’s much more to come from Haaland.
“With the big man, you have to give him a lot of credit for the way he’s adapted to the various leagues he’s played in, especially at the age he’s managed to do it at,” said Henry.
“Obviously I heard of him when he was at RB Salzburg. They won the title, and he made a lot of noises in the Champions League. I know some people were like ‘It’s the Austrian league, let’s see what he’s going to do when he goes to Germany or England’. But he did it!
“He did well at Dortmund and then he went to City and obviously won the Treble in his first season in a great team.
“We’re talking about a freak here in Haaland. But even a freak can get better. He can get freakier!
“I know that sounds crazy with what he’s done already but I still think that one day this guy will score six goals in a game. He could have done it already! He’ll score four but he will miss four in the same game.
“But as a young man, the way he's been behaving is astonishing. When I look at his body and his build, he’s strong, powerful, with long legs but also when he takes his shirt off, you see a guy that lives and breathes football. He looks like a guy that takes care of his body, that is working in a good environment and that always wants more and more. And that attitude for me is as valuable as scoring a hat-trick every game.
“You can see that he scares people…they are scared of him and what he can do. But he also has the demeanour of: ‘You can't stop me, I’m stronger than you and I'm faster than you’.
“There was one game I saw where he went into someone and the guy bounced off him and went flying. Erling turned to the referee and he went ‘what did I do?’. I don’t think he even realised his own strength.
“I always say with strikers for big teams ‘you’re going to get judged on what you’re not doing or what you didn’t do yet’, but you should embrace that because it comes because of how good you are.
“People will say ‘you still didn’t score against that team, still didn’t score at that stadium, you still didn’t score four against them, he didn’t score three against that team’. Because this guy Haaland, this is the type of thing he does. This for me tells you how good you are.
“Because if people were not saying that about you, then you’ve not been that good. If people talk about you, you’re on a good path.
“I would rather be in that situation and try to deal with the noise than not have it.
“He can improve. I think he is clever because he knows what he’s good at. But now can you do even more? Maybe six or eight times per season, that’s what the game is asking for because the team that you’re playing against is that good.
“But Erling definitely knows what he’s good at and on top of everything, the most important thing he also knows what can improve at and that’s a sign of football intelligence.”
Henry’s CV with the Gunners, when viewed purely on paper, is hugely impressive.
Two Premier League titles, three FA Cups, four Golden Boots and five Player of the Year awards.
But in terms of his own personal impact, the flamboyant Frenchman offered so much more.
The Va Va Voom star was often unplayable, with his astonishing mix of pace and grace allied to goals…a club record 228 of them, the most memorable perhaps his flick-up and lob over Fabien Barthez in the 1-0 Highbury triumph over Manchester United in 2000.
When he arrived in London, Henry was a rough diamond looking to shine on the brightest of stages.
He needed polishing and that’s exactly what Arsene Wenger did to him, turning Henry into a fabulous forward now respected the world over.
Haaland also has a CV to die for with seven major team honours as well as records and awards aplenty.
Since joining us, he’s scored more Premier League goals than anyone else, his 93 goals putting him 25 ahead of Mohamed Salah and 39 in front of Alexander Isak.
Haaland was the fastest player to 10, 25 and 50 Premier League goals and he scored more goals – 88 – than any other player across his first 100 Premier League appearances.
In Europe, too, Haaland is the leading scorer in the Champions League in his three years with the Blues ahead of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski.
The towering forward also reached 100 goals in all competitions for City in 105 games, the fastest any Premier League player has got to a century.
He also has 11 hat-tricks across all competitions, the most in Europe’s top five leagues during his spell with the Blues, one ahead of Kane and three in front of Mbappe.
However, for Wenger with Henry, read Guardiola alongside Haaland.
Henry, himself, insists no-one should underestimate the benefits for Haaland of working with his former Barcelona boss.
“You have to guide guys like Erling Haaland and obviously he’s with a genius that does it ever so well in Pep Guardiola.
“He’s another freak. Pep is special. I think someone needs to come up with a word for how Pep works. Intense is not enough for me. People that don't know him will not know what I'm talking about. He checks everything!
“You need to know how to dance that dance because if you dance it well, you will go places. But it's not always easy to follow the tempo of the dance.
“But Erling is definitely with the right guy to understand what needs to be done. I always said tactically Pep is a freak. I said it so many times.
“He wants to cover everything at once and all in five minutes. That's why he’s special. That's why I think he’s the best ever. Erling is undoubtedly with the right coach.”
Haaland has been the focal point of Guardiola’s elite team that have swept all before them in a golden era for the Blues.
If we thought it was the best of times with our Fourmidables and Centurions, that was merely the starter ahead of the main course as we claimed the Treble in Haaland’s first season and followed that up with a fourth successive Premier League, becoming in the process the first team in men’s English football to achieve that prestigious feat.
There’s no question that last season was a more difficult campaign, even though we finished third and qualified for a Champions League spot as well as making the final of the FA Cup.
But Henry says the expectation levels for City and indeed Haaland have reached outrageous levels.
“It’s not normal! At half-time people are saying ‘what’s wrong with the team today?’ I’m thinking ‘guys, it’s not normal to be 4-0 up at half-time’, ‘it’s not normal to toy with teams’, ‘it’s not normal to win four in a row’, ‘it’s not normal to win six in eight – it’s just not normal!’
“But because City have been that good, it became normal.
“Haaland should score four, what do you mean he should score four? It is not easy. It is not easy when you have to perform and they’ve been studying you for a week, these teams are all waiting.
“This is why I have incredible respect for Pep because you adapt and change when you are at the top. That’s when you change because when you are there, it’s way more difficult to change it.
“It’s then about ‘what are you going to bring when people are going to adapt to you? That’s as a team, as an individual. You’ve got to be on your toes and you have to push your limits.
“This is why I always say to people what Erling, Pep and City have been doing in the last few years to be able to keep winning when everybody wants you dead. This is far from easy.
“For Erling, they will try to find a way to stop him so he will need to find a new way to go up again.
“But the amount of goals that he has scored in the Champions League at his age, in the Premier League, everywhere he went. You have to give him so much respect for that, but I always say you can always get better. That was always my view. But you do tend to forget that the guy is 24, that he’s still young. His numbers are there but he can improve and he will improve. It’s called evolution.”
If Henry was the embodiment of the 2000s penchant for wide forwards, Haaland is a throwback to the battering ram era of the centre-forward, a club colossus to lead the line with bravery, bravado and brawn.
They were forged from different furnaces, but could they burn brightly together in the football cauldron?
Henry gives a unanimous yes to that question, admitting he’d have loved to play alongside our No.9.
“Anyone that was staying still and allowing me to move… that’s all good for me. Those are the type of strikers that I would love to play with because I wasn’t a box man.
“I was coming in midfield, going on the right, going on the left, going at the backs, getting in the middle, taking the ball, doing my thing.
“I needed the guy to stay there. I think we would have been compatible that’s for sure.”
‘Big shoes to fill, you say?’
That was Sergio Aguero’s mischievous and playful answer when it was suggested that following in his footsteps as the talismanic star centre-forward for Manchester City was no easy matter.
After all, an emotional Pep Guardiola insisted the Blues simply wouldn’t be able to replace Aguero after our all-time top scorer played his final Premier League game for City.
The Argentine ace signed off in style with two goals in a 5-0 victory over Everton as he lifted his fifth Premier League trophy in May 2021.
But more than that, Kun departed having carved his name into the Manchester City history books thanks to a record 260 goals in 390 appearances.
One of City’s most iconic moments belongs to Aguero, as he scored the crucial 93:20 goal to beat QPR and seal our first-ever Premier League title at the expense of Manchester United on the final day of the 2011/12 season, his memorable celebration immortalised in statue form outside the Etihad.
In his 10 years at the club, he won five Premier Leagues, six League Cups, three Community Shields and an FA Cup as well as picking up a Premier League Golden Boot and twice being included into the PFA Team of the Year.
For what it’s worth, Aguero, despite his impudent reply to our opening question, always thought City would find someone to take on the mantle of leading the line for Guardiola’s all-conquering side although even he’s been amazed by what he’s seen from his successor Erling Haaland.
“How has he done replacing me? Brilliantly so! Numbers don't lie, do they,” said Aguero.
“He shook off the pressure of playing in the Premier League and handles the burden of being a striker very well – there's obviously heavy expectations that you'll keep finding the next goal but he's been able to repeat for City what he's done for his previous teams and that's what we all wanted.
“What he’s done should shock no-one because I think he's one of the top strikers out there.
“He’s puts in good performances consistently, he has a superb goals-per-game average, he’s young and has lots of potential to keep growing.”
Aguero and Haaland share a passion for scoring goals – a pair of poachers intent on stealing in and breaking the hearts of even the most dazzling and dutiful defences.
Even this past week, Haaland has been making headlines.
His late brace against Burnley saw him move into the top 10 scorers in City’s history.
He’s now netted 133 times in 153 appearances for City, making him the ninth highest scorer in our history ahead of Billy Gillespie and Fred Tilson.
No.1 on that list – yes, you guessed it, Aguero!
The Norwegian’s strikes against the Clarets also made him the second highest scorer in Premier League games at the Etihad Stadium - 52 in just 51 appearances at our home.
That saw him surpass Raheem Sterling, who netted 51 times in 109 games.
Only Aguero has scored more at the Etihad than those two, with 106 strikes in 142 games.
Clearly Aguero is the perfect person to assess this new kid on the block.
So what aspects of Haaland’s game does Kun like.
“I think it's his impressive accuracy with his finishing – that goes without saying,” said the maestro.
“Most of the time when he gets a chance to score, you'll find the ball in the back of the net.
“But also, Erling is very capable with first touch strikes, which makes him a menace to goalkeepers. He also has great handling while sprinting, which makes him lethal when receiving a long pass and running at goal.
“I think he has also become really successful in manoeuvring in tight spaces. I believe that speaks a lot about how his game has grown too.”
Aguero rightly acknowledges the development in Haaland’s game from when he joined at the start of the 2022/23 campaign to now as we approach a pivotal 2025/26 season with City looking to scale the heights again.
But he’s well aware that the signs couldn’t have been starker in that first term in the sky blue as Haaland broke the Premier League scoring record with 36 goals as well as a host of individual awards including PFA, Premier League and FWA Player of the Year.
Aguero insists that brilliant beginning, which culminated in an emotional and never-to-be-forgotten Treble, said a lot about Haaland’s ability.
“I strongly believe that rapid adaptation is a marker of true talent – and his first season showed us his capabilities,” added Aguero.
“It was a tall order to break the Premier League record and he did it on his first season.
“He's kept it up through the years that have followed and he’s helped the team get more titles, which has been wonderful to see.”
If that record, previously set at 34 goals by Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole before Haaland marched into Manchester, has now gone what of the club striking stat held by Aguero himself?
His 260 goals is a titanic yet tantalising total that Haaland will undoubtedly be eyeing up, especially after the big man signed an unprecedented 10-year contract to keep him at the Etihad until the summer of 2034.
Aguero himself thinks it’s well within the bounds of possibility that the 24-year-old No.9 will smash past it.
He'd be happy for it to be surpassed if nothing else but for the fact it would surely mean City were successful in the coming years.
“His current pace should give him plenty of chances to do so,” Aguero said of his record tumbling.
“And better yet, that will probably mean that City will also have won many games and the trophies that suggests. That's what truly matters.
“Scoring 20-25 goals a year at the Premier League is no easy task – I was able to do it and Erling surely will too.
“He's got many years ahead to pull off this feat, and I'll be sure to congratulate him because it'd be well-deserved.
“But it's all about those goals helping the team to achieve great things. I know that. He knows it too.”
In football, as in life, time moves on. Players exalted in their era are remembered in the next.
Through divine intervention, Haaland followed in the footsteps of Aguero rather than walking out on the hallowed turf together as teammates.
But what if fate has dictated that the pair had been a strike partnership?
“Oh, that would have been a blast,” admitted Aguero.
“All throughout my career, even during my first games for Independiente, I've played in the main squad with other strikers and it was fantastic. Let's see – I partnered with Nicolas Frutos for Independiente, Diego Forlan and Diego Costa at Atleti, Edin Dzeko, Alvaro Negredo and Gabriel Jesus with City. I think Erling and I would have been a terrific duo.”
Photography by Manchester City FC & Getty
Data provided by Opta
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