Comparing Erling Haaland’s Champions League record to Messi & Ronaldo at the same stage

Nestor Watach • 13 Feb 2024

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the two greatest goalscorers in the history of the Champions League – but Manchester City’s Erling Haaland is on track to obliterate their records in the competition.

Haaland’s goalscoring numbers are unprecedented. He’s already become the fastest player to reach 50 goals in both the Bundesliga and Premier League and he’ll surely reach that milestone faster than any other player in Champions League history too.

The 23-year-old became the youngest, and fastest player, to reach the 40-goal mark in club football’s most prestigious cup competition, needing just 35 games to do so. That’s a whole 10 fewer games than the previous record-holder, Ruud van Nistelrooy.

“If he doesn’t score tomorrow, the day after or next week, it’s not a big issue,” Pep Guardiola told reporters ahead of Manchester City’s Champions League clash with FC Copenhagen.

“He’s so strong. It comes from nature. He’s coped perfectly because he’s so strong mentally. He scores one goal and wants a second and a third.

“You see his numbers at his age. In the Champions League not even [Lionel] Messi or Cristiano [Ronaldo] had these numbers at his age.”

Messi had already won the Champions League twice, scoring in the 2009 final against Manchester United, and was already being talked up as one of the greatest players to ever play the game by the time he made it to Champions League 35 games – but at that point he’d scored fewer than half as many goals in the competition as Haaland has now.

Ronaldo has left European football with his record intact as the Champions League’s all-time top goalscorer, having scored 141 goals for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus – but he was a famously slow starter in it. In fact, he didn’t open his account until his 26th appearance in the competition – but doing so in style with a brace in United’s unforgettable 7-1 quarter-final mauling of Roma.

We’ve crunched the numbers and taken a look at how Haaland’s record compares to Messi and Ronaldo after the same number of Champions League games.