The 20-year-old goal machine set to ‘define an era’

Erling Haaland has become the fastest player to reach 20 Champions League goals and the Borussia Dortmund striker doesn’t look like he’s stopping there, writes Ben Burrows

Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland (Getty Images)

Modern football has got very used to the same two names leading the way in virtually every statistical category.

After more than a decade at the very top of the game Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo top the chart for basically everything you can think of from goals scored to assists provided, games played to trophies won.

However, after the emergence of a new footballing star those statistical high watermarks could be set to topple.

After two more goals on Tuesday night, Erling Haaland has now become the fastest - and youngest - player in history to reach 20 in the Champions League.

The Norwegian's first and second in a 2-2 draw and 5-4 aggregate last-16 win over Sevilla took him to the milestone in just 14 matches, 10 fewer than previous record-holder Harry Kane.

The records continue to tumble for a player who, at just 20-years-old, looks primed and ready to take the torch as the game's very best as this generation's two greats prepare to bow out.

His latest brace also saw him become the first player to score two or more in four consecutive Champions League games while his 1.47 goals per game is also better than any player in the history of Europe's premier competition, making Messi and Ronaldo's outstanding marks of 0.8 and 0.76 look relatively wasteful by comparison.

“In four halves, we were superior in three,” Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui said after watching his side ruthlessly barged aside. “Haaland is extraordinary. He will define an era.”

Watching on for BT Sport, Peter Crouch and Owen Hargreaves described him as a “one-man wrecking crew”.

“His numbers just get better and better,” Crouch said, “and there are no signs of him stopping.”

The son of former Leeds, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest midfielder Alf-Inge, he now has 10 goals in six matches so far in this season's tournament, with Borussia Dortmund having topped Group F ahead of Lazio to reach the knockout stage.

He has 19 goals in 19 Bundesliga appearances for Dortmund, including four in the 5-2 win at Hertha Berlin on 21 November and two more against European and domestic champions Bayern Munich last weekend.

Haaland also became the first player in Dortmund's history to score on his Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League debuts after joining from RB Salzburg in January of last year for a fee in the region of £17.5million.

If one thing is certain, it's that it'll take a lot more than that to get him now.

With centre-forwards not usually maturing until much later in their careers the sky really does appear to be the limit for a striker that may have only scratched the surface of what he could grow to be.

The only question now remaining is how far he can go and, more pressingly, who he will be doing it for.

A £60m release clause in his current contract doesn't kick in until 2022 but Dortmund's resolve will surely be tested this summer with any number of clubs surely ready to bid far in excess of that to get hold of him a year early.

The usual European heavyweights are circling with his agent and advisor, the infamous Mino Raiola, recently indicating that only 10 clubs can afford what it will take to prise him away from Germany.

Manchester United, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool have all had their names thrown into the ring from these shores with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus never far away in such discussions either.

Whoever wins the bidding war will surely have the game's next great striker on their hands. Judging by his performances on the biggest stage of all, he may be that already.