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Sport Football Kevin De Bruyne tips ‘unique’ Erling Haaland to join Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s exclusive club The Norwegian has scored more than 200 goals already and his Manchester City teammate believes he can quadruple that total before he retires
Richard Jolly Senior Football Correspondent
Sunday 25 December 2022 22:30 GMT
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Subscribe Already subscribed? Log in Klopp on Liverpool's cup exit at Man City Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
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Your support makes all the difference. Close Read more Kevin de Bruyne believes Erling Haaland ’s obsession with goals he means he could join Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the select group of footballers who have scored 800 times in his career by the time he hangs up his boots.
The Norwegian has made a spectacular start to his Manchester City by scoring 24 goals in 19 games and, at the age of just 22, has already scored 200 goals for clubs and country.
De Bruyne, who has established a fine understanding with Haaland since the striker’s summer transfer from Borussia Dortmund, thinks he has the ability to quadruple that tally before he retires.
Ronaldo has scored the most goals in the history of professional football, with 819 goals for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Portugal, with Messi not far behind him.
De Bruyne has often been a teammate of prolific strikers, whether City’s record scorer Sergio Aguero or Romelu Lukaku, who has struck 68 times for Belgium.
As he thought back to forwards he has lined up alongside, midfielder De Bruyne said: “It is very hard to compare because they are all totally different. They play in the same position, but some are physical players, some are speed demons and they can all score goals for fun.
“Erling hasn’t because of his age, but they have all scored 300 or 400 goals. Erling is so obsessed with goals he can maybe go beyond that.
“He already has about 200 goals, so he can probably go to 600, 700 or 800 if he stays fit and does the things that he does.
“He is still a young boy enjoying his life and he takes his football very seriously. He loves scoring goals, so I think that is the most unique thing he has.”
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