Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland have arguably been the two most lethal goalscorers of the 2020s so far \u2013 and the numbers bear that out.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s 12 years difference between the two strikers, with 34-year-old Lewandowski surely set to start winding down in the coming years while 22-year-old Haaland is well on course for a wildly prolific and successful career ahead.<\/p>\n
The pair of goalscorers spent a couple of years as rivals at two of the Bundesliga\u2019s biggest clubs. When Haaland arrived at Borussia Dortmund in January 2020, Lewandowski had already established himself as one of the best strikers in the history of German football \u2013 second only, in fact, to Bayern Munich legend Gerd Muller.<\/p>\n
Haaland was still just a teenager when he signed for Dortmund midway through the 2019-20 campaign but had already proven himself one of the most promising players of his generation. He\u2019d scored 29 goals in 27 appearances for Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg, including an unthinkable eight in his first six appearances in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian instantly lived up to the hype in an iconic debut for Dortmund, scoring a hat-trick in the space of 20 minutes after being introduced as a substitute. He turned the game in a 5-3 victory over Augsburg.<\/p>\n
But Bayern, powered by the goals of Lewandowski, continued to dominate domestically. They\u2019ve since made it to 10 successive Bundesliga titles, while the Polish striker was their star man during their treble-winning campaign of 2019-20 \u2013 Lionel Messi later admitted he deserved the Ballon d\u2019Or for his exploits that season.<\/p>\n
Bayern actually attempted to sign Haaland as a long-term successor to Lewandowski, but the rising star chose Manchester City instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I try to imagine how Lewandowski thinks\u2026\u201d Haaland said in the Haaland: The Big Decision documentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how many goals and titles he has for the club. Then I do actually feel a little sorry for him. At the same time it\u2019s a chance for him to take the next step in his career. It feels disrespectful, but at the same time it is an opportunity for him\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewandowski has since departed for Barcelona, and the two players have each made ridiculous goalscoring starts for their new clubs \u2013 it would be a major shock to see anyone else challenge them for the European Golden Shoe this season.<\/p>\n
But how do the two players compare? We\u2019ve gone back to the turn of the decade, January 2020, when Haaland signed for Dortmund, to compare their goalscoring records for their respective clubs.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland<\/p>\n
Games: 97
\nStarts: 87
\nSub appearances: 10<\/p>\n
Goals: 98
\nAssists: 24<\/p>\n
Penalties scored: 12<\/p>\n
Minutes per goal: 80.1
\nMinutes per non-penalty goal: 91.3
\nMinutes per goal or assist: 64.4<\/p>\n
Double figures \ud83d\ude4c@ErlingHaaland 1\ufe0f\u20e30\ufe0f\u20e3 pic.twitter.com\/pD4E2f2sfb<\/p>\n
\u2014 Manchester City (@ManCity) September 3, 2022<\/p>\n
Robert Lewandowski
\nGames: 114
\nStarts: 111
\nSub appearances: 3<\/p>\n
Goals: 132
\nAssists: 26<\/p>\n
Penalties scored: 22<\/p>\n
Minutes per goal: 74.4
\nMinutes per non-penalty goal: 89.3
\nMinutes per goal or assist: 63.01<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland have arguably been the two most lethal goalscorers of the 2020s so far \u2013 and the numbers bear that out. There\u2019s 12 years difference between the two strikers, with 34-year-old Lewandowski surely set to start winding down in the coming years while 22-year-old Haaland is well on course for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barcelona-en.elgoal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}