ERLING HAALAND'S NEW RECORD !
Haaland smashes van Nistelrooy’s record in UCL
Erling Haaland has scored in the Manchester City's game vs Napoli (2-0) his 50th goal on his just 49th appearance in the Champions League, smashing the former competition’s record that stood for exactly 18 years.
On same day, 18 September, of 2007 Ruud van Nistelrooy has scored his 50th goal in UCL on his 62nd appearances. Until yesterday, he was the player who took fewest games to reach the milestone.
Here in the table is top 5 of the corresponding ranking. It doesn’t include the UCL all-time goal-scorer Cristiano Ronaldo who reached 50 goals only after 94 matches played.
*In the meantime, Haaland failed to become the youngest player to reach 50 goals in Champions League. He did it at the age of 25 years 59 days, conceding to Lionel Messi who scored his 50 goal at 24 years 284 days.
*Haaland’s goal vs Napoli means Alfredo Di Stéfano (49 goals) drops out of the all-time top 10 goalscorers in the European Cup/Champions League.
There are no players from the European Cup era (1955-1992) in the all-time top 10 anymore: all 10 are from the Champions League era (since 1992).
By the way, Di Stéfano scored his 49 European Cup goals in 58 matches.
CHAMPIONS | LEAGUE | FEWEST | GAMES TO | SCORE 50 GOALS | ||
Player | Nation | Games | Date | Team | Game | |
1 | Erling Haaland | Norway | 49 | 18/09/2025 | Manchester City | Napoli 2-0 |
2 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | Netherlands | 62 | 18/09/2007 | Real Madrid | Werder 2-1 |
3 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 66 | 03/04/2012 | Barcelona | Milan 3-1 |
4 | Robert Lewandowski | Poland | 77 | 27/11/2018 | Bayern Munich | Benfica 5-1 |
5 | Kylian Mbappé | France | 79 | 10/12/2024 | Real Madrid | Atalanta 3-2 |