Erling Haaland scored twice on his World Cup debut, but he isn’t ready to call himself the world’s best goalscorer — and he named the two players he says are ahead of him. Asked in the mixed zone whether he agreed with Norway coach Stale Solbakken’s assessment that he’s the “best goalscorer in the world,” Haaland turned it down on the numbers alone: “I would say I’m up there. I don’t think I scored the most goals this season, so statistically no.”
The admission resets the season-long goalscorer debate just as the World Cup gets going. Haaland is no longer the default answer to “who’s the best No.9 in the world” — by his own math, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe both outscored him in 2025-26, and he’s not interested in arguing the point. “Harry Kane and Mbappe scored more goals than me and that’s the reality,” he said.
The numbers back him up. Haaland has 37 goals this season — 27 in the Premier League and eight in the Champions League for Manchester City, plus his brace against Iraq. Mbappe has scored four more for Real Madrid, with 25 in LaLiga and 15 in the Champions League added to his own two World Cup goals; he topped the LaLiga charts in 2024-25 and 2025-26 and finished this season as the Champions League’s leading scorer. Kane is clear of both of them: 51 goals in 51 matches, 36 of those in 31 Bundesliga appearances for Bayern Munich, enough for a third straight Bundesliga top-scorer title and a record domestic campaign in Munich.
Haaland’s brace came in a 4-1 win over Iraq that gave Norway their first World Cup victory since 1998, ending a 28-year absence from the tournament. Kane, by contrast, was already talking up his own campaign before England’s opener against Croatia: “Yeah I’d say from a personal point of view it was the best season I’ve ever had from a factual point of view of scoring a lot more goals than what I have in any other previous season, which is obviously pleasing.”
Inside the Norway camp, the numbers debate hasn’t dented confidence in their No.9. Teammate Patrick Berg called Haaland “the best striker in world football,” pointing to his work without the ball against Iraq, while Sander Berge said he played like “an animal” in the win.
Norway return to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to face Senegal on Tuesday at 1 a.m. BST, with Haaland looking to add to his tally and the goalscorer argument running until the numbers settle the question for him.
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