Erling Haaland reaches incredible goalscoring record in World Cup qualifiers not even Messi or Ronaldo achieved
Erling Haaland wrapped up a historic qualifying campaign with Norway in the UEFA 2026 World Cup cycle, helping the Scandinavian side return to the tournament after 28 years. Along with that achievement, the Norwegian striker has reached an incredible goalscoring milestone that neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo ever managed.
On Sunday, Norway completed its qualifying run with a commanding 4-1 win over Italy at San Siro. Italy needed a nine-goal victory to steal first place and came out strong, but with goals from Antonio Nusa, a Haaland brace, and Jørgen Strand Larsen, Norway mounted a decisive response, with the Manchester City star once again making history.
By scoring against Italy, Erling Haaland became just the second player ever to score in eight consecutive FIFA World Cup qualifying matches. His streak began on the road to 2026 against Moldova in March, and continued as he scored against Israel, Estonia, and Italy (home and away), finding the net in every qualifier since.
In contrast, while Ronaldo and Messi are among the top scorers in World Cup qualifying history, neither produced a streak this long. Ronaldo’s best run came during the road to the 2018 World Cup, when he scored in six straight qualifiers from 2016 to 2017 against Andorra, the Faroe Islands (twice), Latvia (twice), and Hungary. Messi’s longest came in the lead-up to Brazil 2014, scoring in back-to-back three-match stretches.
The only player to record a longer streak is Pauleta, who scored in nine straight qualifiers for Portugal between 2001 and 2004. That means Haaland will enter the 2030 World Cup cycle, set for Spain, Morocco, and Portugal, with a chance to tie or even surpass Pauleta’s record.
More records set by Haaland
In the UEFA 2026 qualifiers, Norway finished as the highest-scoring team with 37 goals while conceding only five. Of those goals, 16 were scored directly by Haaland, accounting for an impressive 43 percent of the total.
By netting 16 goals, Haaland also tied Robert Lewandowski’s record for the most goals in a single UEFA World Cup qualifying campaign, matching the Polish star’s tally from the road to Russia 2018. He finished just three shy of the all-time global record set by Iranian legend Karim Bagheri, who scored 19 goals in Asian qualifying ahead of France 1998.