According to statistics, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has emerged as the top player of the 21st century in terms of average goals scored per match, as reported by the PopFoot social media account.
In the ranking of players based on their average goals per match, Haaland has outperformed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He has scored 257 goals across 315 matches, with an impressive average of 0.82 goals per match.
The top 10 players by this statistic are as follows:
- Erling Haaland — 0.82 (257 goals in 315 matches)
- Lionel Messi — 0.78 (838 goals in 1,069 matches)
- Cristiano Ronaldo — 0.73 (897 goals in 1,233 matches)
- Kylian Mbappé — 0.72 (332 goals in 462 matches)
- Robert Lewandowski — 0.70 (654 goals in 928 matches)
- Harry Kane — 0.63 (407 goals in 644 matches)
- Neymar — 0.61 (440 goals in 719 matches)
- Ruud van Nistelrooy — 0.60 (277 goals in 463 matches)
- Luis Suárez — 0.60 (576 goals in 968 matches)
- Zlatan Ibrahimović — 0.58 (567 goals in 980 matches)
Haaland scored again in the 18th minute of Manchester City's opening match of the Premier League against Chelsea on August 18, contributing to a 2-0 victory.