LONDON, England – We beg to answer the curious burning question. Is it possible for Erling Haaland, who plays for Manchester City, to score the most goals in Europe? What about the best leagues in Europe? Lionel Messi had a productive 2011–12 season, scoring 73 goals.

Those are the benchmarks to beat in England, but Haaland still has a ways to go before he can compete with the most productive strikers in Europe in a single season.

As a result of an incredible 2011–12 season for the Argentina star, Lionel Messi currently owns the record for most goals in both the league and across all competitions.

Messi scored 73 goals overall and 50 goals in La Liga while representing Barcelona during that successful season.

With that, he surpassed Gerd Muller’s record, which had stood for 39 years, with 67 goals across all competitions.

With 42 goals in all competitions, Haaland is well on his way to joining a select group of players in reaching the milestone of 50 goals.

When it comes to prolific goal-scoring in modern football, the names of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are often mentioned. Both have scored 50 goals or more in a single season on numerous occasions. Ronaldo’s most productive season was in 2014-15, when he scored a whopping 61 goals in all competitions. Other modern-era players who have scored 50 goals or more in a single season include Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Luis Suarez. In 2015-16, Suarez scored 59 goals for Barcelona, while Ibrahimovic scored 50 for Paris Saint-Germain during the same period. Lewandowski’s personal best came in the 2019-20 season, where he scored an impressive 55 goals for Bayern Munich.

Meanwhile, Erling Haaland is currently on a remarkable goal-scoring run. The Norwegian has scored 28 goals in 27 Premier League games for Manchester City, averaging 1.14 goals per game in all competitions. If he maintains this form, he may add another 20 goals to his tally this season, bringing his total to 60. However, even with this impressive record, it is unlikely that Haaland will surpass Messi’s record of 91 goals in a single calendar year, which he set in 2012. Nonetheless, Haaland has already established himself as one of the most lethal strikers in world football and with another season under his belt in the Premier League, who knows what records he could break in the coming year.