How Erling Haaland’s Premier League record compares to Cristiano Ronaldo

Erling Haaland inspired Manchester City to yet another Premier League victory as he scored twice and set up another in a 3-0 victory against West Ham United at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

The prolific Norwegian needed just five minutes to open the scoring versus the Hammers, putting the Citizens 1-0 up for the 10th time in the top flight this season – no other player has scored the opener in more than five games in the division thus far.

Haaland then teed up Tijjani Reijnders to smash home City’s second on the stroke of half time, before taking advantage of a fortunate ricochet in West Ham’s penalty box to slot home his second of the match and seal three important points for Pep Guardiola’s side.

The 25-year-old’s 19 Premier League goals this season is the joint-most by any player before Christmas in the division’s history, level with Andrew Cole in 1993-94, Kevin Phillips in 1999-00, and Luis Suarez in 2013-14.

Haaland has also moved onto 104 Premier League goals in total, drawing level with Chelsea legend Didier Drogba and overtaking five-time Ballon d’Or winner and Manchester United icon Cristiano Ronaldo.

Both Haaland and Ronaldo will go down as two of the greatest ever Premier League goalscorers, but how do they compare? Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at their respective records in England’s top division.

Haaland vs. Ronaldo – How do their Premier League records compare?

Haaland is currently enjoying his fourth season at Man City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in July 2022, while Ronaldo had two spells at Man United between August 2003 and July 2009, and August 2021 and January 2022.

Man City’s No.9 has remarkably scored his 104 goals in 122 games fewer than it took Ronaldo to net 103 times for the Red Devils, while his 92 minute-per goal ratio is far superior to Ronaldo’s at 170.

Haaland recently became the fastest player to reach a century of goals in the Premier League (111 games), while Ronaldo reached the same milestone at the ripe old age of 37 in his 233rd appearance in the division.

In his debut campaign at the Etihad Stadium, Haaland broke the record for the most goals scored in a single Premier League season, netting 36 times in just 35 games. Meanwhile, Ronaldo’s best return came in his Ballon d’Or winning 2007-08 season when he scored 31 goals in 34 matches.

Furthermore, Haaland scored at least 20 league goals in each of his first three seasons with Man City, and is just one goal away from making that four in a row this term, while Ronaldo only ever surpassed 20 goals in a single season once (2007-08) in seven-and-a-half seasons at Old Trafford.

Haaland - who has scored exactly twice in seven games so far this season - has recorded eight Premier League hat-tricks to date, with only Sergio Aguero (12), Alan Shearer (11) and Robbie Fowler (nine) netting more, while Ronaldo only recorded three trebles during his time at Man United.

Before establishing himself as a lethal centre-forward, Ronaldo began his career as an elite winger at Man United, contributing as a creator as well as a scorer, registering 37 Premier League assists.

In comparison, Haaland has only set up a teammate 20 times to date, with three of those assists registered in his last four Man City appearances.

Haaland and Ronaldo will both go down as Premier League legends

Man City have benefitted immensely with the presence of goal machine Haaland, who has won 76 of his 114 Premier League matches at a win rate of 66.67 %, drawing 19 and losing 19 in the process.

As for Ronaldo, he celebrated 149 Premier League wins in his 236 games for Man United at a win rate of 63.14%, while also drawing 47 matches and losing 40.

During his time at Old Trafford, Ronaldo was an integral part of the Man United teams that won three consecutive Premier League titles from 2006-07 to 2008-09 under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Haaland, meanwhile, is a two-time Premier League champion with Man City, winning in his first two years in English football in 2022-23 and 2023-24 before having to settle for third place in the 2024-25 campaign.

In both of his title-winning seasons, Haaland won the Premier League Golden Boot and he is one of only nine players in the division’s history to have won the award more than once – the Norwegian is eyeing up a third award this term, as he is already eight goals ahead of his nearest challenger Igor Thiago (11).

As for Ronaldo, he only received one Premier League Golden Boot award for his aforementioned 31-goal campaign in 2007-08, though he narrowly missed out by one goal to Nicolas Anelka (19) in the 2006-07 season.

The biggest individual prize a Premier League player can receive is the Player of the Year award and Ronaldo did win this in back-to-back seasons in 2006-07 and 2007-08, while Haaland won the award for the first and only time to date in 2022-23.