Erling Haaland reaches 300 club goals but Lionel Messi still holds the record as the fastest to get there
Erling Haaland reached 300 club goals in his Manchester City career, but the milestone still leaves him behind Lionel Messi, who reached the same tally in fewer games during his time at Barcelona. Erling Haaland added another milestone to an already remarkable goalscoring career, reaching the 300-goal mark at club level in Manchester City’s win over Coventry City. Yet even with the feat now behind him, the Norwegian striker still finds himself chasing a record that belongs to Lionel Messi, who remains the fastest player in the modern era to hit that same tally. Haaland got there with a header, converting a cross from Antoine Semenyo in a 1-0 victory that also moved City closer to the top of the table. The goal came in his 368th appearance across four different clubs, according to OptaJoe, three fewer than Messi’s 365, the number the Argentine needed during his time at Barcelona to become the fastest to 300 club goals in the sport’s history. Messi’s mark has stood since 2013, when he scored his 300th and 301st goals for Barcelona in a win over Granada, a tally built entirely at a single club rather than across multiple spells like Haaland’s. 300 – Erling Haaland’s winner was his 300th goal in all competitions in his top-flight club career (368th appearance).Insatiable. pic.twitter.com/2oyHD9vyOR— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 5, 2026 Cristiano Ronaldo, by comparison, needed 499 appearances split between Sporting CP, Manchester United and Real Madrid to reach the same figure, making him the slowest of the trio to the milestone. Haaland eyes Aguero’s Man City scoring record Haaland’s tally for Manchester City alone, 165 goals in 202 appearances, already places him second on the club’s all-time scoring list, behind only Sergio Aguero, who finished his decade at the Etihad with 260 goals in 390 games. At his current scoring rate, Haaland is on pace to surpass that mark within the next few seasons, a milestone that would make him City’s outright leading scorer in the club’s history. He has already claimed other Aguero-held records along the way, including the club’s all-time Champions League scoring mark, which he broke by reaching 49 goals in the competition, two more than the Argentine managed during his time at the club.
