Erling Haaland is 99 not out: Why reaching 100 Premier League goals faster than anyone is the one record Man City star cares about, what his training-ground habits reveal about his personality - and how the next 12 months will shape his footballing legacy

The nervous nineties, that phenomenon likely to rear its head over the coming weeks if the batsmen Down Under can get on top of the bowlers. Fielders crowded around the bat, singles nowhere. Can’t get it off the square. Fluent batters floundering.

But not in northern England. Erling Haaland’s ascent to his Premier League century has been unwavering, aggressively sweeping away those in his arc with the confidence of a man who is not only to join that elite 100 club, but top the lot of them in how fast he arrived – and by some distance. He has made 108 Premier League appearances.

Newcastle United's St James’ Park is the first arena that could witness history, a poetic coincidence given the current quickest striker to a century. For Alan Shearer to retain the record – 124 games – Haaland would need to embark on a drought never seen before, until the end of February when Manchester City go to Leeds United.

For Harry Kane to remain second in the list (141 games), Haaland’s goals have to dry up until the seventh match of next season. Both of these things feel somewhat unlikely.

It’s been a brutish hunting of this record, unreal numbers from a player who has brushed off ludicrous critique of his ability – remember when Roy Keane mentioned Haaland and League Two in the same sentence? – to obliterate milestones. And he is in a rush, going at more than a run a ball since ticking over 90 with a brace in the Manchester derby two months ago.

Will the achievement mean anything to a man destined to win the Ballon d’Or, destined for countless more pieces of silverware? Maybe even destined for another Champions League? ‘I don’t really know any records,’ he told Daily Mail Sport last month. ‘But this one, the Premier League, I know.’

There came a glint. He knows. It matters. This 100, whenever it comes, is a big deal. 

Yet for the general public, it is merely expected, a natural continuation. We shrug when Haaland scores. Normal stuff. Bounces off a marker to guide in at the near post or contorts his ridiculous frame to nudge seemingly hopeless crosses home. So normal that just this week, when taking a short breather from crying conspiracy over the final day of the 2012 title race, Wayne Rooney seemingly forgot to mention the Norwegian as one of the league’s top three performers so far this term.

Forgetting is the only logical explanation for the omission, of course. Anything else paints a picture of something slightly more worrying. Viktor Gyokeres got a mention. Not even Gyokeres himself would follow Rooney in with that.

It’s 14 in the league for Haaland already. Brentford’s Igor Thiago is next on eight. Fourteen in the league and 32 in all competitions for club and country. Thirty-two in 20 games. Another four in World Cup qualifying over the international break, when mocking Gianluca Mancini – claiming the defender had been touching him up - as Norway humbled Italy at the San Siro to reach next summer’s tournament.

He delivers these withering put-downs with a very deliberate, distinct smirk. Trent Alexander-Arnold found himself on the wrong end of it 18 months back when suggesting Liverpool’s successes ‘mean more’, inferring City had bought their way to titles. 

Haaland’s response – basically, ‘the Treble felt nice, I’m not sure he knows how that feels’ – left you mildly cringing on behalf of his target.

This personality, a little sprinkling of dry wit, regularly shines through – helped enormously by the modern obsession of having cameras trailing every move. City embed documentary makers with the first-team squad and Haaland has been a main beneficiary. 

After launching his own YouTube channel, Haaland racked up more than 12 million views from his first two videos. 

Clearly, the guy wants to extend his reach beyond sport, to become recognisable in the United States and Asia as a personality rather than this endearingly robotic finisher. 

Almost half of his YouTube views are coming through television screens rather than portable devices and he’s soon likely to break one million subscribers. For celebrities of a certain age, these things matter and Haaland obviously has the flair for it.

He can do a Barnsley accent: funny. He took care of a Bonsai tree at the training ground: quirky. He called his personal sports therapist ‘flat a***’ – cheeky scamp! He barbecues fatty steaks, man after my own heart. He fries his eggs sunny side up. And preaches the virtues of a morning stroll. We all aim for 10,000 steps... He's a relatable guy.

Despite everything and despite this aura around Haaland, that is actually what they tell you at City. Oh, it’s Erling. Largely happy-go-lucky. Mucks in. Makes a point of handing his bib to the kit men, unlike a few others. 

‘I am a Norwegian guy and I don’t think I am something just because I am scoring goals,’ he said recently. ‘I am Erling.’

That attitude has seen him take to leadership with ease within Pep Guardiola’s group. Sources say that his breadth of experience, from fighting relegation with Bryne through to the Treble, make him a perfect sounding board. It has proven a huge step up in responsibility and, with Bernardo Silva’s expected departure next summer, that is only going to become greater.

And City are in safe hands. Ignoring the exterior, the jumping out at people at the petrol stations of Alderley Edge dressed as the Joker, Haaland thinks deeply about how he can influence City moving forward.

Shearer has made peace with what is coming, be it at Newcastle on Saturday or when City face Leeds at the Etihad Stadium next weekend. Or, heaven forbid, down at Craven Cottage a week on Tuesday. Imagine if it took him that long?

‘Haaland has blown the Premier League away,’ Shearer told Betfair this week. ‘He's blown world football away because not only is he doing it in the Premier League, he's doing it in Europe and for Norway.

‘How do Newcastle stop him at the weekend? Really, how do you stop him? With a little bit of luck, team-mates backing you up and that's it really, you have to try and hope for the best, do the best you can. And if he smacks one in the top corner and it's through great ability rather than a mistake, sometimes you just have to admit he's a very good player and difficult to stop.’

There feels a great deal of understatement to that and, beyond this landmark, the next 12 months could shape Haaland’s footballing legacy. 

He is a realist - the World Cup, which had never really been on the radar as a platform, now appears on the horizon. Tough to say before the group stage draw is made, but helping Norway to the knockout stages would be a feather for his cap.

That at the end of a campaign in which he should threaten his current best of 56 goals for club and country, managed in 57 games. Carry on at his current rate and a 57-game season would yield 89 goals. An impossibility, surely. Equally impossible is not surpassing all of his previous tallies. At 25, just entering his prime. Scary thought.

The goalscoring, a possible decent World Cup and a resurgent City naturally point towards a run at the Ballon d’Or. Lifting the golden football at the Theatre du Chatelet next autumn is dependent upon team prospects as well as his own. 

Those close to him say Haaland would rather lift the Champions League over any individual prizes, although they generally go hand in hand. Even then, in 2023, he settled for second behind Lionel Messi after Argentina’s fairytale in Qatar.

This is a new age of superstar, with Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele among those leading the charge. With 25 goals in 18 games, Harry Kane has not shied away from suggestions that he could have his own tilt at it – especially with Bayern Munich’s run under Vincent Kompany and England’s summer prospects.

‘Sometimes even subconsciously, maybe you're pushing each other to reach different levels,’ Kane said. ‘Messi and (Cristiano) Ronaldo probably did that over a long period of time. It's probably too early in the season to be thinking about that (the European Golden Boot). But maybe as we get to the end, and if we're on a similar number of goals, it's just natural that you would want to be the one on top.’

We could witness something truly special from the goal hunters across Europe this year. What is unlikely to be disputed is the idea that none of them will run off celebrating more than Haaland before it’s wheels up for America. 

He’ll slowly raise the bat at some point in the coming days and then just continue whacking Premier League defences in all directions.