Erling Haaland was unable to celebrate an incredible career milestone on Saturday.
The Norwegian superstar scored twice inside the opening 10 minutes during Der Klassiker to put Borussia Dortmund 2-0 up against Bayern Munich.
The second of those strikes saw him reach a century of goals in his career.
While that’s an achievement well worth acknowledging, Haaland’s afternoon took a turn for the worse when he limped off with an ankle injury as Dortmund went on to lose 4-2.
Regardless of the result, Haaland has now scored an incredible 45 goals in 46 appearances for the German side. Add to that his 29 goals in 27 games for RB Salzburg. At the start of his career, he notched 20 goals in 50 appearances for Molde. Meanwhile, he’s bagged six in seven at international level.
So that’s 100 goals at the age of 20 years and 228 days.
We explained on Sunday how Haaland had reached 100 career goals in fewer matches than Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimvovic and Cristiano Ronaldo.
But which player was the YOUNGEST when they reached that tally?
Well, The National News has looked at the 10 youngest players to reach 100 goals and Haaland is only the second youngest.
That’s because he was beaten by Neymar - who reached 100 career goals on his 20th birthday. Of course, all of Neymar’s first 100 goals came in Brazil for Santos.
Check out the top 10 below:
1) Neymar (Brazil) - 20 years old
2) Erling Haaland (Norway) - 20 years 228 days
2) Kylian Mbappe (France) - 20 years 356 days
3) Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) - 22 years 138 days
4) Sergio Aguero (Argentina) - 22 years 147 days
5) Lionel Messi (Argentina) - 22 years 206 days
6) Wayne Rooney (England) - 23 years 37 days
7) Michael Owen (England) - 23 years 133 days
8) Harry Kane (England) - 23 years 213 days
9) Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - 23 years 255 days
10) Robbie Fowler (England) - 23 years, 282 days
It's worth noting that the stats for legendary players down the years are inconclusive and, therefore, cannot be verified.
Messi and Ronaldo are two of the greatest players to have ever played the game but have been beaten by a handful of strikers in recent years.
The likes of Neymar, Haaland, Mbappe, Lukaku and Aguero may have started their career scoring more goals than Messi and Ronaldo but can they maintain their goalscoring rate into their mid-thirties like those two superstars? It’s unlikely.
And that’s what has set Messi and Ronaldo apart from the rest. The ability to maintain their incredible standard for 15 or so years.
If Haaland can score his next 100 as quick as he scored his first 100, and then the next 100, and the next 100, and the next 100, and the next 100 and the next 100 then maybe we can compare him to Messi and Ronaldo.
It’s so far so good for the Dortmund wonderkid, though.