Erling Haaland reaches scoring record set by Malaysian football legend

A 4-1 win over Italy in the final match of World Cup European qualifiers saw Norway return to the World Cup for the first time since 1998. Haaland scored twice in that match to extend his scoring streak to 11 matches.

This equals the 63-year-old record of Abdul Ghani, the striker with the nickname Raja Bola, or King of Football. Ghani scored in 11 consecutive matches from 28 May 1961 to 28 August 1962. The record was confirmed by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), according to Sinar Harian.

Ghani was born on Dec. 23, 1935, and passed away on Sept. 28, 2012, at the age of 76. He holds the record of scoring 58 goals in 57 matches for Malaya, the predecessor of the Malaysia national team. He used to train with many strong teams in Europe, such as West Ham, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Cardiff City and Eintracht Frankfurt.

Haaland's scoring streak began on Nov. 14, 2024, when he scored in a 4-1 win over Slovenia. Since then, Norway has won all 11 matches with the 25-year-old star striker. The only match that stopped Norway's winning streak was a friendly against New Zealand, when Haaland did not play.

Cristiano Ronaldo once scored a brace in six consecutive matches for Portugal. Lionel Messi has an eight-game scoring streak from December 2022 to September 2023 for Argentina, but he is still far from the 11-game mark that Haaland just equaled.

Haaland has scored 55 goals in just 48 games for Norway. Kylian Mbappe has also scored 55 goals for France, but the 26-year-old striker needed 94 games. Not to mention France are also much stronger than Norway as a team.

The 25-year-old striker also equaled Robert Lewandowski's record of 16 goals in a single European qualifier. The Polish striker needed 10 games to achieve this feat, while Haaland only played 8.