Erling Haaland refused to answer a question on live TV out of ’embarrassment’ after the Manchester City striker broke Mohamed Salah’s goalscoring record in the 3-0 win over West Ham United. The Norwegian sensation bagged his 35th goal of the season in the comprehensive win at the Etihad Stadium and he stopped short of revealing how he would celebrate his latest incredible milestone in his debut campaign.
The 22-year-old sunk home the second goal of the night after Nathan Ake had put Premier League leaders City in front, before Phil Foden’s deflected strike rounded off a straightforward win for Pep Guardiola’s side.
But it was no ordinary evening for Haaland, who became the first player in Premier League history to score 35 goals in a single campaign in just 31 appearances in his debut season. He surpassed the record held by Alan Shearer since 1994-95 in his debut season after signing from Borussia Dortmund 10 months ago.
And when asked how he planned to celebrate his new achievement, Haaland insisted it would be business as usual with more games to play as City are still in the hunt to win the Treble.
“I will go home and play some video games, have some food, sleep and then tomorrow I will come in and think about Leeds. This is my life,” he told Sky Sports presenter David Jones after the game.
Jones then asked Haaland to elaborate on which game he was playing, to which the Norwegian superstar blushed and replied: “I cannot say because it is too embarrassing.”
Later on, Jones brought up the topic again and asked: “Is it FIFA, Erling?” But Haaland refused to budge again, shutting him down by saying: “I cannot say.”
Jones took it in good humour and mocked Haaland before ending the interview, quipping: “I think it’s FIFA and he picks himself.”
With his record strike against West Ham, Haaland now has 51 goals this season in just 45 games and the next record he can break is Dixie Dean’s all-time record of 62 goals in a single campaign.
Haaland can feasily equal or even surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League tally of 17 in Europe, with Real Madrid to come in the semi-finals. But the towering striker says he is not thinking about smashing any more records.
“I don’t think about this now, I’m going to sleep on this game and I wake up tomorrow and try to think about getting three points against Leeds,” Haaland said.
“It will not be easy with the new manager [Allardyce] and everything, but we cannot keep thinking about these records because I will be crazy in my head! So I don’t think of this.”
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