Erling Haaland is making winning the Golden Boot look easy! Four former stars reveal how they won it

Twenty league goals was once a landmark that gave strikers a decent shot at winning the Golden Boot. Not any more. Not now Erling Haaland is about.

Wednesday’s brace against Leeds took him to 20 for the season, a tally that would have been enough to win the award on four occasions in the Premier League era. The Norwegian has played only 14 matches.

There are bigger targets in the Manchester City man’s sights. Forty goals, perhaps? Certainly overtaking Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole’s 34 in a campaign — when there were an extra two teams in the division — is well within his grasp.

Haaland is the quickest player to reach 20 Premier League goals, overtaking Kevin Phillips, who got there in 21 matches with Sunderland in 1999. He averages 1.6 goals per 90 minutes and, amazingly, his manager Pep Guardiola insists that the 22-year-old is not fully match fit because of a foot injury he sustained in October.

‘He can be sharper,’ Guardiola said after Haaland missed a couple of chances at Elland Road.

Where will it end? And how do you mould yourself into a prospective Golden Boot winner? Sportsmail speaks to four top-flight greats to find out…

CHRIS SUTTON

18 goals for Blackburn, 1997-98

In a way, Erling Haaland is belittling the achievements of Golden Boot winners such as myself. I won the award after scoring 18 goals for Blackburn across the 1997-98 Premier League season. It now sits on a sideboard in my home.

But Haaland has already beaten my total and those of a few other Golden Boot winners. City’s monstrous striker is on 20 goals and it isn’t even New Year!

I do find myself comparing this era to my one. I had leg-chompers like Martin Keown, Tony Adams, Steve Bruce, Neil Ruddock and more delivering reducers in the 1990s. You don’t see too much of that from defenders nowadays. But Haaland is such a complete package, he probably could have held his own in my day. He’s physical, fast, a fierce finisher.

Mine and Alan Shearer’s ‘SAS’ partnership at Blackburn is the one that’s often mentioned. But Kevin Gallacher and I worked well together in 1997-98. Gallacher finished on 16 goals, to my 18.

My 18th goal to secure the Golden Boot alongside Liverpool’s Michael Owen and Coventry’s Dion Dublin was an 88th-minute free-kick winner against Newcastle on the final day of the season. I walloped it in. 

No curving the ball around the seven-man wall. No fragile placement. I put my foot through it after a 10-yard run-up, confident that Shay Given wouldn’t stop my thunder-punt.

To tell you the truth, I didn’t know much about the Golden Boot race. I wasn’t tracking it throughout the season. The fact that Owen was a goal ahead as we faced Newcastle wasn’t living rent free in my head. I was more concerned with ensuring Blackburn qualified for Europe, and we did. I’m sure Haaland’s top priority is securing the title with City rather than this personal accolade, even if he is killing it.

We often hear how the Premier League is ‘the hardest league in the world’. It’s a phrase that rolls around whenever a new striker arrives on these shores, as if to suggest he will struggle. Yet Haaland, like the older kid in the schoolyard playing with the youngsters, has made a mockery of that.

Alan Smith

23 goals for Arsenal, 1988-89 and 1990-91

I started with a hat-trick in a 5-1 win at Wimbledon in August 1988 and the reporters were waiting for me in the dark corridors of Plough Lane to ask if I fancied a crack at the Golden Boot.

I played it down and it wasn’t false modesty. Tony Cottee had scored a hat-trick on his Everton debut, on the same day, and I thought predators like Tony and Ian Rush were always more likely winners.

I played more with my back to goal, showing for the ball and flicking it on. Quietly, though, I was keen to win it and delighted when I did. A good start helped because you take chances without thinking when you are confident. Things seem to fall to you.

I look at Erling Haaland and he’s so relaxed at the point of contact that every goal looks like a training-ground goal. He never seems tense, which you can be when searching for goals.

Going into the title decider at Liverpool at the end of the 1988-89 season, it was between me and John Aldridge for top scorer. I went to Anfield with 22 and John was on 21, and Adidas were trying to get us out on the pitch before kick-off for a head-to-head photo opportunity. I was up for it but John changed his mind about three times and, in the end, it didn’t happen.

My 23rd of the season helped us win the game and win the title — and that made the Golden Boot feel a little more special because I knew it contributed to something solid. As it did in 1990-91.

I didn’t get the same flying start but hit eight in eight games once I got going. I didn’t take penalties, I never fancied them, although George Graham tried to talk me into it to keep the goals flowing.

Lee Dixon took our penalties at the time, but I accepted his offer to take one in the penultimate game to complete a hat-trick and keep me ahead of Lee Chapman, my nearest challenger, in a 3-1 win against Manchester United on the day we were confirmed as champions.

You don’t win the Golden Boot if you’re not part of a good team. I was and Haaland obviously is at City, with those crosses from Kevin De Bruyne and passes into his feet, but there is something different about him. His behaviour, his demeanour, his uncomplicated style, the runs he makes off the ball, all seem a little different to anything we’ve seen before.

I’m sure he will be aware of the possible records. First and foremost, he will want to win the Premier League and the Champions League. But with the numbers he is racking up, anything is possible and what striker wouldn’t want to blast all the other goalscorers out of the water?

KEVIN PHILLIPS

30 goals for Sunderland, 1999-2000

I woke up to loads of texts yesterday morning from people sending me the list of the quickest players to reach 20 goals. I didn’t actually realise I was top! To be beaten by Haaland is no disgrace.

He is a phenomenon — the ultimate striker, who can do everything.

It’s taken since 1999 for somebody to do it but then this boy comes around, breaking records left, right and centre. As much as you hate personal records to go, you don’t mind it when it comes to somebody like Haaland.

As a striker, you have to set goals, something to aim for, and mine was 20. I knew it would be difficult coming from the Championship and you question yourself, whether you can adapt as a newcomer.

I certainly felt that when we got hammered at Chelsea 4-0 on the opening day and Gus Poyet scored that scissor kick. I hardly touched the ball. Blimey!

But then I got two a few days later against Watford and I was off. Having got close to 20 around Christmas, you start thinking, ‘I’ve got a right opportunity here’.

Of course the Golden Boot was mentioned through the season but I tried not to listen. I was always stopped in the street about it in the North East goldfish bowl. I had Sunderland fans saying I could do it, and the other half coming up to say they hoped I didn’t.

The manager, Peter Reid, never let me get carried away. I was desperate to try to win it and had to pinch myself, competing against some top players.

I missed three or four penalties that season as well, which really annoys me, because I could’ve been right up there in the all-time list. But to get 30 was a dream. I always remember big Alan Shearer saying he didn’t think anybody would get 30 goals again because of the quality of defending. I had that in the back of my mind, especially with the Newcastle rivalry.

I never like to blow my own trumpet but you need a strong mentality. I could easily have beaten myself up after missing opportunities but you have to be strong-minded.

Haaland knows that if he misses one, it won’t be long until another comes because City are exceptional. But there have been lots of players in good sides who are affected by misses. It doesn’t impact Haaland. Some say it’s arrogance, but you need that. And instinct — you can’t coach it. I’ve coached strikers, including Jamie Vardy, and you’re born with it.

If you speak to Shearer, Cole, Owen, (Robbie) Fowler — whoever — they will all say that you can analyse things but it’s ultimately just instinct, being there at the right time.

DWIGHT YORKE

18 goals for Manchester United, 1998-99

Winning the Golden Boot was probably an obvious progression — I had scored 17 in previous seasons. But I wasn’t thinking about finishing top scorer. I was just enjoying playing in the Premier League, where it’s difficult to score goals, and the Golden Boot wasn’t top of my priorities.

I didn’t consider it much, I wasn’t a natural goalscorer like the guys who rely on them. I was a different type of player. I saw myself as a complete player — I didn’t need to score goals to have performed well.

Look at the guys who are at the top of the all-time lists — they are genuine goalscorers. They contributed in different ways, but I think I created just as much as I scored.

I probably surprised myself. I never had a clue about the number through the season, I was in a different world. If goals came, then fine. I created, linked the play, and got satisfaction from that. I wasn’t obsessed with being top scorer.

There are different forward players. People like Alan Shearer rely on goals to produce an outstanding game. I didn’t need that. Dennis Bergkamp was a similar mould to me and, of the other Golden Boot winners, so was Dimitar Berbatov. His link-play was pretty impressive.

Traditionally, football always had two strikers and now it’s changed with just the one. Will it come back to that? Maybe. But then saying that, I was never really a striker — I was a No 10. Andrew Cole was the focal point, running in behind. I came short and linked play.

Teams still do that to this day —they just don’t call it 4-4-2 any more — and Haaland can play that way with Julian Alvarez. People try to make it sound different, but they’re just phrases!

What I like about Haaland is that he’s left-footed — it’s so rare for a natural goalscorer. His instinctiveness, with the left foot, makes him unique. I can only think of Robbie Fowler as a comparison. That’s why Haaland is so distinctive.

The only thing that could prevent him scoring 40 goals this season is injuries. Everything is in his favour. Even on a bad day, he’ll nick one. That is the worrying thing for his opponents.