Without looking, I'm comfortable saying Haaland is the best

by Brendan , The Chemical and Oil Refinery State, Thursday, July 09, 2026, 12:05 (12 days ago) @ Jack

player they've ever had. Odegaard, if you'll excuse the Americanism, is probably also on their Mount Rushmore. Many of the traditional national powers have looked wobbly at times. If not now, when?

Actually, I did look, and even though he's only 25 the gulf between Haaland and everyone else is hilariously large. Haaland is Norway's most prolific Top 5 Euro league (Prem, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue Un) scorer ever with 174 goals between Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City. Man United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjær is next with 91. In Champions League play, it's Haaland atop the list with 57 and Solskjær again second with 19 - in 19 more CL games than Haaland has played. For the national team, Haaland again is on his own level with 62 goals (in 54 games) while Jørgen Juve, who played mostly in the 1930's, is second with 33 (in 45 games).

Odegaard, interestingly, is first all time in Top 5 club assists by Norwegians with 43, just ahead of Haaland with 40, and tenth in goals.

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"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." - Yeats