Erling Haaland of Borussia Dortmund celebrates scoring Photo: VCG

Erling Braut Haaland signed for Borussia Dortmund one year ago last week and he celebrated that in the same way that he has marked most matches since moving to the German Bundesliga: by scoring a goal.

This being Haaland he scored two goals against RB Leipzig, helping his side to a 3-1 win at the Red Bull Arena and getting Dortmund's season - and his own - back on track.

Haaland's goals on matchday 12 were his first since matchday 8 when he picked up an injury that would keep him out until matchday 11 against Wolfsburg, a game which Dortmund won 2-0 despite their star striker firing a blank.

Never mind that, he has scored 12 goals in 10 Bundesliga appearances this season and with the second of his brace at the Red Bull Arena, he set a new record.

Haaland has scored 25 goals in his first 25 Bundesliga games, bettering the record of legendary German international Uwe Seeler, who scored 23 goals in 25 games back in the first Bundesliga season in 1963-4.

Remarkable record



A goal a game is all the more remarkable when you see the records of those who fell short of Seeler.

Slovak striker Marek Mintal hit 21 in his first 25 games back in 2005 after signing for FC Nurnberg, while former Dutch international Roy Makaay hit 20 in his first 25 games for Bayern Munich two years earlier. 

Fifth on the list is Paco Alcacer, a man who wore the Dortmund No.9 shirt before the Norwegian, with 18 goals in his first 25 games of the 2018-19 season.

Haaland signed in the January window of the following season, for what has been seen as a bargain 20 million euros from Red Bull Salzburg.

He scored on his debut of course, his first in the famous yellow and black coming barely 180 seconds after coming on as a substitute in a comeback win over Augsburg.

Debut goals for Dortmund No.9s are not unusual - Haaland followed Alcacer, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Michy Batshuayi in doing what not even Robert Lewandowski could do and netting in his first game.

This being Haaland he finished that first game with a hat trick, matching what Aubameyang did on his Bundesliga debut, also against Augsburg, back in August, 2013.

With his third, Haaland became the youngest player to score a Bundesliga hat trick that day, beating another record from the early days of the Bundesliga set by a teenage Walter Becher back in 1965. 

Haaland has not stopped scoring since that first outing. In fact he has a barely believable 35 goals in 34 competitive games for the German giants. 

The Leeds-born prodigy set a new Bundesliga record by scoring a phenomenal 25 goals in his first 25 league games in the German top flight, with those Bundesliga goals coming at an average of one every 75 minutes and from just 73 shots, a conversion rate of more than 34 percent.

He had five goals in his first two league games - a Bundesliga record - and seven in his first three games - you guessed it, another German league benchmark.

Aside from scoring on his Bundesliga debut - and becoming the first player to score a debut hat trick from the bench - Haaland equaled the feat in the German Cup, UEFA Champions League and the DFL Supercup for his new side.

He also scored four goals in a game - Hertha Berlin being the victims for the Norway international's biggest single-game haul - and inevitably became the youngest player to do it, aged just 20 years and 123 days. 

That was back on matchday 8 of this season, coming in his last appearance before injury.

That's the reason why people argue that Haaland is getting better and better.

"Haaland left his mark on this game. He not only scored two beautiful goals, but actually fought alone against the entire defensive line of Leipzig," former Germany striker Juergen Klinsmann said after the goalscoring return against RB Leipzig.

"It seems like month to month he's getting stronger and he becomes more of a man. He's maturing and he's a very special player," former Hertha Berlin coach Klinsmann told ESPN.

"There's hope in Dortmund to win trophies, they're a very ambitious club," Klinsmann said. "He's comfortable there, and he has a blind understanding with [Gio] Reyna, [Jadon] Sancho and especially Marco Reus."

Individual achievements

Haaland is already winning the individual trophies. 

That four-goal haul came on the same day that he was handed the Golden Boy award as European football's best young player.

Like most other recipients of that award, Haaland is a client of renowned super-agent Mino Raiola and it was the Dutch-Italian dealmaker who took the striker to Dortmund rather than Manchester United a year ago.

Red Devils manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer managed Haaland at Norwegian side Molde, as well as playing in the same Norway side as the youngster's father, former Manchester City footballer Alfe Inge Haaland, but the connection was not enough to secure the striker's signature.

It is a signature that he is reported to still be keen on, according to reports linking Haaland with a move to Old Trafford.

Other teams are circling too, with Haaland reportedly a pawn in the upcoming presidential elections at Barcelona.

Candidate Emili Rousaud has promised Haaland will go to Camp Nou if he is elected, according to advisor Josep Maria Minguella.

There will be plenty of calls if Haaland keeps this up.