Two of the most valuable feet on the planet are burning. It’s a stifling mid-June afternoon and Erling Haaland, the superstar Manchester City striker from Norway who looks like Thor but sometimes celebrates goals by meditating in the lotus pose, is walking on the piping hot sand in Boca Raton, Fla. The heat is so intense that I start skittering to the wet sand in desperate need of relief, but Haaland, who has insisted on removing his sandals, simply saunters to a cooler stretch of seashore. “No pain,” he says, flashing a smile.
Manchester City has landed in the U.S. for the FIFA Club World Cup and set up base camp at an oceanfront Boca hotel. Haaland’s tired from an extended training session that morning, but he’s still in a jovial mood—Man City won its opening game in Philadelphia the day before. Minutes before our walk on the beach, Haaland had spotted team photographer Tom Flathers in the hotel lobby with three stitches above his right eyebrow from when a ball launched by Man City forward Omar Marmoush struck him during a practice session a few days earlier.
“If that was me,” says Haaland, “he would have 10.”
Or 10,000. The speed of Haaland’s shots, and hulking 6-ft. 4-in. body, have created a goal-scoring machine the likes of which the world has never seen. Haaland holds the record for most goals in an English Premier League season, won the Golden Boot for most goals in the Premier League two years in a row, scored a hat trick (three goals) in his European Champions League debut—on three shots—and is the only player besides Lionel Messi to score five goals in a Champions League knockout game. He once scored nine goals—yes, nine—in an under-20 competition for Norway. On June 26, during Manchester City’s 5-2 victory over Juventus in the Club World Cup—the 370th game of Haaland’s professional and national-team career—he scored his 300th goal. It took Kylian Mbappé 409 games, Messi 418, and Cristiano Ronaldo 554 to reach this…
