Erling Haaland: How the Manchester City striker led Norway to the 2026 World Cup

Haaland’s goalscoring record for Norway is nothing short of exceptional.

He scored 55 goals in 48 matches for his country.

In fact, he is only the sixth player ever, and the first in 53 years, to score 50 goals in fewer than 50 international matches.

Norway’s previous top scorer was Jørgen Joffe, with 33 goals, who held this record for 90 years.

He scored 16 goals in these qualifiers – in eight matches – in addition to two assists. That’s twice the number of goals scored by anyone else in Europe.

He is the top scorer in these qualifiers on any continent, including those in which teams play twice as many matches.

It has been more than a year since Haaland last failed to score in a match for Norway.

Among the matches for City, Haaland scored 32 goals in 20 matches this season.

But it’s not just a one-man show.

Captain Martin Odegaard, 26, has more assists than anyone else in European qualifiers – seven.

The Arsenal midfielder has made 67 appearances for Norway since making his debut at the age of 15.

“Combine Haaland’s success with the fact that in this generation we also have Martin Odegaard,” Sivertsen said.

“We are a country of five million people and we have the best striker and I would say the best playmaker, certainly one of the best playmakers, in the Premier League.

“Realistically, this will never happen again in my lifetime, and that is something I cherish.

“If we had this conversation in five years, I would be baffled if there wasn’t a consensus that these two are the best footballers we’ve ever had.”

But Sivertsen added: “I think our group of players would have had a chance to qualify without him.”

He compared the position of Haaland and Odegaard to that of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey when Wales reached the semi-finals of the 2016 European Championship.

“This team doesn’t do the same way without Ashley Williams and Ben Davies at defence, without Joe Allen, without Joe Ledley,” he said.

“People like this have been an integral part of the work of this team. You have to have a support structure around these stars to give them a platform to do special things.”