Erling Haaland became only the second footballer in history to earn two perfect 10/10 ratings from French publication L’Equipe.
The prolific Norwegian now has 39 goals in his debut season for Manchester City, breaking the club’s record for most goals in a season in the process, after scoring five against RB Leipzig on Tuesday night.
City breezed into the Champions League quarter-finals thanks to Haaland’s five goals. Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne also got themselves on the scoresheet but the night belonged to City’s world-class No. 9.
If anything, though, Haaland was disappointed that he didn’t score more goals against the German side.
As he walked off the pitch in the 63rd minute, Haaland told Pep Guardiola that he wanted to score a double hat-trick. No player has achieved that feat before in Europe’s premier club competition.
Read more: Erling Haaland reveals what he told Pep Guardiola after being subbed vs RB Leipzig
Still, Haaland managed to obtain a 10/10 rating from L’Equipe – which is certainly no mean feat.
Only 14 players have managed to obtain full marks from the notoriously hard-to-please publication since 1988.
Incredibly, Cristiano Ronaldo – one of the greatest footballers of all time – has never received a perfect 10 from L’Equipe.
Lionel Messi was the first player to earn two 10s. Haaland has now become the second following his five-goal haul.
And you wouldn’t bet against him to become the first player to earn a hat-trick of 10/10s from L’Equipe in the not-too-distant future.
Completing hat-tricks is something that comes naturally to him after all.
Haaland has already bagged five hat-tricks during his debut season with Man City and we’re only midway through March.
Which players have received a 10/10 rating from L’Equipe?
Here’s the full list of players to have received a perfect 10 from L’Equipe since 1988:
1. Franck Sauzee | France U21s vs Greece U21s, 1988
2. Bruno Martini | France U21s vs Greece U21s, 1988
3. Oleg Salenko | Russia vs Cameroon, 1994
4. Lars Windfeld | Aarhus vs Nantes, 1997
5. Lionel Messi | Barcelona vs Arsenal, 2010
6. Lionel Messi | Barcelona vs Bayer Leverkusen, 2012
7. Robert Lewandowski | Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid, 2013
8. Carlos Eduardo | Nice vs Guingamp, 2014
9. Neymar | Paris Saint-Germain vs Dijon, 2018
10. Dusan Tadic | Real Madrid vs Ajax, 2019
11. Lucas Moura | Ajax vs Tottenham, 2019
12. Serge Gnabry | Tottenham vs Bayern Munich, 2019
13. Kylian Mbappe | France vs Kazakhstan, 2021
14. Alban Lafont | Nantes vs PSG, 2022
15. Erling Haaland | Manchester City vs Manchester United, 2022
16. Erling Haaland | Manchester City vs RB Leipzig, 2023
