Erling Haaland renamed ‘Terminator’ after he breaks yet another record

Fans and commentators alike have branded Erling Haaland a ‘terminator’ after seeing him net his 45th (yes, forty-fifth) goal of the season during Manchester City’s demolition of Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

It is now the most by any player in Premier League history in a single campaign after Mohamed Salah and Ruud van Nistelrooy’s tallies of 44 in 2017/18 and 2002/03 respectively.

It was something of a swashbuckling performance all-round for Pep Guardiola’s side, but attention after the game was firmly on Haaland with supporters awestruck by the ridiculous milestone he just passed.

“45 goals in one season … and we still have over a month left. This guy isn’t human #Haaland,” one fan tweeted.

“At this point, only Lionel Messi can prevent Erling Haaland from winning his first Ballon d’Or,” said another, while a third commented: “45 goals in 39 games in the season and 11 in 7 Champions League games. Terminator.”

Commentators in Spain also seemingly decided they would simply refer to Haaland as the cyborg character made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 film The Terminator and 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day. One fan tweeted: “Im watching the game in Spanish and the announcers keep calling Haaland ‘terminator’. Another added: “Spanish broadcast not even saying Haaland name they’re just calling him ‘Terminator’.”

Joe Cole also lauded Haaland following City’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg victory tipping the Norway International to score 1000 goals.

‘Just ridiculous,’ Cole said about Haaland’s impressive performance on BT Sport. ‘His assist [for Bernardo Silva] was outstanding.

‘The frightening thing is that he is just going to get better and better. He’s going to become more and more complete.

‘I was saying to Rio [Ferdinand] I think he is going to score 1000 goals. He laughed at me.

‘But look at the numbers, if he played until his mid 30s and doesn’t get injured [he can do it].’