Erling Haaland is a freak of nature who is destined to win many prominent Golden Boot trophies for being an absolute goal machine – but his first prominent one came at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
In more ways than one, his performance in that tournament was probably what helped him gain attention from Europe’s best clubs and prove himself as the next big thing in the tournament.
That was actually the last time when a FIFA U-20 World Cup took place, as the 2021 edition was canceled due to Covid-19. Hence, Haaland remains the last person to win a Golden Boot in that tournament before he is ultimately usurped by someone else later this year.
Haaland won the Golden Boot by scoring an impressive nine goals in the tournament. But the insane way in which he it proved that the Norwegian forward is indeed a major force to be reckoned with.
Erling Haaland puts Honduras to the sword with 9 goals
Haaland has represented Norway across all youth levels in his career, but the U-20 World Cup was actually the first (and only) World Cup he’s been involved in all throughout his career so far. Norway were placed in a group with Uruguay, New Zealand, and Honduras.
The Norwegian side suffered a loss in their first game, losing 3-1 to Uruguay – a game in which a young Darwin Nunez got the better of Haaland and scored an impressive goal as well.
Norway were under pressure in their second group game against New Zealand and buckled under it, suffering a loss to New Zealand.
They were more or less eliminated from the competition going into the final game against Honduras. It was in this game that Haaland decided to do something remarkable. He scored his first goal in the 7th minute, the first of what would be a whirlwind of goals.
Haaland went on to score nine goals in the game – a hattrick of hattricks – helping Norway pick up an incredible 12-0 win.
In doing so, Norway not only set the win for the biggest win by any team in the history of the tournament – but Haaland also set a record for the most goals scored by a player in a single match in the U-20 World Cup.
After failing to score in his first two group games, Haaland scored nine in the third game. That was enough to bag him the Golden Boot because no other player even came close to matching his tally.
Haaland breaks the Golden Boot curse
The Norwegian forward joined a prestigious club of players to have won the U-20 World Cup Golden Boot since the turn of the new century. Lionel Messi won the prize in 2005 after guiding the Argentina U-20 side to win the competition. Sergio Aguero won it in the 2007 edition as well.
But in general, the winners of the U-20 World Cup Golden Boot awards have failed to impress for the majority of this century. Before Haaland, the 2017 U-20 World Cup Golden Boot winner Ricardo Orsolini rode high on momentum. But he failed to impress at Juventus and is currently playing for Serie A mid-table club Bologna.
Some of the other winners of the U-20 World Cup Golden Boot award over the last two decades involve Dominic Adiyiah, Henrique Almeida, Ebenezer Assifuah, and Viktor Kovalenko.
Most of these players withered away after the success and failed to make it to the top of European football. Kovalenko plays for Serie A side Spezia, and Adiyiah doesn’t even play in Europe. Almedia plays for Brazilian club America Mineiro and Assifuah for Malaysian side Kedah Darul Aman.
Haaland has been able to get over this ‘curse’ of winning a U-20 World Cup Golden Boot and is soaring at Manchester City. He looks set to win both the Premier League and European Golden Boot awards but is probably more eager to end the season with major trophies with the Citizens.
