Santiago Gimenez Europe's top scorer - Erling Haaland is back!
It is about time to talk about Feyenoord Rotterdam’s Mexican goalscoring sensation Santiago Gimenez. After already scoring an unbelievable 13 goals in just nine Eredivisie games this season, the 22-year-old scored twice in his Champions League debut against Lazio on Wednesday (3-1). Gimenez has now scored in nine successive competitive matches for Feyenoord, racking up 15 goals in total, the most of all players playing in any of the top 5 UEFA ranked leagues.
That number ranks Gimenez ahead of Bundesliga goalscoring sensation Serhou Guirassy but also ahead of no other than Erling Haaland. Haaland ranks eighth among players playing in the top 5 leagues. Heading into this Champions League matchday, The Manchester City star, in fact, was still looking for his first goal since scoring in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals against Bayern Munich last season (1-1).
Haaland ended his goalscoring drought with a brace against Young Boys (3-1) on Wednesday, and in 33 Champions League career matches, the 23-year-old has now scored 37 goals. Those two goals mean that Haaland has passed Ferenc Puskas to become one of the competition’s top 20 goalscorers. It is, however, still quite some way to the very top, were no other than Cristiano Ronaldo reigns supreme with 140 goals in 183 games played.
Champions League roundup: Pepe becomes oldest field player in history
At 23, Haaland still has some time to catch up with Ronaldo. At the other end of his career but not fully out yet is Porto defender Pepe. At 40 years, seven months, and 29 days, Pepe became the oldest outfield player to appear in the Champions League. But Pepe still has some way to go to become the Champions League’s oldest player; four goalkeepers (Mark Schwarzer, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi, Gianluigi Buffon, and Marco Ballotta) have all played in the competition aged 41 or older.
The 25 most valuable players in the world in 2023
- Date of birth/Age:
- Jul 21, 2000 (23)
-
Nat.:
- Current club:
- Manchester City
- Contract until:
- Jun 30, 2027
- Position:
- Centre-Forward
- Market Value:
- €180.00m
- Date of birth/Age:
- Apr 18, 2001 (23)
-
Nat.:
- Current club:
- Feyenoord Rotterdam
- Contract until:
- Jun 30, 2027
- Position:
- Centre-Forward
- Market Value:
- €45.00m
- Total Market Value:
- €1.27bn
- Competition:
- Premier League
- Position:
- 2.
- Manager:
- Pep Guardiola
- Squad size:
- 22
- Latest Transfer:
- Claudio Echeverri
