Will Erling Haaland break Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi's goal records? Sergio Aguero offers prediction as Norway star rapidly closes in on his Man City total after lightning start to new season

Haaland has made his fastest start to a Premier League season yet, firing in nine goals in his first four games including back-to-back hat-tricks against Ipswich and West Ham, while he narrowly missed out on a third successive treble against Brentford. He is on eight hat-tricks, four from equalling Aguero's record of 12 Premier League trebles. He also has Aguero's status as being City's top scorer of all-time in his sights. He already has 99 goals for City in little more than two seasons. The Argentine struck 260 goals in 10 seasons at the Etihad Stadium.

Haaland is on course to topple Messi and Ronaldo as the top scorers in Europe's top-five leagues. He is also on the path to eventually toppling the Portuguese as the Champions League's all-time top scorer, having struck 41 goals in 39 games. Ronaldo is the record leading scorer in Europe's top competition with 141 goals, with Messi second on 129. But Messi is the all-time scorer in Europe's top five leagues with 496 goals to Ronaldo's 495. Haaland, 24, is already on 134.

"I've always said that Erling reaping many goals is a great thing, because it likely means City is clinching new titles to go with that," Aguero, speaking on behalf of Stake.com, told GOAL. "He's got a great scoring average, and he's maintained it season after season. Hopefully Erling can stay on this path. Perhaps, he'll break those records (Messi and Ronaldo's). He'll need to stay course on his performance... we'll only know how much he's able to achieve by the end of his career."

Haaland broke Wayne Rooney's record for the most goals after four Premier League games by bagging a brace against Brentford on Saturday to move on to nine goals for the season. Rooney struck eight times for Manchester United at the start of the 2011-12 campaign.

Haaland will be looking to add to his already impressive Champions League goal tally when City host Inter - who they beat in the 2023 final - in their opening game of the campaign. UEFA's expansion of the competition means Haaland now has more games to increase his goal tally and home in on Ronaldo's record.