Former Newcastle United striker Andrew Cole declared that he has no qualms after Erling Haaland broke his record for the most goals during a single Premier League season. Cole reckons records are meant to be broken and credited the Norwegian for achieving the feat.
Haaland achieved the Premier League's Player of the Season award as he scored 36 goals in 35 games this season. As a result, he broke the previous record of 34 goals in a single Premier League edition held jointly by Cole and Alan Shearer that stood nearly for three decades.
The public, the captains of the 20 Premier League clubs and a panel of soccer experts voted the 22-year-old as the Player of the Season. Furthermore, Manchester City players have won the accolade for four consecutive seasons. Kevin de Bruyne took the honours in 2019-20 and 2021-22, while Ruben Dias won it in 2020-21.
In a conversation with the Daily Mail, Cole admits that a few people might be pissed about Haaland breaking his record. However, the 51-year-old said he doffs his hat to the youngster for claiming the feat.
"I couldn't give a f***. I'm being honest. I am not anal in any way, shape or form about someone breaking goal-scoring records because records are set to be broken. Now, some people might be p*ssed. But people say I must be disappointed. Why? Because someone has scored more goals than me? It's taken 20 years for someone to get that close. Am I going to rock myself to sleep and think, Oh God, someone has broken my record? No, I'll take my hat off to him. I'll salute him. He's done it in a team that creates chance after chance. At some stage, your record's going to be broken."
Erling Haaland thanks Manchester City's staff for winning the award:
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Haaland wrote:
"Proud and humbled to become the first-ever footballer to win both the Premier League Player of the Season and Premier League Young Player of the Season. Thanks to my family, fans, teammates and the whole staff for this."
