Marcus Rashford scored the winning goal on Sunday as a resurgent Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at Wembley.
The England international’s strike was his fourth in six games since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over as caretaker manager and his upturn in form is reflective of that of his teammates during the Norwegian’s brief time in charge.
But Sunday wasn’t just another goal and another win for Rashford and Man United; it also put the 21-year-old within one game of his 150th club appearance as a professional footballer, scoring 40 goals in the process – a landmark that proves just how highly his talent is thought of on the red side of Manchester.
But how does Rashford compare to some of the most prolific goalscorers the modern game has seen after their first 150 games?
Alan Shearer
Age: 21
Goals scored: 35
Major honours: 0
A slow start to his career saw Alan Shearer score just 35 goals by the time he made his 150th professional appearance in a 2-1 home win for Southampton against Queens Park Rangers in April 1992.
That goal, however, was one of 21 during the 1991/92 campaign, helping Southampton stay safe in 16th place in the old First Division, earning him a move to Blackburn Rovers in the process. His success at Blackburn, as well as his exploits in front of goal for his beloved Newcastle United years later, gave Shearer the platform to go on and become the Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer to date.
Thierry Henry
Age: 21
Goals scored: 28
Major honours: 1
If you were to look at Thierry Henry’s first 150 club games without knowing it was him, you may not have believed whose career you were looking at.
Arsene Wenger famously converted the Frenchman into a striker, but Henry was often used as a winger or a wing-back during his days with Monaco and Juventus and scored just 28 goals in his first 150 games, although he did have a 1998 World Cup winners medal under his belt by that stage.
Henry did, however, score an incredible 329 following that.
Harry Kane
Age: 22
Goals scored: 53
Major honours: 0
Very much a late bloomer, it took Harry Kane until the age of 22 to reach his 150th game in club football. Late physical development meant Kane was loaned out to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester, before finally getting a real chance in the Tottenham first team in 2013/14, and really making his mark a season later.
Kane managed 53 goals during his first 150 club games, but it is his form since then which has elevated him as one of the most feared strikers in world football right now.
Wayne Rooney
Age: 20
Goals scored: 45
Major honours: 0
If Harry Kane was a late bloomer, Wayne Rooney was anything but. The Scouse sensation burst onto the scene with ‘that’ incredible goal against Arsenal for Everton in 2002, although he was already making sporadic appearances for the first team by that stage.
A move to United followed less than two years later and Rooney made his 150th club appearance in the Red Devils’ League Cup semi-final first leg against Blackburn Rovers in January 2006. Man United and England’s future top goalscorer had already netted 45 before that point, with a flood of major honours and broken records coming in the years that followed.
Lionel Messi
Age: 21
Goals scored: 74
Major honours: 3
After starting to push his way into the first team picture in 2004/05, it only took Lionel Messi until April 2009 to make his 150th senior appearance for Barcelona in a 1-1 Champions League draw away to Bayern Munich, with 74 goals to his name during that time.
Messi had already won two La Liga titles and a Champions League by then, sealing an incredible treble at the end of that season – a unique achievement for a Spanish club. Five Ballon d’Or titles later, the Argentine is many people’s pick as the greatest player of all time and his achievements in the modern game are rivalled only by those of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Age: 20
Goals scored: 25
Major honours: 1
Cristiano Ronaldo made his 150th senior appearance against Blackburn Rovers in February 2005 but had only scored 25 goals by that point. It wasn’t until the following season, in which he scored 12 goals, that Ronaldo really started to add an end product to his game.
The Portuguese did already have the 2004 FA Cup to his name by the time he hit the landmark, but since then he has won almost everything worth winning in the game in England and Spain, and looks set to do the same in Italy this season with Juventus.
Sergio Aguero
Age: 20
Goals scored: 57
Major honours: 0
Sergio Aguero’s 150th club appearance came in a 4-0 win for Atletico Madrid against Malaga in August 2008, with the now-Man City sensation already scoring 57 goals during that time for the Spanish side and Independiente in Argentina.
Aguero didn’t score in that particular game, but left Atletico in 2011 having scored 102 goals for the club and winning the 2010 Europa League – the 30-year-old has since become Manchester City’s all-time top goalscorer.
The post How Rashford compares after 150 games to modern goalscoring greats appeared first on Squawka News.
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