The fastest players to reach 50 goals since 2000: Kane, Ronaldo, Haaland…

Harry Kane has become the fastest player to reach the 50-goal milestone in a major European competition in the 21st century, after needing just 43 Bundesliga games to do so.

The list is dominated by big names who established themselves at the top of their game before joining major powerhouses, a category to which Kane clearly belongs.

We looked at the ten fastest players to score 50 goals in Europe's top five leagues – Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and the Premier League – since 2000.

Some of Shevchenko's goals for Milan predated the turn of the century, but we're including the Ukrainian because his 50th came in Serie A in 2001 – in just his 68th appearance in the league after joining from Dynamo Kiev.

The legendary Rossoneri striker set a record for the fastest player to score 50 goals, back when Serie A was true to its reputation as the natural home of great defenders and not the free-scoring league it is today.

Shearer and Andy Cole scored 50 Premier League goals in fewer games than Van Nistelrooy, but no player in the English top flight has reached that milestone faster in the past 25 years.

Few players in the history of the Premier League have a goal-to-match ratio as good as the Dutch penalty area specialist, who has scored 95 goals in 150 Premier League games for Manchester United. Van Nistelrooy only needed 68 games to score his first 50 goals.

READ: Iconic debuts: Ruud van Nistelrooy's double for Man Utd against Fulham

Ronaldo was already known as one of the greatest goalscorers in history when he arrived at Juventus in 2018 – topping the charts for Real Madrid, Portugal and in the Champions League.

It was almost inevitable that he continued to score the goals in Italy; and he did just that, becoming the fastest player to score 50 goals in Serie A history, breaking Shevchenko's record. It only took him 61 games.

Ibrahimovic was one of PSG's first signings of the Qatar Sports Investments era, and he has certainly lived up to his expectations.

The Swede scored 113 goals in 122 Ligue 1 appearances during his four title-winning years in the French capital, becoming the club's top scorer before being overtaken by Edinson Cavani. He only needed 59 games to reach 50th place.

Few players in Premier League history have been as good as Suarez during Liverpool's near miss with the title in 2013/14, so it was no surprise that Barcelona agreed a club-record fee to sign him that summer.

They had to be patient – ​​he was banned from all 'football related activities' by FIFA for four months after biting Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 World Cup, but he was worth the wait.

Luis Enrique's Barcelona struggled midway through the 2014/15 season, but the Uruguayan immediately formed a brilliant partnership with Lionel Messi and Neymar, and the front three fired Barcelona to the treble that year.

Suarez scored 16 goals in his debut season in La Liga, before scoring a career-best 40 league goals the following year. His 50th goal in the Spanish top flight came in his 59th appearance.

Despite being so high on this list, Neymar did not score his 50th Ligue 1 goal until his fourth season at PSG.

The Brazilian superstar struggled with injuries throughout his time in the French capital, but when fit he was always spectacular – 50 goals in his first 58 games in Ligue 1 are testament to that.

Few signings in the history of football have caused as much fuss as Ronaldo did when he arrived at Real Madrid for a world record fee in 2009. But he lived up to the hype by hitting the ground running.

The Portuguese icon played a decisive role in three consecutive Premier League titles and the Champions League at Manchester United, where he won his first Ballon d'Or, before taking his goals to new heights at the Bernabeu.

Ronaldo's first season in the Spanish capital was hit by injury, but he still scored 26 goals in 29 La Liga appearances in his debut season, improving on that tally in each of the following six seasons and scoring his 50th goal in the Spanish top class. in his 51st appearance.

The fastest player to score 50 goals in two of Europe's most historic competitions. You can't argue with that.

Haaland joined Borussia Dortmund at the age of 19, but was already a complete striker as a teenager. The Norwegian scored an iconic hat-trick in just 23 minutes on his debut and has never looked back since, averaging one goal per game in Germany.

After being sidelined for five weeks, the striker needed just seven minutes to score his 50th Bundesliga goal – in his 50th appearance – from the bench in a 3-1 win over Wolfsburg in November 2021.

Not only was he the fastest to reach that milestone in the Bundesliga, but he was also the youngest at 21 years and 129 days. In the major European leagues, Kylian Mbappé was younger when he scored his 50th Ligue 1 goal at the age of 20 (and 65 days), but it took him 88 appearances.

Since doing it in Dortmund just wasn't enough, Haaland moved to England and absolutely decimated it from the first whistle.

A brace in a 2-0 away win against West Ham on his Premier League debut were the first two goals in an exceptional 2022/23 season that ended with Haaland rocketing City to their first ever continental treble, scoring 52 goals in 53 games in all competitions .

Building on his stellar first season, Haaland broke another record as he became the fastest player to score 50 goals in the Premier League, decimating Andy Cole's previous record of 65 games by doing so in just 48 matches. Absolutely crazy.

Kane needed just 43 games to reach his milestone in the 50th Bundesliga.

And he got there in style, scoring all three goals (his seventh hat-trick in the Bundesliga) in a 3-0 win over Augsburg.

Only six players in the entire history of the German top flight have more hat-tricks than the England captain. Excessive.