Aleksandar Mitrovic reached his 50th international goal faster than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, doing so as Erling Haaland was kept off the scoresheet.
The Fulham striker scored half a century for Serbia in his 76th game, helping secure a 2-0 win over Norway in the Nations League, earning promotion to League A.
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Mitro hit the count incredibly fast
In doing so, he did so at the expense of Manchester City sensation Haaland, and even joined the Norwegian at the top of the 2022/23 edition’s goalscoring charts with six goals.
A fan favorite at Craven Cottage and a well-known prankster on the training ground, ‘Mitro’ even celebrated promotion in iconic fashion, eating pizza in the locker room after the game.
And he had every right to do so, with his mark of 76 games to score 50 goals better than Ronaldo’s 114 and Messi’s 107, as well as many other stars including Wayne Rooney and Robert Lewandowski.
However, it wasn’t all good news on the evening, with the 28-year-old striker later seen hobbling along the touchline with a large ice pack around his ankle.
That could spell trouble when Mitrovic takes on former club Newcastle in the Premier League, hoping to nab the only man ahead of him in the Golden Boot race, Haaland.
But as Fulham fan, TV presenter and best-selling author Richard Osman told talkSPORT, the Cottagers are far from a one-man team as they continue to impress on their return to the top flight.
Mitrovic has reached 50 international goals faster than two of the greatest players of all time
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And he left Haaland in his wake
“Everyone wrote us off and everyone wrote off Mitrovic,” he said.
“It’s one of those cases where you’re a fan of a club, we kind of knew something was going on.
“Last time we were in the Premier League – I know we’re a yo-yo club – but last time we had a good team – we had Joachim Andersen, we had Mitrovic back then but they didn’t played consistently, we had [Alphonse] Areola in goal.
“We had a very, very good team, definitely too good to go down, but we fell.
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Mitrovic lit up the league on his return, sending Van Dijk to the cleaners
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Palhinha is considered more important than the top scorer
“I think we know that Marco Silva is certainly a very, very good manager for us and again we bought well.
“There was a clip from Nottingham Forest that went viral where they preview the game against us and they kept calling us Mitrovic, they said ‘we have this game against Mitrovic’.
“If we’re a one-man team, then it’s [Joao] Palhinha, he’s the best signing anyone has made in the Premier League, he’s a terrific footballer.
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