Football loves a round number, but 100 surely takes the biscuit.
While entirely arbitrary, centuries are football’s convenient shorthand for recognising quality, consistency and lasting impact.
In that spirit, Alexander Isak’s 100th appearance for Newcastle United — featuring a cup final-winning goal no less — was a momentous milestone.
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Racking up a century of appearances is often a marker of solid dependability rather than outright brilliance — but Isak’s actions during those games have already made him a Newcastle icon.
Only six Newcastle players have scored more than Isak’s 58 goals in their first 100 appearances. Matching the exploits of Hughie Gallacher — the legendary Scotsman who netted 86 times in his first century of games and led the club to their last league title in 1926-27 — was always going to be a tall order. Andy Cole, too, set a blistering pace, scoring 68 goals despite making only 84 Newcastle appearances.
Yet the obvious contemporary Newcastle benchmark for Isak is, of course, the Premier League’s record goalscorer and Newcastle legend, Alan Shearer. While it’s pretty unlikely Isak will match Shearer’s 206 goals for Newcastle, he has outpaced him across their first 100 appearances.
As the 10-game rolling average graphic below shows, Isak’s goalscoring on Tyneside got off to a comparatively slow start after his £60million ($77.5m at current rates) move from Real Sociedad in August 2022. He scored 24 goals in his first 50 games — Shearer had netted 32 at the same point — but the second half of Isak’s century of appearances has seen a dramatic uptick in output.
However, Shearer’s Premier League career predates his 10-season spell at his boyhood club. Looking at his first 100 appearances as a Premier League player — starting at Blackburn in 1992 — Shearer scored 76 goals, the third-highest total of any player across their first 100 appearances across all competitions as a Premier League footballer.
Even among this exalted company, Isak compares well, ranking eighth.
Isak is often likened to another Premier League legend, Thierry Henry. His measured finishing and elegant movement is reminiscent of Henry’s composed brilliance, while his versatility and ability to drift wide and create only strengthens the comparison. But in pure goalscoring terms, Isak has actually made a more successful start to life as a Premier League footballer, notching 10 goals more.
Isak celebrates his goal against Liverpool (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
His early success has already set him apart not just in Newcastle colours, but among his compatriots. The Premier League has had a decent sprinkling of Swedes — from Freddie Ljungberg to Zlatan Ibrahimovic — but none have matched Isak’s scoring output in England. His 50 Premier League goals now stand as the highest by any Swedish player, eclipsing Ljungberg’s long-standing record of 48.
In his first 100 games, Isak has saved the best for last. When it comes to scoring goals, context matters more than volume — a title-winning decider or relegation-saving strike means far more than a five-goal haul in a dead rubber.
For all his brilliance beforehand, it was Isak’s contribution in game 100 that truly cemented his place in Geordie folklore — a goal in Newcastle’s 2-1 Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool that ended the club’s 70-year wait for a domestic trophy.
That goal also places Isak in rarefied company — players who have scored in a major final within their first 100 appearances as a Premier League footballer.
Of the Premier League’s top 100 all-time goalscorers, only a handful have done this: Emile Heskey, cup-final specialist Didier Drogba and Theo Walcott also found the net in a League Cup final inside their first century of appearances.
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Cristiano Ronaldo scored the first cup-final goal of his decorated career in his 40th appearance for Manchester United — against Millwall in the 2004 FA Cup final. Yaya Toure, Ian Wright, Nicolas Anelka and Alexis Sanchez also made their mark in FA Cup finals early in their Premier League careers.
Like many of these greats, Isak will be hungry for more. Fortunately, he’s only 25 and entering his peak years as a striker. Nearly half (47 per cent) of all Premier League goals are scored by players aged between 25 and 29. Past performance is no guarantee of future success, but for Newcastle fans there’s a very real and tantalising sense that Isak’s best days are ahead of him.
After 100 games, 58 goals and a trophy-clinching strike at Wembley, Isak hasn’t just arrived at Newcastle — he’s already made history. And really, he’s just getting started.
(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
