At the end of October, Erling Haaland was locked in a battle with Lionel Messi to win the Ballon d’Or. As the days tick down to the end of 2023, he has a new rival to contend with: Charlton Athletic striker Alfie May.
There doesn’t immediately appear much to link the two. On the one hand, there is Haaland, the teenage prodigy turned world superstar obliterating records in the Premier League and Champions League at an alarming rate. And then there is May, a 30-year-old who only turned professional at 23 and was playing for Hythe Town of the Isthmian League at the age Haaland is now.
What connects the two, however, is their appetite and aptitude for scoring goals. Last weekend, May netted his 15th league goal of the season and 30th of this calendar year during Charlton’s 2-2 draw against Cambridge United in League One. That strike – a composed first-time finish into the bottom corner – edged May one ahead of Haaland in the race to score the most league goals in English football’s top four divisions in 2023.
The Norwegian, who is nursing a foot injury, is running out of games to topple him and faces the prospect of another rare runners-up place in a matter of months.
“I actually don’t check up on [City’s results], I just wait for social media because there’s been a lot of talk about it over the last couple of weeks. Before and after every game now I’m getting tweets,” May tells i.
“Poor Haaland is getting tagged into it as well. He’s probably sitting at home thinking what’s going on here! He’s definitely not thinking about beating Alfie May, that’s for sure.”
Being mentioned in the same company as someone of Haaland’s calibre one day would have seemed an unlikely prospect to May as he bounced around non-league clubs in Kent and south London during his late teens and early 20s.
May, who was born 20 miles from Charlton in Gravesend, was released by Millwall for being too small at the age of 14 and it looked like his chance to earn a living in the game had gone.
“I didn’t expect to become a pro footballer. I just played football because my mates played football,” he says. “I played on Saturdays for my non-league team and then on Sundays with all my mates that I went to school with and I loved it.”
Like all late bloomers, May is motivated to make up for lost time and maximise his ability for as long as possible. There are records to break and promotions to chase. Outscoring Haaland is just something else that drives him on. It’s a “good little [motivational] tool to have in my back pocket”, he says.
“He’s doing it at the top level and it’s probably a lot different to League One football. But from an ambition thing for me, it’s a good thing that I can take into games and if I keep scoring goals there’s a good chance my team is going to win.”
“It’s something that would never get taken away from me if I beat him,” he adds. “In a few years’ time when my kids get older and take a bit more interest in football, they’ll probably start looking up to Haaland because he’s the best striker in the world and I can tell them I beat him for goals in a year of football!”
May vs Haaland
League goals scored in 2023:
- Alfie May: 30 (15 for Charlton; 15 for Cheltenham)
- Erling Haaland: 29 (all for Man City)
Fixtures remaining:
- Charlton: Barnsley (a), Burton Albion (h), Leyton Orient (a), Bristol Rovers (a)
- Man City: Crystal Palace (h), Everton (a), Sheffield United (h)
Almost a decade after leaving Millwall, May finally made his way back into the EFL when a prolific 18-month spell with Hythe attracted the attention of League Two Doncaster Rovers in January 2017. Even after earning his big break, though, May grappled with imposter syndrome. “I worked hard but I never believed until Cheltenham really that I was probably good enough or capable to play professional football.”
It was in Gloucestershire, in a town renowned more for its horse racing festival than its football club that May’s career truly took off. He signed for Cheltenham in January 2020, played a key role in The Robins’ rise from League Two the following year and earned back-to-back Players’ Player and Supporters’ Player of the Year awards in his final two seasons.
Of the many cherished memories he made at the club was an unforgettable opening goal against Manchester City in the FA Cup 4th round during the Covid season. May only spent three-and-a-half years there, but his impact was such that an article announcing his departure on the club website simply carried the headline “Thank You Alfie May”.
In two-and-a-half seasons in League One, May has emerged as one of the most feared forwards in the division. From the start of 2021-22 until now, he has netted 58 goals in 103 matches combined for Cheltenham and Charlton, whom he joined last summer for £250,000.
It was under Michael Duff at Cheltenham that May began to evolve from a second striker into a penalty box poacher, more in the mould of his childhood idol Michael Owen.
May studied the movement of elite centre forwards, including the ex-City frontman Edin Dzeko and crucially, began to think like a goalscorer. He recalls Duff drawing out a V shape from the edge of the box to the width of the posts on a piece of paper and telling him to stay in that zone as much as possible to “get the knockdowns and first-time finishes”.
Simple as that instruction may seem it has obviously worked; all 15 of May’s goals for Charlton have come from inside the 18-yard box. But of the 30 goals he has scored this year, it is two from outside the area that stand out for him the most, both of which came in a 3-0 win for Cheltenham against Peterborough in March.
The first ended up being a social media sensation, a dipping volley from the halfway line by the touchline that May had set up for himself with a deft first touch over his shoulder. May humbly describes it as a “hit and hope” and holds the second, a sweet half-volley that soared satisfyingly into the top corner, with greater reverence.
That ability to be both a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals made him a firm fan’s favourite at Whaddon Road and now at The Valley.
May’s immediate aim is to get the better of Haaland, but longer term he wants to help Charlton clamber out of League One and back into the Championship after four seasons away. Michael Appleton’s side are currently 10th in the table and nine points off the top six but have a game or two in hand on clubs above them.
“We know how hard this league is and it’s important that we start putting some winning runs together and start climbing that table,” he says. “We’re only looking up.
“I’ve got ambitions to play at the highest level that I possibly can and I want to succeed as a professional footballer. At the minute I’m doing really well and hopefully I can help Charlton get promoted and play in the Championship. That’s the dream for me.”
With The Addicks rounding off their year away to Bristol Rovers on 29 December and City hosting Sheffield United at the Etihad the following day, May could face an anxious wait to see if he pips Haaland to the annual goals record. Plans are already afoot to mimic Haaland’s famous lotus yoga position celebration if he finds the net at Rovers’ Memorial Stadium.
It is evident that May has settled in seamlessly at Charlton and is clearly content with how his first six months have panned out. But in a hypothetical world where the roles were reversed and it was him rather than Haaland leading the line for Pep Guardiola’s side, how many goals does he think he would score?
“With the quality that they’ve got in terms of delivering balls into the box, it’s out of this world how good they are,” he says. “If I went there now towards the end of the season, I’d like to think I’d get 10-12 league goals.”