Alan Shearer remains the Premier League's all-time leading scorer with 260 goals across 14 seasons — but he is acutely aware that Erling Haaland is bearing down on that tally at a remarkable rate.

Haaland has struck 120 Premier League goals in just over four seasons with Manchester City, putting Shearer's long-standing record firmly in his sights. The 56-year-old is under no illusion about the Norwegian's potential.

"I'm sure it will be broken one day, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts," Shearer told the Football Interview. "If we can get Haaland out to Real Madrid or somewhere like that in the next couple of years then it should be alright."

Before Haaland emerged as the primary challenger, Harry Kane had been the man threatening to rewrite the history books. Kane reached 213 Premier League goals before departing Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern Munich in 2023, taking his tally with him — and halting his pursuit in the process.

A boy from Newcastle

Twenty years after hanging up his boots, Shearer sat down with Kelly Somers to reflect on a life shaped entirely by football. His connection to Newcastle United runs deeper than any contract — it was forged on the terraces of St James' Park as a youngster watching his hero Kevin Keegan.

"I saw the adulation that he had. He was like the pied piper in Newcastle, everyone followed him everywhere," Shearer recalled. "I was one of those little kids that went to the training ground, to the ground — and I wanted a piece of that."

That journey began at the age of 15 when Shearer left Newcastle to join Southampton, living in digs far from home. The move shaped him — though as a father, he now looks back with a different perspective.

"When my kids got to 15 I thought, 'how on earth did my parents let me leave home at that age?'" he said. "There's no way I could have let my two girls and my son walk away from their home at 15 years of age."

A switch to Blackburn Rovers in 1992 under Sir Kenny Dalglish brought Shearer his only top-flight title, before he returned to the north east in 1996. He spent a decade at Newcastle, scoring 206 goals in 405 appearances — and cementing himself as a club legend. Even today, a trip to St James' Park on match day requires a cap and a downward glance to avoid a never-ending stream of admirers.

Management, Cardiff, and the path to MOTD

Shearer's post-playing life could have looked very different. In 2009, he stepped into the Newcastle dugout as interim manager for the final eight games of the season, tasked with keeping the club in the Premier League. He could not save them — Newcastle were relegated, and Shearer never returned to management.

"Newcastle were in desperate trouble and I could never say no," he said. "I should have known that when I signed the contract on April Fool's Day that it wasn't going to work out!"

His appetite for management lingered. He interviewed for other roles and was even offered the Cardiff job — only for circumstances to shift before he took it.

"Things changed ... and I thought, 'what am I doing here?'" he said, marking the end of his brief flirtation with the dugout.

Shearer instead settled into life as a pundit, becoming one of the most familiar faces on Match of the Day alongside Gary Lineker and Micah Richards on The Rest Is Football podcast. The role demands more than it appears — a round trip from Newcastle to Salford and back can stretch to 19 or 20 hours, ending with a live broadcast at 10:30 at night.

"What people don't realise is that you're meant to be at your brightest and your liveliest when you go on live at 10:30," he said, "whereas if you're watching football all day on the settee, you're ready to nod off at that time."