Only seven players have ever scored a hat-trick on their Bundesliga debut.
The first was Engelbert Kraus, whose three goals for 1860 Munich against Saarbrucken in November 1963 were the only highlight of an otherwise forgettable top flight career.
The last, until last Saturday, was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who tore through Augsburg in August 2013 and would go on to score 98 goals in the German league before moving to Arsenal.
It is probably safe to say that Erling Braut Haaland will turn out to be more of a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang than an Engelbert Kraus.
On Saturday, Haaland joined the list of three-goal debutants in breathtaking style. When he came off the bench in the second half, Borussia Dortmund were 3-1 down. Just 23 minutes later, they were 5-3 ahead. Bish, bash, bosh.
Like Aubameyang in the summer of 2013, Haaland had announced his arrival at Dortmund by smashing three past Augsburg. Yet while Aubameyang took 79 minutes to score his hat-trick, Haaland needed less than half an hour.
In the stadium bowels after the game, Augsburg coach Martin Schmidt muttered something about a 'Haaland shock'.
Dortmund boss Lucien Favre, not known for his loquacious interviews, said it was unlike anything he had ever seen.
The press, meanwhile, were already beavering away at headlines about vikings and Norse gods. (The German word for 'goal' is 'Tor', which was once spelled 'Thor').
Few players have ever made quite such an impact on their league debut, and Germany was dutifully impressed. Amid a chorus of excitement, the only person who seemed to be quite calm about the performance was Haaland himself.
Congratulated by sporting director Michael Zorc after the game, he reportedly shrugged: 'That's what you bought me for'.
He wasn't wrong there. With their super-sub Paco Alcacer out of sorts this season, Dortmund were in desperate need of a reliable goalscorer.
Their £18m swoop for Haaland has been the biggest signing of the winter so far, and after his form in the Champions League for Red Bull Salzburg this season, there seemed little doubt that Haaland would be a hit.
Yet until Saturday, there was at least a lightly pencilled question mark as to how quickly the 19-year-old would settle in. He did little of note in Dortmund's mid-season friendlies, and ahead of the Augsburg game Favre called for patience.
'It is clear he needs a bit of time,' said the Swiss.
So much for that. Haaland needed just 183 seconds to score his first Bundesliga goal. When he was sent to warm up, the TV commentator was loudly proclaiming Dortmund's title bid to be dead in the water.
By the time he walked off with the matchball, they almost seemed like favourites.
'I was witness to a miracle... a 19-year-old has brought Dortmund back from the dead!' wrote one Bild columnist on Sunday.
How Haaland has found his groove at Dortmund quite so quickly is another matter. As Sport1 website pointed out, the club and his management have made sure that he has quickly laid down roots.
Like many Dortmund players, Haaland already has a home on the Ploetzensee lake in the city suburbs, and has reportedly already moved all of his furniture over from Austria.
He also seems to have struck up a good rapport with his team-mates. Mats Hummels, who now sits next to Haaland in the Dortmund dressing room, described him this weekend as a 'great guy who will bring us a lot of joy'.
'There are great people around me, good team-mates and a fantastic club,' said Haaland on Saturday. 'I am calm but I am also smiling and that is important in life.'
Haaland's smile has not gone unnoticed either. 'It's a smile which will strike fear into every opponent,' wrote the Suddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday. And perhaps more than anything, it is indeed Haaland's positivity, his unrelenting confidence, which are the secret to his success.
'Erling exudes something crazy, in a positive way,' said sporting director Zorc. 'His body language alone does us good.'
That is unquestionably true. For all their attacking flair and precocious young talents, Favre's Dortmund have never been a team who radiate self-belief.
There is instead a somewhat tragic air to them: even when they go three goals up, they appear to start worrying about the shame of losing such a lead.
Haaland is the polar opposite. He may not be able to strengthen Dortmund's delicate defence, but he will certainly bring an air of cocky invincibility which is severely lacking at the present moment. He also, presumably, will bring a lot more goals.
All that means that, contrary to previous reports, Dortmund's title bid remains very much alive and kicking.
This Bundesliga season has been the most competitive in a decade and, despite their wobbles, Favre's side remain just seven points behind the leaders RB Leipzig.
That is not a deficit you can overturn in 23 minutes. But with the right amount of confidence, it is one you can overturn in just three games. Particularly if you happen to have Erling Braut Haaland up your sleeve.