Everything you need to know about Norwegian goal-machine Erling Haaland!
Erling Haaland is a professional footballer from Norway who currently plays as a striker for Manchester City in the Premier League and the Norway national team. Haaland was born on July 21, 2000, in Leeds, England, while his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, was playing for Leeds United. He grew up in Bryne, Norway, and started playing football at a young age.
In 2017, Haaland joined Molde FK, where he made his professional debut in the Norwegian Eliteserien. He quickly made an impression, scoring four goals in his debut match. He was then snapped up by Austrian giants Red Bull Salzburg, where he made swift progress.
In December 2019, Haaland joined Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga after turning down a transfer to Salzburg’s sister club RB Leipzig….and after smashing five past them in midweek, Leipzig supporters will be ruing the one who got away!
He made an instant impact on his arrival at Signal Iduna Park, scoring a hat-trick on his debut against FC Augsburg. Since then, he has gone from strength-to-strength as he continued to impress with his remarkable goalscoring exploits.
Haaland’s performances during the 2020-21 season saw him announce himself as one of the best strikers on the planet. He scored 27 goals in 28 Bundesliga outings, finishing as the league’s second-highest scorer behind Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski.
He also scored 10 goals in the UEFA Champions League, finishing as the competition’s joint-top scorer alongside Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe. His stellar form in Germany earned him a high-profile move to Premier League giants Manchester City in the summer of 2022, and his performances at the Etihad have since been mind-blowing.Haaland’s playing style is a unique blend of traditional and modern target-man, underlined by his exceptional physical abilities and precision finishing. He stands 6’4 tall and boasts amazing speed, strength, and agility, making him a nightmare opponent for any defence. He’s also a great finisher with both his feet and his head, and is capable of scoring goals from nothing.
To conclude, Erling Haaland is an incredible young footballer who is on course to be remembered as one of the best strikers the world has ever seen, while breaking numerous goalscoring records along the way.
With his talent and potential, Haaland is sure to rule the world of football for many
Here are 15 fun facts about Erling Haaland you need to know…!
Born to be an athlete! 🏃
Haaland has a very stong family background in the world of sports. His parents were both excellent athletes. Haaland’s father, Alf-Inge Haaland, was also a professional footballer who played for some renowned English clubs like Leeds United and Manchester City during his career.
However, Haaland Sr. became famous for being a subject to one of the most infamous challenges in the history of football when Roy Keane produced a disgusting tackle in a feisty Manchester derby back in 2001.
His mother, Gry Marita Braun, meanwhile, is also recognised as a national champion in heptathlete in the 90s, while his grandfather was a well-known long-distance runner in Norway.
No wonder the kid’s a monster!
Could’ve been a professional handball player 🤾
While Erling followed his father’s footsteps and became a footballer, Alf-Inge revealed in an interview that he ensured his son would try a whole host of other sports before choosing football. By 14, Erling had already had a taste of handball, athletics and cross-country skiing.
A natural athlete, Haaland excelled at a variety of sports growing up, he was an exceptional handball player, and was told by many coaches that he could make a career in that sport. His father later revealed that Norway’s handball manager wanted him to play handball.
Thus, had things turned out differently for him in his formative days, he could have been a famous international handball player for Norway by now.
A prolific jumper at five
Are you aware that Erling Haaland set his first world record at the age of five?
Now, we’re trying hard not to believe the rumours about him being a Terminator, but these facts doesn’t help in any way!
At five, most of us were busy watching cartoons, and playing video games..but not Haaland.
Despite his tender age, he was already training, taking part in multiple sports, and building himself to be a phenomenal athlete.
On 22nd January 2006, he produced a standing jump of crazy 1.63 metres!
It turned out to be a new world record, and 17 years later, that record still stands tall!
A world record-breaking jumper: at least, this explains some of the insane towering headers and freakish side-volleys we’ve come to see from him time and again.
Was eligible to play for England
Needless to say, Haaland is the future of Norwegian football.
He has scored 21 times in just 23 games for the Drillos, and is the face of a young and competitive Norwegian side that narrowly missed out on qualification to the recent Qatar World Cup.
However, Haaland was born in Leeds and so could have been eligible to play for England. However, he emulated his father at both club and country levels by picking City and Norway, a decision that came naturally to him since he spent most of his youth in the Scandinavian country.
If the stars had aligned differently, Haaland and Kane would have lined up as a strike-pairing upfront, potentially firing Gareth Southgate’s team to the elusive World Cup triumph. Defenders legs’ would be shaking at that sight, wouldn’t they?
His idol is Zlatan
Haaland has named various footballers as his idol, including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, among others. However, the name which appears most of the time is that of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
His incredible karate-kick winner against former club Dortmund back in September 2022 shows that he has certainly learnt a thing or two from Zlatan’s playbook. Not to mention, he has similar appetite for scoring goals.
The Swede has enjoyed an illustrious career and, at the age of 40, is still troubling defences over in Italy, when fit. With the sort of performances he’s putting up, it won’t be long until Haaland wins the Ballon d’Or, something Zlatan has failed to do in his incredible career.
While he may overtake Ibrahimovic in terms of individual achievements, he would still be some way of matching Zlatan in terms of enigmatic character, thug attitude, and outspoken interviews, which are just pure entertainment.
Nicknamed the ‘Manchild’
Yet to hit his 23rd birthday, Haaland boasts an intimidating physical presence, thanks to his tall, imposing 6’4 frame.
However, this growth hasn’t happened out-of-the-blue.
Such was his massive size and stature that he was nicknamed ‘manchild’ by his teammates due to his mammoth frame while playing for Molde’s youth team in his native Norway.
A promising debut at 15, but a tough start!
Haaland has not always been the household name he is today.
He has had a strong relationship with football since his childhood, and joined the academy at Bryne, a Norwegian outfit, at the age five.
A decade later, he made his debut for the senior team, aged just 15, playing the full 90 minutes as his team lost to KFUM-Kameratene Oslo in front of a lowly crowd of 1,649.
Based on the footage available, Haaland looked lively, and certainly had his moments.
The frontman’s physical presence as well as his quick thinking when dropping into dangerous areas around the box were apparent, but he was not rewarded with a goal.
In fact, he didn’t score a goal in his first 16 games for Bryne FK in the second-tier, but his impact in games was enough to attract Molde, Norway’s biggest club, who signed the promising striker.
At that time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the manager of Molde.
Scored NINE in one game
It goes without saying that Haaland is an absolute goal machine. His stats speak for themselves, and he’s been banging in goals for fun ever since his RB Salzburg days.
What will astonish you is that Haaland once fired home NINE goals in a single game!
Yes, you read it right; during a match against Honduras in the U-20 World Cup, the youngster found the back of the net nine times. That’s three hat-tricks in a single outing.
Despite being ousted in the group stage, Haaland went on to earn the Golden Boot.
Champions League Anthem is his alarm tone! ⏰
It is a dream for every football player to one day feature in the Champions League, but it’s more than a competition for Haaland.
He lives for the big Champions League nights under the lights, and in preparing for them, his alarm tone is none other than the iconic Champions League anthem.
Speaking to TV2 while he was still at Salzburg, he said: “That’s my alarm tone. I wake up to it every day. It’s the last song I’d get tired of. I wake up to it. So I always get a perfect start to the day.”
He was also spotted by the cameras singing along to the Champions League anthem ahead of Manchester City vs. Borussia Dortmund at the Etihad back in April 2021. He is desperate to lift the European elite silverware, and that could go some way in helping Manchester City putting an end to their infamous Champions League curse.
Copies CR7’s diet 💪
Most athletes have one thing in common: they consume a lot of nutritious food to maintain their prime physique.
Haaland is no exception in this regard.
He, too, follows a crazy diet, and instead of wasting time adhering to dietician’s advice, he has gone to considerable lengths to emulate the diet of the GOAT himself, Cristiano Ronaldo.
We all know Ronaldo is one of, if not, the most hard-working athletes on the plane, and while many have hung up their boots in early 30s, the Portuguese is still going strong.
In 2020, Haaland’s dad revealed that his son eats the same food as Ronaldo, including fish, chicken, pasta, and yeah, no salt or sauce.
Catch him if you can! ⚡
At 6’4, Haaland has a lot of bulk to shift, and at first glance, he appears to be a traditional centre-forward.
However, he’s deceptively quick, and can be ferocious when using his long strides and afterburners in transitions.
He sprinted so rapidly in a game against PSG in 2020 that it would have been fast enough for him to have qualified for the 60m at the 2018 World Athletics Championships.
In case you were wondering, that’s approximately 36 km/h (22 mph)!
First teenager to net in five Champions League games in a row
Haaland had a dream start in his Champions League career. He managed to score 20 goals in only 14 games, becoming the fastest and youngest to achieve the feat. While this record may be surpassed by others in the future years, there’s one record that he might hold forever!
During a game against Belgian outfit Genk, he came off the bench and scored a goal for Salzburg, nothing groundbreaking, right?
Well, that was in fact the fifth straight Champions League game in which he scored!
This made him the first teenager, and the youngest ever to do such a thing in Europe’s elite competition. Del Piero, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Robert Lewandowski are the only other players to achieve the feat. Not bad company, eh!
Five goals in 57 minutes
Haaland became just the third player in history after Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano to score five goals in a single UEFA Champions League game as Manchester City beat RB Leipzig 7-0 to make it through to the quarter-finals of the latest edition.
What’s even more astonishing is the fact that it took Haaland only 57 minutes to score five. Messi had his five goals in 84 minutes while Adriano completed the five-goal haul in 82 minutes.
Youngest and fastest to reach the 30-goal mark in Champions League
In the same game as above, Haaland also reached the 30-goal mark in mere 25 Champions League games, making him the fastest and youngest player to achieve that milestone in the history of the competition.
Ruud van Nistelrooy previously held the former record, while Lionel Messi previously held the latter.
Haaland’s tricky relationship with his balls 😂
To prove his love for scoring goals, and for football in general, Haaland claimed that he went to bed with five match balls when he was still playing for Red Salzburg. He likes to hold them, caress them, and actually sleep with them.
He confirmed this quirky fact in a recent interview with Premier League Productions.
“It’s true!” Manchester City’s star striker continues. “I love when I score a hat-trick to feel the ball a bit more.”
It’s a weird obsession to have, even if you’re the best striker on the planet, and the way he’s netting hat-trick after hat-trick, he’s going to require a KING-size bed before too long!