FIFA World Cup: How Erling Haaland won the internet’s heart, one viral clip at a time

During the FIFA World Cup in 2022, when the rest of the world was focussed on the best in the business hawking their wares in Qatar, Sky Sports and Manchester City posted a mockumentary-style video with Erling Haaland. In it, the striker is wandering around the City training grounds himself looking a little lost. He drives a grass trimming machine out of boredom. He tries calling teammates only to go through to voicemail. He puts a longing hand on the shoulder of a freekick mannequin that has a jersey of Kevin de Bruyne.“I’m working hard while the guys are away. Sometimes, it’s a bit boring,” he says in the clip as melancholy violin music plays on. “But time is flying. I do miss all the banter. I’m not going to lie. Celebrating goals alone… it’s not the same.”
For the past month, Haaland has not celebrated his goals alone.
Four years after that clip, Haaland was at the World Cup himself. Back home in Norway, a country of 5.6 million was cheering along, for each of his seven goals at the World Cup. So was the rest of the neutral support base without a horse to back in the World Cup.
Norway exited the FIFA World Cup at the hands of England in the quarter-finals on Saturday, but not before Haaland had become one of the most loved footballers on the Internet. Over the course of Norway’s six games in the US, he’s become a social media darling thanks to his ferocious ability to score goals at will on the pitch and the awkward walk that does not quite fit in with the image of a hunkering, man-mountain of a Viking footballing predator who towers over others on the pitch.
Norway’s Erling Haaland leaves the pitch at halftime during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Norway and England in Miami Gardens. (AP Photo)
Just look at the clip of him scoring the first of his two goals against Brazil. He’s lumbering along looking unbothered, head protruding slightly ahead than the rest of his 6-foot, 5-inch frame, as his teammates build up play on the left flank. Then, out of nowhere, he switches on, runs towards the centre and rises to meet the ball with his head. For his second goal, he shoots the ball with pinpoint precision between a thicket of Brazilian legs to give Norway an unassailable 2-0 lead. As the rest of his countrymen are losing their minds, he just walks off with a smile like it’s a training ground game.
 
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As former Norwegian national team star Morten Gamst Pedersen told The Indian Express recently: “Erling is a superstar, who bangs in goals for fun and then laughs about it. But he’s also a humble guy, like the rest of the team.”
Chinese social media took to the hulking freak of a goal-scorer admiring his eccentricities even while he scored goals, wearing success lightly. Everything from his 6000 KCal diet to how he folds training bibs before handing them over (and not chucking them to support staff) was lapped up as something a role model could offer.
In the aftermath of those two goals against Brazil, the internet wanted more. More Haaland. More of his goofy off-field persona. And certainly more of that strange walk. Because here was a man who could do extraordinary things with the ball, and was still somehow relatable. So they dug out an old clip of him doing an exaggerated walk during a Manchester City game, his head angled so far ahead of his body that it became an instant meme. Social media influencers from South America to Russia have mimicked that walk since then, garnering millions of views. Someone even recreated the Haaland walk with a spring onion, with the onion’s wiry roots cosplaying as his blond locks. Someone else posted a photo of Haaland’s face on an upturned mop, then his face on a lift door with his neck extending each time the door closed.
 
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Any other footballer and their social media team would have scoffed. Haaland embraced it. With his endearingly goofy sense of humour, he loves a self roast.
When someone posted an AI-generated clip of Vinicius Junior and him in a scene from Hollywood comedy, White Chicks, Haaland publicly suggested to the Brazilian that they recreate it for real. He also posts photos of his face with rude comments from fans, like “Where are your eyebrows?” or “You look like an alien.”
Thanks to his posts on Snapchat, Erling Haaland is a social media phenomenon.
In an era where an athlete’s persona on the internet is carefully curated and their social media feed is manicured to make the player look perfect for brands, Haaland has courted Snapchat virality over the last few years with a brand of self-deprecating humour that could put the world’s best memers to shame. In one of them, he posts a selfie with Shrek on his shoulder with the caption, “Bit busy… selfie with my twin.” Then there’s another photo where he’s using a Snapchat filter of himself with his hair shaved off with the caption: “Might go bald.”
Thanks to his posts on Snapchat, Erling Haaland is a social media phenomenon.
He also fanned the reach of an old video of him as a youngster in a rap song called Kygo Jo, where his nickname Lyng is revealed.Story continues below this ad
Just like the thousands of Norwegians who flew to America for the World Cup have spent the past month discovering the country and all it has to offer, Haaland seems to have done the same, posting videos of himself sampling burgers in cars, then visiting apparel stores where he posed with a t-shirt that read: “Y’all Can Kiss My Dallas.”
 
ALSO READ | How Norway football fans turned to their Viking hory for FIFA World Cup
 
After Norway’s exit from the World Cup, he fronted the media, praising his one-time teammate Jude Bellingham. Despite Bellingham’s two goals being the reason for their exit, he wanted to make a point that the media in England were too critical of Bellingham.
Then he came to the topic of his summer in the US ending.Story continues below this ad
“In the end I’m just proud. Been so proud every single day here. I don’t really know what to say anymore, I’ve spoken so much down here. And I’m getting a bit fed of it. Now it’s time to get a holiday,” he chuckled goodnaturedly.