For about seven years, Erling Haaland, 25, has been regarded as one of the best footballers in the world, producing extraordinary numbers and winning trophies with every club he has joined. He is also, of course, the undisputed star of Norway’s national team.
This summer, Haaland reached the World Cup for the first time and completed another transformation: from football superstar to global celebrity in the fullest sense.
Haaland has always been one of the most intriguing and engaging figures in world football, both as a scorer and as a personality. His distinctive walk, viral post-match interviews, surprising honesty and remarkable indifference have all helped shape his image. Now, for the first time, the wider world has met the Norwegian machine and fallen in love with him.
Haaland and his Norway teammates
(Photo: MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)
A collaboration with Vinícius?
Instagram and TikTok are overflowing with AI-generated videos of Haaland singing, dancing or eating, sometimes even portrayed as a woman. Another trend has focused on people who resemble him.
Before Norway’s World Cup round-of-16 match against Brazil, an AI-generated Instagram video showed Haaland and Vinícius Júnior singing together in a car. Haaland commented: “Hahahahaha, we need to recreate this,” and tagged Vinícius.
Fans quickly noticed how active the striker had become on social media, and the flood of Haaland-related content only intensified.
Thousands of users now upload videos every day asking him to comment. Surprisingly, many receive his trademark one-word response: “Nice.”
Videos featuring Haaland have gone spectacularly viral, attracting enormous numbers of likes and views, even by his standards. Before the World Cup, he had 40 million Instagram followers. He now has no fewer than 75 million, the largest follower increase recorded by any player during the tournament.
'Nice.' Haaland's comments on Instagram
(Photo: Instagram)
In recent months, Haaland also appears to have embraced the work of being a celebrity. Like Thierry Henry and David Beckham before him, he appeared in a video with the British content creators Sidemen, one of the most popular online groups in the world.
The video attracted millions of views. Haaland took part in guessing games and football challenges, displayed his dry sense of humor and knowledge, joined in with the jokes and delivered an excellent guest appearance.
Holland vs. Haaland
Even Tom Holland, one of the world’s most successful actors and Spider-Man himself, revealed during the World Cup that he had sent Haaland a message. Holland, whose surname happens to sound almost identical to the striker’s, said he had invited Haaland for coffee and tried to persuade him to sign for Tottenham. Haaland never replied.
Tom Holland
(Photo: Aurore Marechal/Getty Images)
‘The memes are too good’
Last Saturday, Haaland uploaded a YouTube video in which he responded publicly for the first time to the frenzy surrounding him. He appeared to be enjoying it immensely. “My life has changed, in the best possible way,” he said at the start of the video. “The memes are too good. They’re funny. People take things too personally.”
He then showed the camera a video comparing him to a spring onion because of his hair, as well as an AI-generated image of himself wearing makeup and dressed as a woman.
Haaland also responded to the look-alike trend. “They say there is one or maybe two people in the world who look exactly like you,” he said. “Now I know I have many more. It’s hilarious.”
Discussing his comment on the AI video featuring Vinícius, Haaland said: “That is probably one of the most-liked comments ever on Instagram, almost 3 million.” The record, however, belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo, whose comment to Kylian Mbappé after his move to Real Madrid received more than 6 million likes.
Another trend that emerged during the World Cup involved AI-generated match summaries based on each national team’s identity. Haaland responded to videos portraying him as a Viking.
“It gives me chills,” he said. “It’s perfect. I have a Viking look, and the national team kits were designed with inspiration from them. The amount of attention Norway is receiving after the World Cup and because of these videos is insane.”
At the end of the video, Haaland addressed his failure to respond to Tom Holland. “We need to talk about this,” he said. “He sent me the message and I didn’t know who he was. I hadn’t watched Spider-Man. So I only replied now. I wrote: ‘They say I’m ignoring you, but you should know that’s not true. Right now, I’m not sure about Tottenham, but who knows? Maybe in the future.’”
Returns from the World Cup with a stuffed raccoon
(Photo: Jan Langhaug / NTB / AFP)
The secret career that went viral
In 2016, when Haaland was 16 and playing for Norway’s youth team, he formed a rap group called Flow Kingz with two teammates. The three recorded a song titled “Kygo Jo,” a tribute to the famous Norwegian DJ Kygo. They also made a particularly amusing music video in which they dance in a playground.
For years, nobody paid attention to the song. It appeared to have been forgotten, which was understandable. It was not a particularly good track, and the performers were three unknown Norwegian teenagers. Then one of them became the best striker in the world.
As Haaland’s fame grew, the song was rediscovered and went viral, attracting tens of millions of views across multiple platforms. During the World Cup, Kygo himself said he would release a remix if Haaland scored against Brazil. The striker scored twice, and the remix was released on all major platforms.
Haaland has discussed the song several times in interviews. “We were three bored friends, so we decided to make a song,” he said. Asked about the unusual sweatshirt he wore in the video, he replied: “I don’t even know why I wore that. I have no idea.”
When asked when the next single would be released, Haaland joked: “We’ll see. I need to focus on football now, maybe after I retire. Maybe DJ Khaled will join us on the next song.”
Haaland remains one of the most intriguing, funny and colorful figures in world football, commanding attention even while relaxing on vacation after the World Cup. Still, it is worth remembering that he is also the world’s most prolific scorer, with 317 goals at the age of just 25.
At this rate, fans can only hope that his new career as an internet star does not interfere too much with his football, although a “get ready with me for a Premier League match” video would hardly be unwelcome.
First published: 05:14, 08.01.26