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He sleeps with footballs. He ignores DMs from Tom Holland. He collects Birkin bags.
Erling Haaland arrived at the FIFA World Cup as one of the game’s most feared strikers, and he will leave it as one of its most entertaining personalities.
Between an irreverent social media presence, ironic encounters with fans and a seeming indifference to his own celebrity, Haaland has offered a refreshing alternative to the media-trained image we’ve come to expect from sport stars. And in the span of a few weeks, he may have unwittingly created a whole new generation of Norway football fans.
Here are a few reasons why the internet can’t seem to get enough of Erling Haaland.
He’s runs his own socials
When he’s not scoring goals – and he’s done a lot of that – Haaland has spent the World Cup documenting everything else on social media accounts that, somewhat remarkably, he still seems to control himself.
Rather than scripted sponsored content, Haaland’s tens of millions of followers have seen him eating at New York’s legendary Katz’s Delicatessen, slipping into an attempt at a Southern drawl and otherwise behaving like a 25-year-old travelling in the US.
In one widely shared clip, Haaland tells fans he’s Norway’s “social media guy” before posing for photos.
“Not even a soccer fan but i follow him, one of my favorite stories was just a bunch of pictures from practice with a picture of him in [an] infrared sauna with the caption ‘infrared sauna’ before and after,” wrote one follower on Instagram.
He collects Birkins
Wouldn’t you know it, Erlin Haaland is an avid collector of Hermès Birkin bags.
The revelation has prompted a fresh wave of double takes as new fans work their way through the ever-growing catalogue of Haaland facts.
Fashion commentators have highlighted several of the rare bags he’s been photographed with, including a black-and-orange HAC Casaque 40, an Evercalf Toile Cargo Haut à Courroies 40 and an Endless Road HAC Birkin 50.
All three are sought-after designs that have commanded tens of thousands of euros on the resale market.
He’s self-aware
Few footballers seem happier to laugh at themselves than Erling Haaland.
He has compared himself to Shrek, deadpanned with social media followers and talked about sleeping with footballs, taping his mouth shut at night and spending time in infrared saunas.
One of the more unlikely stories to resurface during the World Cup involves Haaland ignoring Spider-Man.
On Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast earlier this year, Haaland explained that he once received a direct message from the Spider-Man star – and ignored it because he had no idea who Tom Holland was.
“I didn’t know who it was,” he admitted. “It’s a bit embarrassing.”
He’s having a good time
Unlike some of the sport’s more tightly wound figures, Haaland seems to be genuinely having fun in the pressure cooker that is the World Cup.
After reaching the knockout stages, Haaland and some of his teammates joined Norway supporters in the now-famous Viking row celebrations.
Then, when asked about a decisive group match against France, he said they would “probably win” – before adding that France would “probably win the whole thing”.
At a World Cup full of polished soundbites, Haaland has rarely sounded like he’s reading from the same script twice. Everyone should be able to appreciate that.
Norway face France tonight at 9pm CET.