Erling Haaland: The World Cup's Unavoidable Presence
Erling Haaland is chasing the Golden Boot. He may leave this World Cup with something very different: the title of the tournament’s most unavoidable presence.
Not just on the pitch. On every screen.
From Leeds to the world’s timelines
Haaland arrived at this World Cup already a phenomenon in Norway and a cult hero in Manchester, at least on the blue side. Leeds still claims him as one of their own, too. Born there while his father Alf-Inge Haaland played for Leeds United, he grew up following the Yorkshire club. Three cities, three sets of supporters, one towering centre-forward.
Now the circle has widened. With Norway into the quarter-finals, the rest of the planet has caught Haaland fever – not purely for his goals, but for the digital circus that follows him everywhere.
In the first week of July, “Haaland” crashed into the UK’s overall top 10 searches on TikTok, a 300% week-on-week surge that made him the most searched World Cup player over that spell. “Haaland best moments” rocketed by 1,300% in the same period. Since the tournament kicked off, more than 14,000 posts have gone up using #Haaland and #ErlingHaaland combined, almost a 500% month-on-month rise.
The volume is staggering: 1.4 million posts about him across platforms. Yet in the social-media stratosphere he still trails the sport’s twin supernovas. #Messi sits at 25 million posts, #Ronaldo at 22.3 million. Haaland is chasing them there as well.
The striker who understands the feed
Haaland’s online pull didn’t start in this World Cup bubble. Last Christmas he went undercover as Santa Claus in Manchester for a YouTube video, handing out gifts to children around the city. It was goofy, unpolished, and it flew.
So did his now-infamous Instagram story about “raw dogging” a flight – no food, no water, no entertainment – a throwaway line that spun into a meme factory. It’s that blend of elite athlete and very-online 20-something that has turned him into appointment viewing.
During this World Cup, his content has exploded across Instagram and TikTok. Fans pile into his Snapchat too, where 4.7 million subscribers follow his daily stories. Haaland doesn’t just tolerate the noise; he dives into it. When an Instagram user posted a picture of a green onion and asked if they were “losing it” because it looked like Haaland, he replied with a meme of a dog hurriedly winding up a car window – the universal signal for hiding from chaos.
The numbers behind the personality are just as wild. His Instagram following has jumped from 40 million to 60 million during the tournament, the fastest growth of any major player. His Reels have been watched more than 683 million times since the World Cup began.
What are people watching? A mocked-up selfie with Shrek, captioned “Selfie with my twin.” A shot of him disguised as a tourist in New York, head down under a baseball cap and sunglasses. A shopping trip in Texas where the Viking helmet gives way to a cowboy hat. It’s theatre, and he knows his role.
Even Google has joined the show. Type in his name and an animation of rowers in Viking helmets glides across the screen. The algorithm has gone Nordic.
Viral – for the right reasons
Not every viral clip is a gag. One of the most shared videos from this World Cup shows Haaland quietly folding his jersey and handing it to a kit man, while teammates toss theirs on the floor. No speech, no grand gesture, just a small act of respect that resonated far beyond the dressing room.
His friendship with former Borussia Dortmund teammate Jude Bellingham has become its own storyline. Their easy chemistry has delighted the internet, with some comparing them to the two rival hockey players from HBO’s “Heated Rivalry” as Norway prepare to face England on Saturday. The numbers back it up: Bellingham has 1.3 million posts about him on TikTok, dwarfing England captain Harry Kane’s 277,600. Haaland’s orbit pulls others into the spotlight.
For many, this World Cup has been an introduction. An 18-year-old TikTok creator from the Netherlands, whose video about Haaland and Bellingham has been shared more than 100,000 times, admitted she “didn’t know Haaland before this World Cup.” She usually only follows football when her own country plays at World Cups or Uefa Euros. This time, her For You Page was taken over – by Haaland clips, his “funny moments,” his Snapchat stories, and that “bromance” with Bellingham. She ended up making content not for her national team, but for a Norwegian striker she’d only just discovered.
The lookalike and the legend-building
The Haaland wave has swept up others too. Russian model Anastasia Kostromitina found herself going viral after her mother posted a video of her mimicking Haaland’s poses, prompted by people pointing out their resemblance.
The similarities are striking: long blond hair, piercing blue eyes, imposing height. At first, she said, the comparisons confused her. Then she embraced them. Being likened to “such an amazing athlete” is, in her words, “not offensive at all.” She calls him humble. She calls him a great athlete. It all feeds into the growing myth.
“We’ve seen this for years”
Back in Manchester, there’s a sense of déjà vu. For City fans, the world is only now catching up.
“He is a great asset for our club,” says Dante Friend from the 1894 fan group. They feel a connection that goes beyond goals. Haaland is active on social media, follows fan accounts, keeps in touch with some of the main figures behind the scenes. To them, he’s not a distant superstar. “We really feel he’s one of us.”
Kevin Parker, general secretary of the Manchester City official supporters club, sees both sides: the ruthless finisher and the figure who doesn’t fit the usual mould. “He’s an unbelievable footballer, right up there with the best strikers, goalscorers in the world,” Parker says, but stresses that City fans have long viewed him as “a different sort of footballer” – not in terms of talent, but personality.
He calls Haaland “a genuinely likable sort of guy,” and believes the World Cup stage has simply given everyone else what City have enjoyed for three seasons. For Parker, that can only be good for the game. “He gives football such a positive vibe,” he says. In a tournament clouded by criticism of Fifa and contentious decisions, Haaland’s presence has felt relentlessly upbeat. “Everything that Erling does, it’s just positive, positive.”
Howard Cohen, chair of the Manchester City Disabled Supporters Association, remembers the early narrative when Haaland arrived in England – a quiet, reserved figure, or so some outlets suggested. That image hasn’t survived contact with reality. “He’s really come out of his shell very quickly,” Cohen says. “He was clearly never that sort of quiet, reserved figure in reality, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously.”
For Cohen, that matters. Public figures, especially footballers, often keep their distance. Haaland doesn’t. “He can have a laugh with everybody and enjoy himself,” Cohen says. That, he believes, is what people love most about him off the field.
The numbers, the memes, the Viking animations – they all point in the same direction. Haaland is picking up support around the world and providing something the sport occasionally forgets to prioritize: entertainment.
The goals may win him the Golden Boot. The rest of it – the jokes, the generosity, the sheer volume of noise – is building something longer-lasting. In an era obsessed with image, Haaland has turned being himself into football’s most powerful brand.
