Erling Haaland

Submission 1,185

About

Erling Haaland is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for the English club team Manchester City. The striker is widely regarded as one of the best players of the 2020s in the world. Known for his speed, strength and for finishing inside the box, Erling is building a fanbase of football enthusiasts that share memes and clips of the Norwegian on the internet.

Career

Born on July 21st, 2000, Haaland began his professional football career at a young age when he joined the Bryne^[1] Academy in 2005. Since then, he has risen through the world football ranks, reaching big teams like the German Bundesliga^[2] club in December 2019. In June 2022, he was transferred to Manchester City^[3] for 51.2 million euros (54 million USD).

Online Presence

As of March 2023, Erling Haaland has more than 25 million followers on Instagram^[4] and 14 million fans on Facebook.^[5] Just like any major footballer with massive followings on social media, Haaland maintains a constant branded presence across his official accounts, sharing behind-the-scenes content, training practices before a big match and posts about his daily life.

Erling Haaland's Five Goals vs. RB Leipzig

On March 14th, 2023, Manchester City played against RB Leipzig^[6] in the 2022-23 Champions League.^[7] Haaland scored five goals in the match, which ended with a 7 vs 0 score for his team, becoming the third player to score three goals^[8] in the first half of an elimination match in the European championship, after Lionel Messi (2010) and Robert Lewandowski (2022). His performance generated a series of memes and reactions on social media. For instance, Twitter^[9] user @abu_ahmad1413 shared a clip with all the goals Haaland did during the match, garnering 565,000 views and 5,200 likes in one day (seen below).