Erling Haaland Height Weight Age Biography Family Wiki Net Worth, Affairs, Marriage & much more. Erling Braut Haaland ( born 21 July 2000) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester City and the Norway national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is known for his athleticism, speed, and finishing.
Coming through the youth system, Haaland played at senior level for Bryne’s reserve and senior teams. He moved to Molde in 2017 (also playing for their reserve team), with whom he spent two seasons. Haaland signed with Austrian Bundesliga side Red Bull Salzburg in January 2019, winning two league titles and one Austrian Cup. In December 2019, he moved to German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, where he won the DFB-Pokal in 2020–21.
Haaland won several individual awards and broke various records during his career. During the 2019–20 season with Salzburg, he became the first teenager to score in five consecutive UEFA Champions League matches. He was top scorer of the Champions League the following season. In 2020, Haaland won the Golden Boy award, while in 2021 he was named Bundesliga Player of the Season and was included in the FIFA FIFPro World11 in 2021.
Haaland represented Norway at various youth levels. In the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Haaland won the tournament’s Golden Boot, after scoring a record nine goals in a single match. He made his senior international debut in September 2019.
Early life
Haaland was born on 21 July 2000 in Leeds, England, as his father Alfie Haaland was playing for Leeds United in the Premier League at the time. In 2004, at the age of three, he moved to Bryne, his parents’ hometown in Norway.
Along with playing football from an early age, Haaland partook in various other sports as a child, including handball, golf, and track and field.He also reportedly achieved a world record in his age category for the standing long jump when he was five, with a recorded distance of 1.63 metres in 2006.
Personal life
Haaland is the son of the Norwegian former Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Manchester City defender Alfie Haaland, and former women’s heptathlon athlete Gry Marita Braut. His cousin Jonatan Braut Brunes plays as a forward for Lillestrøm. Brunes became the youngest player ever to feature for Bryne in a game against KFUM Oslo on 16 May 2016 at the age of 15 years, 9 months, 9 days, beating the previous record set by Haaland four days earlier. His younger cousin Albert Tjåland is also a footballer, registering over sixty goals in under forty games played with Molde’s youth team. In February 2017, in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Haaland stated that “The dream is to win the Premier League with Leeds.” On 30 August 2016, the music video “Kygo Jo” was uploaded to YouTube by Flow Kingz, a group consisting of Haaland and his Norway U-18 teammates Erik Botheim and Erik Tobias Sandberg. By 2020, the video had surpassed 8.2 million views and 250 thousand likes.
Haaland has stated he enjoys meditation. After scoring his second goal in Dortmund’s first leg Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain in February 2020, he celebrated by mimicking a “zen” pose in reference to his meditative practice. However, Dortmund would go on to lose and be eliminated after the second leg, with PSG scorer Neymar imitating Haaland’s celebration after his goal, and the majority of the French club’s squad joining in on mimicking the “zen” pose in their celebrations following the conclusion of the match. This was reportedly done as a dig to Haaland due to an alleged social media post he had made prior to the game, in which he called host venue Paris “his city”. Despite some sources proposing that Haaland’s post had been fake, he still said that he was not bothered by the PSG celebrations, stating: “I think they helped me a lot to get meditation out in the world and to show the whole world that meditation is an important thing so I’m thankful”.
Club career
After joining the Bryne Football club, the player started to impress its fan base and management with his excellent gameplay. Being an excellent reader of the game, the player climbed up the ladder very quickly and showed his potential to become the leader of the next generation. This potentially translated into player’s debut into the senior side when he was aged 15.
For the senior side, Erling Haaland continued scoring the goals and bagging the assists. This caught the attention of the scouts of the Norweigan club, then managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Molde FK and was took to the Norweigan top tier. The player joined the club in 2017 but wasn’t destined for a long stay at Norway. He joined the Austrian side called RB Salzburg though he had offers from the top tier clubs like Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen. Haaland joined RB Salzburg on January 1 of 2019. Since joining the club, the player has been phenomenal. He also became the second player after Kareem Benzema to score goals in three consecutive Champions League games. The player scored his first hattrick for RB Salzburg in Austrian Cup on 19th July 2019. The player scored his first Austrian league hattrick against Wolfsberg just a month after scoring his first hattrick for the club.
The player joined the German side Borussia Dortmund on 1st January 2020 despite the interest from clubs like Manchester United and Juventus. Since joining Dortmund, the player has clocked the minimum goal in each match for the team.
On 10 May 2022, Premier League club Manchester City announced they had reached a deal to sign Haaland after activating his €60 million (£51.2 million) release clause.On 13 June 2022, City formally announced Haaland would be joining the club on 1 July having signed a five-year contract.
Style of play
A prolific goalscorer, and regarded as one of the best players in the world, Haaland has all the attributes of a complete centre-forward. He uses his sizeable frame to hold play up effectively and involve others. He has the pace and clever movement to run in behind; he can dribble and create; and he can finish with both feet and his head. He usually comes deep to collect the ball to help his team build play, often looking to spread the ball wide for a teammate, before turning and sprinting towards goal. He sometimes comes too deep for the defenders to not follow him, as such he has the awareness to turn on the ball and create from a forward-facing position. In the penalty area, he makes small, sharp movements to spot an opportunity for a teammate to attempt to find him in space, and change the line on which he is running and accelerate into that space, make him extremely difficult for defenders to read.
He uses his body well when playing with his back to goal, protecting the ball effectively as he tries to bring it under control. Given he can use his strength to secure possession when under pressure, he is also effective in providing his team’s defenders with some respite following a clearance. Haaland’s creativity is most apparent when he drifts into the left inside channel. His primary aim is always to get a shot off, but he also has the vision and skill to pick out a delayed run from midfield in the centre. His ability to carry the ball at pace also helps create for others, especially on the counter-attack.
Haaland cites Cristiano Ronaldo, Michu, Jamie Vardy and Robin van Persie as inspirations, and credits Virgil van Dijk and Sergio Ramos as two of the toughest defenders he has played against.
International career
Youth
Haaland plays for Norway, and has represented them at various age groups. On 27 March 2018, while with the Norway under-19 side, Haaland scored a hat-trick against Scotland in a 5–4 victory, helping his country secure qualification to the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. On 22 July 2018, Haaland scored a penalty against Italy in a 1–1 draw during the tournament finals. On 30 May 2019, Haaland scored nine goals in the Norway under-20 team’s 12–0 win against Honduras at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Lublin, Poland.This was Norway’s biggest ever win at U-20 level, as well as Honduras’ heaviest ever defeat. Haaland also set a new U-20 World Cup record for most goals scored by a single player in a match, with the result additionally being the biggest win by any team in the history of the tournament. Despite the Norwegians being eliminated in the group stage, and Haaland not scoring in any other matches at the tournament, he still won the Golden Boot as the competition’s top scorer.
Senior
Haaland was named by manager Lars Lagerbäck to the Norway senior team squad on 28 August 2019, to face Malta and Sweden in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying matches; he made his senior national team debut on 5 September 2019 against Malta.On 4 September 2020, Haaland scored his first senior international goal for Norway in a 1–2 loss against Austria in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League B. Three days later, he scored a brace in a 5–1 victory against Northern Ireland.On 11 October, Haaland scored his first international hat-trick in Norway’s 4–0 win over Romania in a Nations League B match, bringing his tally for the senior team to six goals in six matches played.
During the September 2021 international break, Haaland scored five goals in three World Cup qualification matches, including a second hat-trick for Norway in a 5–1 victory against Gibraltar.
Career statistics
Club
| Club | Season | League | National cup | League cup | Europe | Other | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Bryne 2 | 2015 | 3. divisjon | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | 3 | 2 | ||||
| 2016 | 3. divisjon | 11 | 16 | — | — | — | — | 11 | 16 | |||||
| Total | 14 | 18 | — | — | — | — | 14 | 18 | ||||||
| Bryne | 2016 | 1. divisjon | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | 16 | 0 | |||
| Molde 2 | 2017 | 3. divisjon | 4 | 2 | — | — | — | — | 4 | 2 | ||||
| Molde | 2017 | Eliteserien | 14 | 2 | 6 | 2 | — | — | — | 20 | 4 | |||
| 2018 | Eliteserien | 25 | 12 | 0 | 0 | — | 5 | 4 | — | 30 | 16 | |||
| Total | 39 | 14 | 6 | 2 | — | 5 | 4 | — | 50 | 20 | ||||
| Red Bull Salzburg | 2018–19 | Austrian Bundesliga | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 5 | 1 | ||
| 2019–2020 | Austrian Bundesliga | 14 | 16 | 2 | 4 | — | 6 | 8 | — | 22 | 28 | |||
| Total | 16 | 17 | 4 | 4 | — | 7 | 8 | — | 27 | 29 | ||||
| Borussia Dortmund | 2019–20 | Bundesliga | 15 | 13 | 1 | 1 | — | 2 | 2 | — | 18 | 16 | ||
| 2020–21 | Bundesliga | 28 | 27 | 4 | 3 | — | 8 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 41 | ||
| 2021–22 | Bundesliga | 24 | 22 | 2 | 4 | — | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 29 | ||
| Total | 67 | 62 | 7 | 8 | — | 13 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 89 | 86 | |||
| Manchester City | 2022–23 | Premier League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career total | 156 | 113 | 17 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 27 | 2 | 1 | 200 | 155 |
International
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norway | 2019 | 2 | 0 |
| 2020 | 5 | 6 | |
| 2021 | 8 | 6 | |
| 2022 | 6 | 8 | |
| Total | 21 | 20 |