Erling Braut Håland

Erling Braut Haaland (né Håland, ; born 21 July 2000) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the Norway national team. A prolific goalscorer, he is recognised for his pace, athleticism, strength and precise off-the-ball movement, and he has been considered as one of the best young footballers in the world.

Haaland started his career at his hometown club Bryne in 2016, and moved to Molde the following year; he spent two seasons with the club before signing with Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg in January 2019. At Salzburg, he won two Austrian Bundesliga titles and one Austrian Cup.

Haaland became the first teenager to score in five consecutive UEFA Champions League matches during the 2019–20 season. In December 2019, he completed a transfer to Borussia Dortmund for a fee reported to be in the region of €20 million. He carried on his goalscoring success in his Champions League campaign, becoming the second teenager to score ten goals in the competition, and won the 2020 Golden Boy award.

Following the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, in which Haaland won the tournament’s Golden Boot after he scored a record nine goals in a single match, he made his debut for the Norway senior team in September 2019.

Early life

Haaland was born on 21 July 2000 in Leeds, England, as his father Alf-Inge Håland was playing for Leeds United in the Premier League at the time. In 2004, at the age of three, he moved to Bryne, Norway, his parents’ hometown. 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 allegedly 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.

Club career

Bryne

Haaland started in the academy of his hometown club Bryne FK at the age of five. In an interview with Goal.com, Haaland’s former youth coach, Alf Ingve Berntsen, talked about his early talent:

I saw Erling for the first time when he was five when he joined indoor training with a group one year older … His first two touches led to goals. He was very, very good from the first moment, even though he hadn’t played in the club before. He started playing in his own year group, but because he was so much better than the others, we immediately pulled him up to Under-6.

During the 2015–16 season, Haaland played for Bryne’s reserve team and impressed, scoring eighteen goals in fourteen matches. In May 2016, Gaute Larsen was sacked as Bryne manager and youth coach Berntsen was promoted to caretaker boss. Having worked closely with Haaland in other youth teams, the interim manager handed the teenager his first start, three months before his sixteenth birthday. His debut was a second-tier 1. divisjon match against Ranheim on 12 May 2016.

After having initially being deployed as a winger, Berntsen put Haaland in his favoured central role as a striker after a few matches. Although he failed to score in his breakthrough season at Bryne, Haaland was offered a trial by German club 1899 Hoffenheim before eventually moving to Molde FK to play under Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Haaland made sixteen total senior appearances for Bryne.

Molde

2017 season

Haaland playing for Molde FK in 2018

On 1 February 2017, Molde announced the signing of Haaland. He made his debut for the club on 26 April 2017 in a Norwegian Cup match against Volda TI, scoring his first Molde goal in a 3–2 win. Haaland’s league debut came on 4 June 2017, being brought on as a 71st minute substitute against Sarpsborg 08. After receiving a yellow card in just over a minute of play on the pitch, Haaland scored the winner for Molde in the 77th minute, his first Eliteserien goal. His second strike of the season came on 17 September, as he bagged the decisive goal against Viking FK in a 3–2 victory. In the aftermath of the game, Haaland received criticism from teammate Björn Bergmann Sigurðarson for celebrating his goal towards Viking supporters. Haaland finished his first season at Molde with four goals in twenty appearances.

2018 season

On 1 July 2018, Haaland scored four goals in the opening 21 minutes of a 4–0 defeat of SK Brann, securing his side victory over the unbeaten league leaders at the time. Molde manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær after the match compared Haaland’s style of play to Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku, and revealed the club had rejected several bids for the striker from different clubs. In the following match a week later, Haaland continued his scoring run with a brace against Vålerenga in a 5–1 win. He scored his first goal in European competition during Molde’s 3–0 Europa League victory against KF Laçi on 26 July. Due to a sprained ankle, Haaland did not participate in Molde’s last three league matches of the season. For his performances in the 2018 Eliteserien, Haaland received the Eliteserien Breakthrough of the Year award. He finished the 2018 season as Molde’s top goalscorer, scoring sixteen goals in thirty matches across all competitions.

Red Bull Salzburg

Haaland playing for Red Bull Salzburg in 2019

On 19 August 2018, Austrian Bundesliga champions Red Bull Salzburg announced that Haaland would join the club on 1 January 2019, signing a five-year contract. The Athletic‘s Phil Hay would later reveal that prior to his move to Salzburg, Haaland was also subject of an offer from his father’s former club Leeds United.

On 19 July 2019, Haaland scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 7–1 Austrian Cup win against SC-ESV Parndorf, and followed this up with his first hat-trick in the Austrian Bundesliga on 10 August, scoring three in a 5–2 victory against Wolfsberger AC. He got a third hat-trick for the club on 14 September in a 7–2 victory over TSV Hartberg, taking his season tally to eleven league goals in seven appearances. Three days later, Haaland made his debut in the UEFA Champions League against Genk, where he scored yet another hat-trick in a 6–2 victory, his fourth overall for Salzburg.

In his next two matches of the Champions League season, Haaland recorded a goal against Liverpool at Anfield and a further two against Napoli, becoming only the second teenager after Karim Benzema in the history of the competition to score in each of his first three appearances. His six goals were also the most scored by any player in their first three Champions League matches. After converting a penalty in Salzburg’s reverse fixture against Napoli, Haaland became the first teenager to score in his first four matches in the competition, and only the fourth player of any age to achieve this feat, following Zé Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero and Diego Costa. On 27 November, he came off the bench to score another goal against Genk, joining Del Piero, Serhiy Rebrov, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski as the only players to score in the first five matches of a Champions League group stage, and becoming the first teenager to score in five consecutive matches in the competition.

Borussia Dortmund

Despite being a reported target of Manchester United and Juventus, Haaland completed his transfer to German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund a few days before the January 2020 winter transfer opened, for a fee reported to be in the region of €20 million, signing a four-and-a-half-year contract.

2019–20 season

Haaland made his debut for Dortmund away at FC Augsburg on 18 January 2020, coming on as a second half substitute and scoring a hat-trick within 23 minutes of a 5–3 win. He became the second player in Dortmund history after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score three goals on their Bundesliga debut. Six days later, Haaland once again came on as a substitute to make his second appearance for Dortmund, against local rivals 1. FC Köln. He scored after twelve minutes and got a second goal ten minutes later, helping his side to a 5–1 victory. Haaland became the first Bundesliga player to score five goals in his opening two matches, as well as the fastest player to reach that tally (56 minutes played). On 18 February, Haaland scored both Dortmund goals in their 2–1 first leg victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16. This brought the Norwegian teenager’s total to ten Champions League goals for the 2019–20 campaign in only his eighth overall appearance in the competition, adding to the eight goals he had scored for Salzburg in the group stage.

Following the Bundesliga’s return during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Haaland scored his tenth league goal of the campaign in a 4–0 win over rivals Schalke 04 on 16 May 2020. It was the first goal in German football since competitions were halted in late March. On 20 June, Haaland scored both goals in a 2–0 win against RB Leipzig to secure second place for Dortmund in the Bundesliga, which would lead to Champions League football in the following season.

2020–21 season

On 19 September 2020, in Dortmund’s first match of the new season, Haaland scored a brace in a 3–0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach. He scored his side’s equalizer in their 2–3 Der Klassiker defeat to Bayern Munich in the DFL-Supercup on 30 September, and again found the net against Bayern when the sides met in the league on 7 November, with Dortmund losing 2–3 once more. On 21 November, Haaland scored four goals in 32 minutes of a 5–2 away victory against Hertha BSC. These five goals in the month of November saw him crowned the Bundesliga Player of the Month for a second time. He scored a brace in a 3–0 win over Club Brugge on 24 November, becoming the fastest player to reach fifteen (and then sixteen) UEFA Champions League goals, with only twelve total appearances in the competition. Hours before a Champions League group stage match against Lazio on 2 December, Borussia Dortmund announced that Haaland had suffered a hamstring injury, which would keep him out of action until January 2021.

Haaland made his return to the side in their match against VfL Wolfsburg on 3 January 2021. He scored a brace away against RB Leipzig in a 3–1 win on 9 January, and got another two goals in Dortmund’s 2–4 defeat to Borussia Mönchengladbach on 22 January. On 17 February, Haaland scored two goals and recorded an assist in Dortmund’s 3–2 away victory against Sevilla in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, bring his overall tally in the competition to eighteen goals in only thirteen appearances.

International career

Although also eligible to play for England where he was born, Haaland chose Norway, and has represented them at various age groups. With Norway U19, on 27 March 2018 he scored a hat-trick against Scotland in a 5–4 victory to help Norway secure their 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 2018 tournament finals.

On 30 May 2019, Haaland scored nine goals in Norway U20’s 12–0 win against Honduras U20 at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Lublin, Poland. This was Norway U20’s biggest ever win and Honduras U20’s heaviest ever defeat. This also set a new U-20 World Cup record for most goals scored by a single player in a match, and also 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 won the Golden Boot as the competition’s top scorer.

After the impressive performance at the U-20 World Cup and a good run of form with Red Bull Salzburg, scoring six goals in the first four matches of the 2019–20 Austrian Bundesliga season, Haaland was named by manager Lars Lagerbäck in 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 international goal for Norway in a 1–2 loss against Austria in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League B. On 7 September 2020, he scored a brace in a victory against Northern Ireland.

On 11 October 2020, 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 national team to six goals in six matches played.

Style of play

Haaland skipping past a defender during his time at Salzburg in 2019

Recognised for his explosive acceleration and pace, athleticism, positioning, strength and precise off the ball movement, Haaland’s runs in behind defenders often see him in ideal positions to score. Haaland is also quick to recognise when an opponent is preoccupied or caught ball watching, leading him to pounce when a gap opens between defenders to offer a great option for his teammates. During his short career, Haaland has established himself as a versatile goalscorer, with him being able to score through powerful long-range shots, well-placed finishes, composed finishes during a one-on-one with the goal keeper, headers, and dinks.

A team player, Haaland is also an instinctive and quick reader of the play, which contributes to his quick leaps to go with his large body frame in helping him win second balls or flick long passes onto runners in behind. During his time at Dortmund, his strategic pinning and drawing of markers away from space for others to use has provided players like Jadon Sancho, Achraf Hakimi and Thorgan Hazard with space to run into to either assist or score goals. When Haaland drops deep to link play, he also acts as a good reference point through using his strength to protect the ball to hold off his opponent.

Haaland is able to turn defenders in an instant and drive past them whilst using feints and changing his direction. In addition, rather than give into fouls he often remains balanced and upright when being challenged. He is often recognized for his sprints, reaching a top speed of 36 km/h. His precise timing of runs allows him to burst ahead to perfect locations unimpeded, and his sharp movements—including zigzag, double movements, and stop-go—makes him more elusive for his markers. This has been specifically beneficial when he is inside the box, as he is given the opportunity to get goal-side, attack the back post or peel off his man to occupy dangerous areas for cutbacks.

Haaland has been influenced by Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Michu.

Personal life

Haaland is the son of the Norwegian former Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Manchester City defender Alf-Inge Håland, and former women’s heptathlon athlete Gry Marita Braut. In February 2017, in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Haaland stated that “The dream is to win the Premier League with Leeds.” He moved to Bryne in Norway with his family at the age of three. In 2016 the music video for “Kygo Yo” was uploaded to YouTube by Flow Kingz, a group consisting of Haaland and his Norway U18 teammates Erik Botheim and Erik Tobias Sandberg. The video had by 2020 surpassed 5 million views and 150 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 claimed that he wasn’t 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”.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 20 February 2021.

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club	Season	League			National Cup		Europe		Other		Total
Club	Season	Division	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
	2019–20	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	17	17	2	1	5	8	1	1	25	27
	Total		32	30	3	2	7	10	1	1	43	43
Career total			121	81	13	8	19	22	1	1	154	112

^ Includes Norwegian Cup, Austrian Cup, DFB-Pokal
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Appearance(s) in UEFA Europa League
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Appearances in UEFA Champions League
^ Appearance in DFL-Supercup

International

As of match played 14 October 2020

Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Norway	2019	2	0
Norway	2020	5	6
Total		7	6

As of match played 14 October 2020. Norway score listed first, score column indicates score after each Haaland goal.

List of international goals scored by Erling Haaland
No.	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	4 September 2020	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	3	Austria	1–2	1–2	2020–21 UEFA Nations League B
2	7 September 2020	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	4	Northern Ireland	2–1	5–1
3	7 September 2020	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	4	Northern Ireland	5–1	5–1
4	11 October 2020	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	6	Romania	1–0	4–0
5					3–0
6					4–0