Norwegian striker Erling Braut Haaland was long viewed as more popular in international football circles than he was at home, until this past year. The football superstar seems to have undergone a personality change of sorts, appearing more relaxed and happy and not just because Norway’s national team has been on a roll into the World Cup.
“He has always mostly talked with his feet, as he says himself,” Brede Hangeland, a former top football player himself who’s now assistant coach for the men’s national team, told reporters at a press conference earlier this autumn. Haaland was known for fiercely guarding his privacy, rarely smiling and answering questions with just a few, often sharp, words. He’s still remembered for walking right past the press area after national team matches in his homeland, even when serving as team captain.
That all made him seem arrogant and unapproachable, until he agreed to appear on a highly popular television program on state broadcaster NRK earlier this year called A-laget (The A-Team). It’s a so-called “portrait interview program” that subjects Norwegian celebrities, top politicians and even football icons like Haaland to a grilling by the team’s reporters, all of whom have varying levels of physical and mental functionality and pose very direct, unfiltered questions.
The A-laget reporters didn’t hesitate to pose lots of direct and personal questions to Haaland, about everything from his trademark long blond hair that’s usually tied up in a tight pony tail (he admitted to not having cut his hair for around four years) to how he romanced his sweetheart and how he might spend his fortunes. He spent three hours with the group that was later broken up into segments aired on NRK, all of which were wildly popular with the public at home.
Hangeland was among those watching the program and charmed along with most everyone else. The 25-year-old Haaland from Bryne south of Stavanger had admitted on camera that he was “a bit nervous, to be completely honest,” but ended up relaxing and “showing more of who he is,” according to Hangeland.
He thinks Norwegians got a much better impression of Haaland, who also became a father this year and has been “developing” as a team captain when filling in for teammate and fellow Norwegian football star Martin Ødegaard. “He’s taking greater and greater responsibility for this team, in all ways on the field, of course, but also in meetings and socially,” Hangeland told newspaper VG.
“I think that even though he’s one of the superstars, who can certainly be a bit tough to meet for the first time, he can be easy to come in contact with, also as a team captain,” said Hangeland. “He deserves all respect for that.”
There’s no question Haaland has had another remarkable year as a professional football player for Manchester City in England and for the Norwegian national team. He’d been described by British journalists as the greatest scorer of all time, even before he made history this week by kicking in his 100th goal in the Premier League in record time during the course of 111 matches. The earlier record, set by Ian Shearer, was 100 goals in 124 matches.
He still wasn’t satisfied with Manchester City’s performance against Fulham. His team had been leading by 5-1 but the match ended 5-4 and almost in a draw. Haaland is known for high standards, to the point that coaches in Norway have warned him not to be too tough on younger players. Now he and Ødegaard have paved the way for new Norwegian stars like Antonio Nusa to shine as well.
Football commentators in Norway claim the national team has become “very special” and has good chances at the World Cup next summer. While Haaland himself thinks the group Norway landed in (facing France, Senegal and perhaps Bolivia) will be “tough,” French football star Morgan Schneiderlin thinks the same. “We were a bit scared the draw would put us against Norway and Senegal, and that’s what we got,” he told NRK. “I think everyone on the team fears Haaland. He’s a striker who scores goals for fun.”
In the meantime Haaland has also been spending more time opening up on social media, passing on diet and lifestyle tips and seems to enjoy homelife and being a father. He told reporters himself this week that the birth of his child had “definitely” changed his life, and he feels better able to focus and relax more. He’s also now very wealthy.
His international fame has also had some unexpected effects: Dr. Elin Hoffmann Dahl, an infection specialist who joined Doctors Without Borders to help ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo this autumn, actually publicly thanked Haaland in newspaper Afterposten this week. She’s no big football fan and admitted that she often forgets whether Haaland’s first name is “Erling” or “Erlend.”
She wrote, though, that his football skills and stardom actually “opened doors” for her as a Norwegian doctors working in difficult situations abroad. One young man recovering from the virus who had become immune helped Dahl care for a critically ill infant whose mother had died after hearing she was Norwegian. “Erling Haaland!” he responded with a big smile: “I had immediately risen in his view.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
