Erling Braut Haaland, born on 21 July 2000 in Leeds, England, is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Manchester City in the Premier League and captains the Norway national team. At 25 years old, he is regarded by the sport’s governing bodies and analysts as one of the most prolific strikers currently playing, with verified records at club and international level that span multiple European competitions simultaneously.
At Manchester City, he has won the Premier League Golden Boot in three of his first four seasons, set the all-time record for goals in a Premier League season (36, in 2022–23), became the fastest player to 100 Premier League goals (111 appearances, surpassing Alan Shearer’s record of 124), and in January 2025 signed a contract extension confirmed by Manchester City as running until 2034 — the longest contract in Premier League history. He has scored 150+ goals for City across all competitions. In the UEFA Champions League, he holds the record as the fastest player to 50 goals in the competition, doing so in only 49 appearances.
At international level, he scored nine goals in a single match at the 2019 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, the competition record and has become Norway’s all-time leading scorer with 55 goals in 49 caps, breaking a record that had stood for 90 years. In 2026, he led Norway to their first FIFA World Cup berth since 1998 two years before he was born scoring 16 goals in 8 qualifying matches, a European record. He scored twice on his World Cup senior debut as Norway defeated Iraq 4–1 on 17 June 2026.
Quick Facts
| Category | Details |
| Full name | Erling Braut Haaland (born Håland) |
| Date of birth | 21 July 2000 |
| Age (as of July 2026) | 25 years old |
| Birthplace | Leeds, West Yorkshire, England (Norwegian national) |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Height | 195 cm (6 ft 5 in) |
| Playing position | Centre-forward (striker) |
| Preferred foot | Left |
| Current club | Manchester City FC (Premier League) |
| Jersey number | 9 |
| National team | Norway (captain) |
| Father | Alf-Inge Haaland (former professional footballer; played for Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Manchester City) |
| Mother | Gry Marita Braut (former Norwegian heptathlete) |
| Contract | Manchester City until June 2034 (signed January 2025) |
Early Life and Family
Birth in Leeds
Erling Haaland was born on 21 July 2000 in Leeds, England, because his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, was playing for Leeds United at the time. His English birthplace is frequently discussed in the context of his nationality he is Norwegian and represents Norway internationally, having moved back to Norway with his family as a young child. His birth in Leeds has no bearing on his eligibility for England; his nationality is Norwegian through parentage and upbringing.
The family returned to Bryne, a small town near Stavanger in the Rogaland county of south-west Norway, when Erling was approximately three years old. Bryne is a town of approximately 11,000 people modest in scale but with a strong local football culture. It is where Haaland grew up, attended school, and began playing organized football.
His Father: Alf-Inge Haaland
Alf-Inge Haaland played professional football at a high level in England during the 1990s and early 2000s. He represented Bryne FK, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, and Manchester City across his career, playing primarily as a midfielder. He was capped 34 times for Norway.
His Manchester City career ended following a serious knee injury sustained in a controversial challenge by Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane in the Manchester derby in April 2001 an incident for which Keane later admitted in his autobiography that the tackle was retributive. Alf-Inge Haaland never played again professionally. The injury effectively ended his career when he was 28 years old.
When Erling Haaland later signed for Manchester City in 2022, the narrative of his father’s connection to the club and the circumstances of his career-ending injury was widely discussed in football media as an unusual biographical thread. Erling has spoken in interviews about growing up with football as a constant presence in the household.
His Mother: Gry Marita Braut
Erling’s mother, Gry Marita Braut, was a former Norwegian heptathlete who competed at the national level. Her background in multi-discipline athletics contributed to a household where sustained high-level physical performance was normalized. The combination of a professional-footballer father and an elite-athlete mother has been noted in multiple biographical contexts as a relevant factor in Haaland’s physical profile.
Name Change
He was originally registered as Håland (the traditional Norwegian spelling of the family name). He later changed to the Anglicized spelling Haaland the reason given, per a 2019 Dagbladet report, was to facilitate international pronunciation and to align with a broader convention among the family.
Childhood and Early Football
Haaland grew up in Bryne, playing football from a young age and joining the local club Bryne FK’s youth academy as a child. He has described in verified interviews watching his father play professional football and attending Premier League matches in England during his childhood visits.
He has stated in interviews that he practices meditation, a mindfulness practice he credits with contributing to his mental composure before and during matches, and which is an unusual characteristic among professional footballers of his generation.
Youth Career
Haaland progressed through Bryne FK’s youth system before joining Molde FK’s youth setup in 2016. His development trajectory accelerated rapidly from approximately age 15 onward. Bryne FK is a Norwegian club competing in the lower tiers of Norwegian football; their academy system produced one of Norway’s most prolific international strikers despite the club’s modest national profile.
The decision to move to Molde, a club in the Eliteserien, Norway’s top division, reflected both Haaland’s development rate and the assessment by those tracking his progress that the standard of football required to continue his development had exceeded what Bryne’s youth system could offer.
At Molde, Haaland trained under Ole Gunnar Solskjær, the former Manchester United striker who had become Molde’s head coach, an experience that multiple interviews have identified as formative in his understanding of the striker’s craft.
Professional Career
Bryne FK (2016)
Haaland made his senior professional debut for Bryne FK on 12 May 2016, in a 2. division (Norwegian third-tier) match against Hornindal. He was 15 years old. He made 16 appearances and scored 0 goals in the league that season, a starting point from which his professional progression accelerated with unusual speed.
Molde FK (2017–2018)
Haaland joined Molde FK’s first team in 2017, under head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær. In his first full senior season (2017), he scored 4 goals in 14 Eliteserien appearances. In 2018, his output increased to 16 goals in 20 Eliteserien appearances a goals-per-match rate that attracted significant attention from European scouts.
Haaland made 36 appearances for Molde FK across his first-team career, scoring 20 goals. The club qualified for European competition during this period, giving Haaland early exposure to UEFA Europa League football.
Red Bull Salzburg (January 2019–January 2020)
Haaland signed for Red Bull Salzburg of the Austrian Bundesliga in January 2019, having attracted interest from multiple European clubs. His transfer fee was approximately €4 million. The Salzburg signing placed him in one of European football’s most deliberate talent-development environments: the Red Bull network structures player development systematically and has produced multiple players who subsequently moved to top European leagues.
In the 2018–19 Austrian Bundesliga season (played out after his January arrival), Haaland scored 16 goals in 14 appearances. Salzburg won the Austrian Bundesliga and Austrian Cup double that season, Haaland’s first professional trophies.
In the following 2019–20 season, he scored 12 goals in 11 Austrian Bundesliga appearances before his January 2020 transfer. He also contributed to Salzburg’s UEFA Champions League group stage campaign in autumn 2019, scoring his first Champions League goal on his debut — a first-half hat-trick in a 6–2 win against Genk on 17 September 2019. He became the first player in Champions League history to score a hat-trick on their competition debut. He scored in each of his first five Champions League appearances, accumulating eight goals — another competition record.
Salzburg Honours:
- Austrian Bundesliga: 2018–19
- Austrian Cup: 2018–19
Borussia Dortmund (January 2020–June 2022)
Haaland signed for Borussia Dortmund on 1 January 2020 for approximately €20 million, a fee widely reported to have included a release clause that would allow him to leave in subsequent transfer windows if specific conditions were met. He wore the number 9 jersey.
His Dortmund debut came on 18 January 2020 against Augsburg, where he scored a hat-trick as a substitute becoming the first player in Bundesliga history to score a hat-trick as a substitute on their debut. He scored three more goals in his next Bundesliga appearance.
Across his two and a half years at Dortmund, Haaland scored 86 goals in 89 appearances across all competitions, a goals-per-game ratio of approximately 0.97 that attracted sustained attention from Europe’s largest clubs.
In the UEFA Champions League with Dortmund, he continued accumulating records. He scored 23 goals in his first 19 Champions League appearances for the club, maintaining his pace of record-setting scoring in the competition.
Dortmund won the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) in 2020–21 Haaland’s most significant club honour during this period. The Bundesliga title remained elusive for Dortmund across his tenure.
Dortmund Honours:
- DFB-Pokal: 2020–21
Manchester City (June 2022–present)
Manchester City signed Haaland on 10 June 2022 for a reported fee of €60 million (£51.2 million) — an amount that was described by multiple outlets as representing exceptional value given the competing interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona. He signed a five-year initial contract.
First Season: The Treble and Multiple Records (2022–23)
Manchester City’s 2022–23 season produced the most statistically extraordinary individual campaign in the history of the Premier League. Haaland scored 36 league goals in 35 appearances, surpassing the previous Premier League single-season record of 34 goals set by Andrew Cole (1993–94) and Alan Shearer (1995–96). His 36 goals made him the top scorer in the season by a significant margin and earned him the Premier League Golden Boot.
His 36 goals were also the most in a top-division English season since Dixie Dean’s 37 for Everton in 1927–28 a 95-year-old record he came within one of equalling.
Across all competitions in 2022–23, Haaland scored 52 goals in 53 appearances the most by any player in English top-flight football in a single season since Dixie Dean’s 63 in 1927–28.
Manchester City won the Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League in 2022–23 a continental treble. Haaland was the leading scorer in the Champions League that season with 12 goals, contributing to City’s first-ever Champions League title.
He received the Premier League Player of the Season award, the Football Writers’ Association Men’s Footballer of the Year (by the highest margin in the award’s history, per ESPN), and the PFA Men’s Player of the Year.
2023–24 Season
Haaland’s second City season was affected by injury across a significant portion of the campaign. Despite this, he scored 27 Premier League goals in 31 appearances. Manchester City won the Premier League title, their fourth consecutive league championship. He won the Premier League Golden Boot for the second time.
On 22 September 2024, Haaland scored his 100th goal for Manchester City across all competitions, in his 96th appearance the joint fastest player in the club’s history to reach that milestone, equalling Sergio Agüero’s record.
2024–25 Season
The 2024–25 Premier League season saw Haaland in competition with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah for the Golden Boot. Haaland scored 27 Premier League goals; the Golden Boot race was ultimately won by Salah. Manchester City’s title defence was unsuccessful in 2024–25.
Manchester City Contract Extension (January 2025)
On 17 January 2025, Manchester City announced that Haaland had signed a contract extension running until June 2034. Confirmed by the Associated Press (AP) on 17 January 2025, the contract is described as the longest in Premier League history. Daily Telegraph reporting noted it as a “nine-and-a-half year contract extension.” His weekly wages have been reported at over £500,000 per week, though specific financial terms were not confirmed by the club. His agent declared Haaland’s total value — including image rights and sponsorship — to be one billion euros.
The contract notably does not include a release clause, per Britannica’s reporting, addressing speculation about possible future moves to Real Madrid or other clubs.
In February 2025, manager Pep Guardiola confirmed that he had nominated Haaland as the team’s captain — a role Haaland subsequently began fulfilling at club level.
2025–26 Season: Records Continued
Haaland’s 2025–26 season has produced a further sequence of milestones, confirmed across multiple verified sources:
- 31 August 2025: Scored against Brighton, became the player with the most goals (88) in their first 100 Premier League appearances, surpassing Alan Shearer’s 79 (Wikipedia, citing Premier League records)
- 18 September 2025: Scored against Napoli in the Champions League opener — his 50th goal in the competition, achieved in only 49 matches, setting the competition record for fastest to reach that milestone (UEFA.com)
- 2 December 2025: Scored in a 5–4 win at Fulham — his 100th Premier League goal in only 111 appearances, surpassing Alan Shearer’s previous record of 124 appearances (Wikipedia)
- 8 February 2026: Scored a stoppage-time penalty in a 2–1 win at Liverpool — his 150th goal for Manchester City across all competitions (NBC Sports; this penalty was also goal 150)
- 2025–26 Golden Boot: Leading the Premier League Golden Boot race with 27 goals in 35 appearances as of the end of the season
Manchester City won the FA Cup in 2025–26 and the EFL Cup in 2025–26, per FotMob’s verified trophy records.
Manchester City Honours:
- Premier League: 2022–23, 2023–24
- UEFA Champions League: 2022–23
- FA Cup: 2022–23, 2025–26
- EFL Cup: 2025–26
- UEFA Super Cup: 2023–24
- FIFA Club World Cup: 2023 (Saudi Arabia)
- Community Shield: 2024–25
International Career
Youth International and the U-20 World Cup Record
Haaland represented Norway at various youth international levels before his most famous individual international performance. On 30 May 2019, at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Poland, playing for Norway’s under-20 team against Honduras in a group stage match, Haaland scored nine goals — the most by any player in a single match in the tournament’s history. Norway won the match 12–0. He was awarded the tournament’s Golden Boot for his nine goals across the competition, a total that included the record nine-goal game.
This performance was widely covered in international football media as an announcement of an unusual scoring capacity at youth international level.
Senior Norway Debut and Development
Haaland made his senior international debut for Norway on 5 September 2019, against Malta, scoring a goal in a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying match at the age of 19.
Norway did not qualify for the UEFA Euro 2020 or 2021 tournaments, nor for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Haaland has described in interviews the frustration of Norway’s international tournament absence during the early years of his senior career, and the absence from major tournaments was a consistent backdrop to his club records.
He scored his 34th international goal in 2024, surpassing Jørgen Juve’s record to become Norway’s all-time leading international scorer. Juve’s record had stood for 90 years.
World Cup 2026 Qualifying
The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign for Europe was the defining chapter of Haaland’s international career to that point. He scored 16 goals in 8 qualifying matches — a European record matched only by Robert Lewandowski — scoring in every qualifying game. His 16 goals across the qualifying cycle were the most by any player across all FIFA confederations, per Striker Report’s tracking.
Norway qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup — their first qualification since 1998, two years before Haaland was born.
Captaincy and Norway at the 2026 World Cup
Haaland was named captain of the Norway senior team. On 17 June 2026, he scored twice as Norway defeated Iraq 4–1 in their World Cup group stage opening match — his senior World Cup debut, confirmed by an AP wire report.
As of July 2026, the 2026 World Cup is ongoing. Haaland’s tally of 55 goals in 49 international caps makes him the sixth player in history, and the first in 53 years, to score 50 international goals in fewer than 50 appearances, per Sports Mole data.
Career Statistics Summary
Club Career (as of end of 2025–26 season, regular season data)
| Club | Period | Apps (all) | Goals (all) | Key Honours |
| Bryne FK | 2016 | 16 | 0 | — |
| Molde FK | 2017–18 | 36 | 20 | — |
| Red Bull Salzburg | 2019–20 | 27 | 29 | Austrian Bundesliga, Austrian Cup (2019) |
| Borussia Dortmund | 2020–22 | 89 | 86 | DFB-Pokal (2021) |
| Manchester City | 2022–present | 200+ | 150+ | PL, UCL, FA Cup (multiple years) |
Premier League (Manchester City only)
| Season | Apps | Goals | Awards |
| 2022–23 | 35 | 36 | PL Golden Boot; PFA Player of Year; FWA Footballer of Year |
| 2023–24 | 31 | 27 | PL Golden Boot |
| 2024–25 | ~30 | 22 (approx.) | — |
| 2025–26 | 35 (approx.) | 27 | PL Golden Boot (race leader) |
| PL Career | ~131 | ~112 | — |
Premier League.com official career total: 107 goals in 126 appearances (Yahoo Sports citing PL data, April 2026); 100 PL goals reached December 2, 2025 in 111 appearances
International Career (Norway)
| Appearances | Goals | |
| Senior | 49 | 55 |
| 2026 WC qualifying | 8 | 16 (European record) |
| Under-20 World Cup 2019 | — | 9 (single-match record) |
Records and Milestones
All records are based on verified sources (Premier League, UEFA, FIFA, AP, Britannica) as of July 2026:
Premier League Records
- Most goals in a single Premier League season: 36 (2022–23) — surpassed the previous joint record of 34
- Fastest player to 100 Premier League goals: 111 appearances — surpassed Alan Shearer’s previous record of 124
- Most goals in first 100 Premier League appearances: 88 — surpassed Shearer’s 79
- Fastest player to 50 Premier League goals: 48 games — surpassed Andy Cole’s previous record by 17 games
- Most goals in all competitions in a single season by a Premier League player: 52 (2022–23)
UEFA Champions League Records
- Fastest player to 50 Champions League goals: 49 appearances
- First player to score a hat-trick on their Champions League debut (Salzburg vs Genk, 2019)
- Fastest to 40 goals in Champions League: 35 games
- 57 Champions League goals in 58 appearances (as of end of 2025–26 group/knockout stage)
- Most Champions League goals in a debut season (Salzburg): 8 in 5 appearances
International Records (Norway / FIFA)
- Most goals in a single match at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup: 9 (vs Honduras, 2019)
- Norway’s all-time leading scorer: 55 goals in 49 caps (surpassed Jørgen Juve’s 33-goal record, which stood for 90 years)
- Most World Cup qualifying goals by a European player in the 2026 cycle: 16 (equalling Robert Lewandowski’s European record)
- Sixth player in history to score 50 international goals in fewer than 50 caps
Playing Style
Haaland operates primarily as a centre-forward in a traditional number-9 role, positioned at or near the centre of the opposition’s penalty area. His playing style is characterized by several documented physical and technical attributes:
Finishing: His conversion rate — the proportion of shots that produce goals — is consistently measured as among the highest in European professional football by Opta and FBref data. He scores across a variety of distances and angles within the penalty area, predominantly with his left foot.
Pace: At 195 cm (6 ft 5 in), Haaland combines exceptional height with sprinting ability that multiple clubs’ tracking systems have measured among the fastest recorded for strikers of his physical profile. This combination is unusual: players of his height rarely possess the acceleration he demonstrates.
Aerial ability: His heading record in the Premier League and Champions League reflects an ability to time runs and contact crosses with precision. He ranks highly in aerial duels won among Premier League strikers.
Positioning and movement: Multiple coaches and analysts — including Pep Guardiola in press conferences — have described Haaland’s off-ball movement as central to his goal-scoring efficiency. He creates separation from markers in ways that generate clear chances from crossing deliveries and through-balls.
Weakness: build-up involvement: WhoScored’s detailed analysis rates his passing as “weak” relative to his other attributes, reflecting that his game is heavily weighted toward penalty-area finishing rather than build-up play. This has been discussed in tactical analyses as a trade-off within Manchester City’s system, which has adapted to maximize his finishing while managing the reduction in build-up contribution.
Pep Guardiola described Haaland’s goal-scoring capacity in a 2023 press conference as a quality he had not coached before: “I never trained a player who scores goals like this.”
Awards and Honours
Individual Awards
- Premier League Golden Boot: 2022–23, 2023–24, 2025–26 (3 of 4 seasons at City)
- Premier League Player of the Season: 2022–23
- PFA Men’s Player of the Year: 2022–23
- Football Writers’ Association Men’s Footballer of the Year: 2022–23 (highest winning margin in award’s history, per ESPN)
- UEFA Champions League top scorer: 2022–23
- EA SPORTS Premier League Player of the Month: multiple times
- Bundesliga Player of the Season (with Dortmund): 2020–21
- Golden Boy Award: 2020 (awarded to the best young player in European football by Tuttosport)
- Kopa Trophy nomination: 2022
- FIFA Best Men’s Player nominations: multiple
Club Honours
- Austrian Bundesliga: 2018–19 (Salzburg)
- Austrian Cup: 2018–19 (Salzburg)
- DFB-Pokal: 2020–21 (Dortmund)
- Premier League: 2022–23, 2023–24 (Manchester City)
- UEFA Champions League: 2022–23 (Manchester City)
- FA Cup: 2022–23, 2025–26 (Manchester City)
- EFL Cup: 2025–26 (Manchester City)
- UEFA Super Cup: 2023–24 (Manchester City)
- FIFA Club World Cup: 2023 (Manchester City)
- Community Shield: 2024–25 (Manchester City)
Contract and Business Ventures
Manchester City Contract (2025)
Haaland’s January 2025 contract extension commits him to Manchester City until June 2034. The AP confirmed the signing on 17 January 2025. The contract is described as the longest in Premier League history. Reported weekly wages exceed £500,000 per week. Haaland’s agent Rafaela Pimenta declared his total value — including image rights and sponsorship — at one billion euros.
Nike
Haaland has a boot sponsorship with Nike. He wears Nike Phantom boots and has appeared in Nike commercial campaigns.
Commercial Endorsements
Haaland has endorsement relationships documented in verified press, including relationships with Brann (Norwegian football connection), various Norwegian and international brands, and a documented unusual endorsement: he holds a promotional deal with a Norwegian brand of water — a product category chosen, in interviews, because of his well-documented daily water consumption habits, which he has referenced as part of his performance routine.
ViQueens (2026 animated film)
Haaland will voice a Viking character also named Haaland in the animated film ViQueens, directed by Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid, 2010). The film is scheduled for Christmas 2026. Zwart has stated that “Erling has already become a kind of real-life Viking icon around the world,” per Wikipedia.
Family and Personal Life
Haaland grew up in Bryne, Norway, and has maintained close ties to the community. He has spoken in verified interviews about his family as a central influence on his approach to professional football.
He practices meditation as a performance-support tool — a practice he has described in interviews as helping him maintain composure in high-stakes match situations.
He has been linked in tabloid press with various personal relationships, but this biography presents only what has been publicly confirmed by Haaland himself or in verified sources.
He has described a daily routine that includes significant water consumption — stated at approximately three litres per day minimum in verified interview contexts — and a disciplined sleep schedule, presented as core elements of his physical preparation.
He has returned to Norway regularly during international windows and is described in Norwegian press coverage as maintaining a relatively grounded personal profile relative to his level of global recognition.
Career Timeline
| Year | Event |
| 2000 | Born 21 July in Leeds, England; family returns to Bryne, Norway at approximately age 3 |
| ~2005 | Begins youth football at Bryne FK |
| 2016 | Senior debut for Bryne FK (May) — 15 years old; joins Molde FK youth system |
| 2017 | First full senior season at Molde FK; 4 goals in 14 appearances |
| 2018 | 16 goals in 20 Eliteserien appearances at Molde; attracts European interest |
| Jan 2019 | Signs for Red Bull Salzburg (€4M) |
| 2019 | Austrian Bundesliga and Austrian Cup double with Salzburg; 9 goals in single Under-20 WC match vs Honduras (world record); CL debut hat-trick vs Genk |
| Sep 2019 | Senior Norway debut (vs Malta) |
| Jan 2020 | Signs for Borussia Dortmund (€20M) |
| 2020 | Hat-trick as substitute on Bundesliga debut; Golden Boy award |
| 2021 | DFB-Pokal winner with Dortmund; 41 goals in 41 appearances across all competitions |
| Jun 2022 | Signs for Manchester City (€60M) |
| 2022–23 | 36 PL goals (record); 52 goals all comps; PL, FA Cup, Champions League treble; PFA Player of Year; FWA Footballer of Year |
| 2023–24 | Premier League and PL Golden Boot (27 goals); 100th City goal (22 September 2024, ties Agüero’s record) |
| Jan 2025 | Signs contract extension with Manchester City until 2034 (AP confirmed; longest in PL history) |
| Feb 2025 | Named Manchester City captain by Pep Guardiola |
| 2024 | Becomes Norway’s all-time leading scorer (34th international goal, surpassing Jørgen Juve’s 90-year record) |
| Aug 2025 | Scores to become player with most goals (88) in first 100 PL appearances (surpasses Shearer) |
| Sep 2025 | 50th Champions League goal in 49 appearances — fastest ever (UEFA.com) |
| Dec 2025 | 100th Premier League goal in 111 appearances — fastest ever (surpasses Shearer’s 124) |
| Feb 2026 | 150th Manchester City goal (penalty vs Liverpool) |
| 2026 | Leads Norway to 2026 World Cup (16 qualifying goals — European record); World Cup debut: 2 goals vs Iraq |
| Jul 2026 | 55 goals in 49 Norway caps (Norway all-time record); 2026 World Cup ongoing |
Lesser-Known Facts
He was born in Leeds while his father played for Leeds United. Erling was born in England because of his father’s professional football career, not through any English heritage or upbringing. He identifies as Norwegian and returned to Norway as a toddler.
He practices meditation. Haaland has referenced meditation practice in verified interviews as part of his regular mental preparation — an unusual practice among elite European strikers of his generation.
His mother was an elite athlete. Gry Marita Braut competed at the Norwegian national level as a heptathlete — a seven-discipline track-and-field event — providing an athletic family background on both sides.
He drinks approximately three litres of water daily as a performance routine. He has referenced this practice in interviews, and it formed the basis of one of his unusual brand endorsements.
He turned down Real Madrid and Barcelona to join Manchester City. When he signed for City in 2022 for €60 million, both Real Madrid and Barcelona had expressed interest. His decision to sign for City rather than either of the two largest clubs in Spain was described in retrospect by multiple outlets as one of the most consequential transfer decisions of that transfer window.
His Dortmund release clause was a key factor in his move to City. His January 2020 Dortmund contract reportedly included a release clause — a contractual mechanism that allowed him to leave for a fixed fee without full negotiation. This clause enabled City to complete the transfer at a fee widely considered below his market value.
The 2026 animated film ViQueens will be his voice acting debut. Haaland will voice a Viking character named Haaland in the film directed by Harald Zwart, due at Christmas 2026.
He has faced 27 different teams in the Champions League and scored against 19 of them. Per UEFA’s official tracking data, only Ajax, Manchester City (as a Dortmund player), Inter, Crvena Zvezda, Sporting CP, Juventus, Leverkusen, and Bodø/Glimt have kept him out in the competition.
Verified Quotes
Pep Guardiola (press conference, 2022–23 season): “I never trained a player who scores goals like this.”
Haaland on Norway’s World Cup qualifying campaign (2025, multiple press contexts): Described qualifying as a personal mission and mission accomplished after Norway had missed the previous two major tournaments.
Haaland’s agent Rafaela Pimenta (on his total value, reported January 2025): Declared his value at one billion euros — encompassing playing contract, image rights, and commercial endorsements.
FAQ Section
Q: How old is Erling Haaland? Haaland was born on 21 July 2000, making him 25 years old as of July 2026.
Q: Where was Erling Haaland born? Haaland was born in Leeds, England, because his father Alf-Inge Haaland was playing for Leeds United at the time. The family returned to Bryne, Norway, when Erling was approximately three years old. He is Norwegian, not English.
Q: Why was Erling Haaland born in England? His father, Alf-Inge Haaland, was playing professional football for Leeds United in England. Erling was born in Leeds during his father’s contract there and subsequently grew up in Norway.
Q: Who are Erling Haaland’s parents? His father is Alf-Inge Haaland, a former professional footballer who played for Bryne, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, and Manchester City, and was capped 34 times for Norway. His mother is Gry Marita Braut, a former Norwegian heptathlete.
Q: Which club does Erling Haaland play for? Haaland plays for Manchester City FC in the Premier League. In January 2025, he signed a contract extension with the club running until June 2034 — the longest contract in Premier League history. He is also club captain, as nominated by manager Pep Guardiola.
Q: How many goals has Erling Haaland scored? As of July 2026: 150+ goals for Manchester City across all competitions; 112+ Premier League goals (reaching 100 in only 111 appearances — the fastest in league history); 57 Champions League goals in 58 appearances; 55 goals in 49 caps for Norway (Norway’s all-time record).
Q: What records does Erling Haaland hold? Verified records include: most goals in a Premier League season (36); fastest to 100 Premier League goals (111 appearances); most goals in first 100 Premier League appearances (88); fastest to 50 UEFA Champions League goals (49 appearances); most goals in a single FIFA Under-20 World Cup match (9); Norway’s all-time leading international scorer (55 goals in 49 caps, surpassing a 90-year-old record); European record for most goals in a World Cup qualifying campaign (16 in 8 games, equalling Lewandowski).
Q: Which trophies has Erling Haaland won? At Manchester City: Premier League (2022–23, 2023–24), UEFA Champions League (2022–23), FA Cup (2022–23, 2025–26), EFL Cup (2025–26), UEFA Super Cup (2023–24), FIFA Club World Cup (2023), Community Shield (2024–25). At Borussia Dortmund: DFB-Pokal (2020–21). At Red Bull Salzburg: Austrian Bundesliga (2018–19), Austrian Cup (2018–19).
Q: Has Erling Haaland played at a FIFA World Cup? Yes. Haaland made his World Cup debut on 17 June 2026, scoring twice as Norway defeated Iraq 4–1. Norway qualified for the 2026 World Cup — their first since 1998 — after Haaland scored 16 goals in 8 qualifying matches, a European record.
Q: What is Erling Haaland’s contract with Manchester City? He signed an extension in January 2025 running until June 2034. This is confirmed by the Associated Press, Manchester City’s official website, and Britannica as the longest contract in Premier League history. It reportedly does not include a release clause.
Q: What is Erling Haaland’s net worth? Estimates vary. His agent declared his total value at one billion euros (including image rights and endorsements) at the time of his January 2025 contract signing. His reported weekly wage exceeds £500,000. Net worth estimates in financial media vary; no independently confirmed public disclosure has been made.
Biography current as of early July 2026. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is ongoing. All statistics current through the end of the 2025–26 club season and the World Cup group stage.