Erling Haaland mania is taking over at the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Erling Haaland mania is taking over at the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Norway's star striker is charming fans who don't usually watch soccer with his skill and humour

Even if Norway loses its quarter-final World Cup match against England on Saturday, the team's star striker Erling Braut Haaland will exit the tournament having won the moment.

They're calling it Haaland mania.

The 25-year-old's popularity has surged over the course of the tournament, making him one of the most well-known people on Earth.

Google Trends reveal a 900 per cent increase in searches worldwide for Haaland's name when compared to the same time last year. (That figure skyrockets to more than 5,000 per cent when you factor in searches only originating in Canada.) Even Prime Minister Mark Carney has joked about recruiting Haaland for Team Canada.

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Haaland, who plays for the Premier League's Manchester City, is already a well-known and hugely successful soccer player, having won nine major trophies with the club, including the prestigious Champions League trophy.

But the World Cup offers a platform to reach people who don't typically follow the sport. There are 1.4 million posts on TikTok that include the hashtag "Haaland," and he's gained upwards of 12 million new followers on Instagram alone since the 2026 FIFA World Cup started.

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One of those new followers is Laura Duch, 25, who started following Haaland a week and a half ago. She told CBC News that she doesn't watch soccer outside of the World Cup, but that hasn't stopped her from joining the Haaland craze.

"He's a very likeable, charismatic and talented guy. He seems very fun and down-to-earth," she said, adding he's come up in conversations with her friends, family and even strangers.

"I think he's smitten a lot of people, including me."

Haaland has in part captured followers like Duch through his dry and goofy humour.

In one Instagram post from his time in Texas, where Norway defeated Cote D'Ivoire 2-1, the six-foot-five Norwegian dons a cowboy hat, boots and a shirt that reads, "Y'all Can Kiss My Dallas."

On Snapchat — where he's seemingly the most active — a treasure trove of witty selfies and deadpan captions keep surfacing.

In one selfie with a Shrek-themed filter, he wrote "selfie with my twin." In another, he's just drinking milk. And in yet another, the star footballer, known for his luscious blond locks, activated a filter that makes him look completely bald.

"Might go bald," he wrote in the caption.

Duch's favourite post is a picture of Haaland looking directly into the camera with the caption "well well well."

"It's so random. I love it," Duch said.

'A refreshing lack of toxic masculinity'

Zoë Glatt, a digital ethnographer currently based at the London School of Economics, pointed to a few of Haaland's traits that make him appealing to his new audience: "Undeniable talent on the pitch combined with an endearing goofiness, unusual physicality and a refreshing lack of toxic masculinity."

Glatt noted that Haaland's relationship with English footballer Jude Bellingham has also gone viral, with "commenters gleefully referencing Heated Rivalry."

"To me, this is a great example of the joys that can occur on social media platforms, when one fandom intersects with another in a way that is full of humour, levity and playfulness," Glatt said, noting that she, too, has become "enthralled" by Haaland.

Adoring memes paying tribute to Haaland abound online. Content creators are ranking his best posts, while some people have used AI to turn him into a "Norwegian techno viking" or to show him being startled by his own reflection.

There are also many videos of his team and their fans performing Norway's signature "viking row" to the beat of a drum after World Cup victories, and plenty of reels that stitch together clips of his most viral quotes. "I'm just really good at scoring goals," Haaland says in one.

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His ability to score goals has also inspired content that simply celebrate his technical skills.

At the time of publication, Haaland is just one goal behind Lionel Messi of Argentina and France's Kylian Mbappé in the competition for the Golden Boot — an award given to the player who scores the most goals in the tournament.

Messi and Mbappé are currently tied with eight goals apiece, while Haaland has scored seven. With all three still in the tournament, fans could be treated to a tight race for the Boot.

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Though the World Cup may be elevating Haaland to superstar status, his fans and teammates have praised him for nonetheless coming across as humble and appreciative in interviews.

"I didn't expect this at all," Haaland previously told reporters. "To be in the quarter-finals with Norway in the World ​Cup is quite surprising, even for me."

He's said playing in the tournament is a "huge honour" and a major career goal.

"To be able to be here and play on the biggest stage with my Norwegian friends against the best teams in the world, it's really special."

Anya Zoledziowski is a Peabody-winning multimedia journalist from Edmonton who's covered social and climate justice, Indigenous affairs, gender, politics and more, and has been recognized by several national and international awards. She’s currently pursuing her PhD in journalism studies.