Every night, Erling Haaland reminds himself of what he wants to achieve in football. What it means to play the game. How he’s living his “dream”. How far he has come from his rustic, lovely village of Bryne on the southern beaches of Lake Froylandsvatnet, south of the Norwegian city of Stavanger.

 

His phone’s alarm serves as a reminder. Haaland wakes up every morning to a rendition of Champions League music. “I’ve had that for a few years now,” he replies, smiling. “You know, it’s a very good anthem!”

In fact, Haaland admits that playing in the Champions League became a “obsession” for him.

 

“For as long as I can remember, even when I was a really young kid, I was watching the Champions League,” he said. “There were fantastic teams with legendary players scoring goals. So that became my dream. My dream was to play and score in the Champions League. You know where the best players play, and that’s where they belong.

It is undoubtedly where Haaland belongs. It is where he, too, hopes to become a legend. Still only 20 (his 21st birthday is in July), he frequently jokes about how young he is. Few players have made such an impact and none so soon on the biggest platform in club football. Ever. His growth has been amazing, and opponents should be concerned as he continues to improve.

To put this into context, Haaland scored 20 goals in his first 14 Champions League appearances, including a hat-trick on his debut. That is more than what Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kylian Mbappé accomplished. Combined. It is the best start in the competition’s history, with one goal every 56 minutes. The next best is Harry Kane, who needed 10 more games to get 20 goals.

 

Few players are as well-known as the big, eye-catching 6ft 4in striker, who has an incredible goal-per-game record for his club. His season with Borussia Dortmund ended with 41 points from 41 games.

Is that the benchmark he has set for himself?

Haaland laughs. “I mean last season I scored 44 (in just 40 games) so maybe I am now a couple under! But around there is very nice.”

Little wonder he also agrees with his childhood coach from Bryne, Alf Ingve Berntsen, who described him as “fearless”.

“In terms of goals, yes,” Haaland says. “In terms of football then, maybe, yes also. It’s what I do and what I love. It’s the positive thing about me and football. When I play I try to enjoy what is a very beautiful game. I just really love the fact I am a professional footballer. And I am lucky that I have scored a few goals. Some of those moments you cannot describe. All I can say is whatever that feeling is I want more and more of it.”

Haaland was born in Leeds, but grew up in Norway where he fell in love with playing football CREDIT: REUTERS

The football obsession has been there for as long as Haaland remembers. It is in his blood. Born in England, in Leeds – “that’s where my sense of humour comes from,” he says – his father, Alf-Inge, played as a midfielder for Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Leeds United before returning to Norway when Erling was four.

“I remember playing football with my big brother (Astor) and even then I wanted to be a footballer,” Haaland recalls. He also has an older sister, Gabrielle, and their mother, Gry Marita Braut, was a Norwegian heptathlon champion. His parents’ sporting prowess helps explain his athleticism.

“I would carry a ball around me. I collected football cards, I played Fifa, I watched all the games I could, watched the goals again. I would go to school with my sticker album and trade the cards with my friends and get the players to complete the teams.

“Every weekend the first thing me and my friends did was go down to this football hall that we had in my hometown and play for free. I always knew they would be there. We would be there all day, chilling, hanging around, playing football. All day. It brings back some good memories just thinking about it. We would organise our own practice sessions. I was maybe 10 years old. I would jump on my bike and ride the five minutes down to the hall.”

Haaland smiles at the memory. He may, already, have come a long way but he is still, as he once said in a TV interview, “just a guy from Bryne”, with its population of only 12,000 near the North Sea and its simple farming economy.

“It’s true I said that,” Haaland explains. “It’s also what I think when I play football. I am still just the same guy who used to play in my hometown with my friends. When you watch me when I was younger I am still doing some of the same things now. It’s something I think about a lot – I am just a normal guy from Byrne.”

Except he is far from normal.

During this interview for Icon magazine, Haaland frequently expresses his desire to push himself, to grow, and to achieve the extra gains on and off the pitch that are required to be the best. There is even one line that he repeats. He does not want to be in a “comfort zone”. Ever.

“I have been taking a couple of steps over the past few years and I think they have been good steps for me, personally, to get out of my comfort zone and to develop even more,” Haaland says.

“I want to challenge myself in everything that I do. It’s something I think about. It’s also for everyone to always do this. People can sometimes be too comfortable staying in their ‘zone’ so I think it’s important to get out of that.”

Erling Haaland alongside Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during their time together at Molde

Those steps have also involved the careful development of his career which is managed by Mino Raiola, the agent who also represents one of Haaland’s idols, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Haaland started with lowly Bryne, where he made his debut at 15 before leaving his family a year later to go north and join one of Norway’s biggest clubs, Molde. There he worked under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Haaland is already the top-scoring Norwegian in the Champions League, beating Solskjaer’s record of 19 goals and achieving it in 63 fewer matches).

“To leave my parents, my family and friends was hard,” he admits. “But it was also important to for me to do that at that stage.”

Haaland thrived. In one memorable match he scored all four goals in the first 21 minutes to help beat the league leaders, Brann, 4-0. Everyone took notice.

It was to Red Bull Salzburg – another sensible step – that he moved on January 1 2019 and it was there, nine months later, that he made his Champions League debut against the Belgian club Genk.

“The week before, the day before, it was all I was thinking about – to walk out and make my debut in the Champions League with the music. It is a memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life,” Haaland says. He even played the anthem as he drove his car to the final training session.

It is a game that will be remembered by Salzburg and their fans alike. Haaland scored at exactly 101 seconds and raced nearly the whole length of the pitch in wild, exuberant celebration. By halftime, he had scored a hat-trick, becoming the first teenager to do so on his debut since Wayne Rooney in 2004, as Salzburg won 6-2.

By this point, the whole of Europe had caught on to the blond sensation who had found his stage, and the Austrian club knew they couldn’t keep him for long. The phones began ringing.

“After the first goal I was so tired because I ran around, going crazy! By the third goal I was not sure I was onside or not so I took it a bit more easy,” Haaland explains. “Then when I knew it was a goal, yeah…I cannot describe the feeling. I mean… I am motivated for every game, of course, I am. But, as I say, I have been thinking about the Champions League my whole life, wanting to play there. So maybe it gives me one per cent extra motivation when I go out on the pitch with the anthem.”

So how much would it mean to him to win it?

“That’s my big dream,” Haaland says with the broadest of smiles. “To win the Champions League one day. Hopefully I can lift that trophy and that really would be, well, amazing.”

Do not mistake Haaland’s confidence for arrogance. He is, for example, hugely respectful of his father’s playing career and dismisses any suggestion that he has already surpassed his achievements.

“He has played more national team games than me and has played more matches at a higher level. I still need to play a little bit more before I can say I’m better but hopefully, one day, I can,” he says while also praising his “supporting dad” who has helped him with “some tips and tricks” as to what it is like to be a footballer. “Sometimes he tells me stories about when he played. It’s good to have that experience in the family,” Haaland adds.

He did not stay in Salzburg long. The next wise move came in late December 2019, when Haaland decided to join Dortmund. Again, he made a well-thought-out decision that allowed him to further his profession. Dortmund, like Salzburg, has an excellent tradition of producing young players.

His influence has been so great that he scored another hat-trick within 23 minutes of his Dortmund debut, attracting even more attention. He is already a superstar, despite his tender age. How does he cope with it and the pressures of football?

One method is to meditate, and Haaland has even performed a ‘Zen’ goal celebration on the pitch in tribute.

“It started back in my Molde days, I learnt it from a friend,” he explains. “Sometimes I think it’s also important just to relax your head. You know, from everything from making sure that you sleep properly. But also to do a little bit different to make sure you are ready and perform in the best way you can. We are all different so it depends on how you want to do it. Some relax by watching TV and that’s fine. It’s very individual. But I like to meditate.”

It helps with his mental and physical state and his preparations. Haaland’s life is all about maximising performance. Whether that is training, eating or sleeping. He wears blue-light glasses to protect his eyes from screens and he turns the wifi off at 10pm every night when goes to bed for his nine hours sleep. His determination to be the best – “as a person as well as a footballer” – is incredible.

“I try to train as best I can and to deliver when I have to deliver and be prepared when I have to be prepared,” Haaland explains. “That is how I feel about it. It’s what I try to do. But it’s also important not to get too stressed – to enjoy the game and to have fun. That’s the most important thing. I always try to have fun.

“My career has already been going very fast but also at a speed that I like. It’s true that I am young but I am setting myself goals all the time and I will do everything I can to achieve them.”

Which raises one final question, how far is he from his peak?

“I am still only 20 years old!” Haaland says, again laughing. “So I think that says it all.”

Analysis: Right move appears more important than quick move

By Jason Burt

It is apparent that Haaland’s career is being carefully planned, which is why he is significantly more likely to depart Borussia Dortmund next year than this summer.

Nonetheless, the 20-year-old, along with Mbappé, is the most in-demand young talent in international football, and Chelsea is among the clubs vying for a deal this transfer window or, more likely, a year later, after completing two full seasons at Borussia Dortmund.

The Bundesliga club insists the Norway international striker is not for sale, and they would rather negotiate the exit of Jadon Sancho to Manchester United than risk losing Haaland in the same transfer window.

But Chelsea’s strategy, if they remain patient, has the potential to succeed, especially given their solid connection with Dortmund following the arrival of Christian Pulisic, for whom they finalised a deal in January 2019 before he arrived the following summer.

Chelsea will face stiff competition, but it looks that the agreement is more about making the right move – as Haaland has advanced from Molde to Red Bull Salzburg to Dortmund – than throwing money at it. Choosing Dortmund over Manchester United in January 2020 demonstrated a savvy step-by-step approach that is unlikely to change.

Haaland’s agent, Mino Raiola, and father, Alf-Inge, headed to Spain at the end of March to negotiate with Barcelona and Real Madrid, as well as every other major club in Europe.

The scenario is exacerbated by a purported release provision in Haaland’s contract, which would drastically reduce the cost of signing him if a deal is finalised next year. However, the clause remains unknown, and its existence is far from guaranteed.