Erling Haaland scored goals. Plenty of them. Yet at the 2026 World Cup his biggest impact came off the pitch. American influencers seized on his towering frame, slicked-back hair and deadpan humor. They turned the Norwegian striker into an internet obsession that crossed sports, beauty and meme culture.
The numbers tell part of the story. Haaland’s Instagram following jumped from 40 million to 60 million during the tournament. His Reels racked up more than 683 million views. On TikTok, searches for “Haaland” soared more than 300 percent week on week in the UK, landing in the platform’s overall top 10 and making him the most searched World Cup player in that period. Searches for “Haaland best moments” rose 1,300 percent. The Guardian tracked the surge.
But the real fuel came from creators who had never watched much soccer. They saw something marketable. Relatable. Shareable. A 6-foot-5 goal machine who posed with Shrek filters, wore cowboy hats in Texas and called Americans “hilarious.”
From Doppelgänger to Event Promoter
Emma Kate Willman, a hair content creator based in the U.S., posted videos recreating Haaland’s Dutch braids and signature bun. Fans flooded the comments. “You can’t fool us!! Great game today buddy!!” one wrote. Another demanded, “Someone check the family tree ASAP.”
Haaland himself noticed. He dropped a simple “Hi” on one of her posts. Willman’s account exploded. She gained thousands of followers. Comments reached the hundreds of thousands. “It’s been such an unexpected and fun moment,” she told Upworthy. She added that Haaland has “the best hair” she had ever seen and that she would love to style it for a match.
Willman didn’t stop at videos. She organized a Haaland look-alike contest in downtown Miami ahead of Norway’s quarterfinal against England. Crowds showed up. Euronews captured the scene. The event amplified the joke into a local spectacle. Euronews reported fans turning out in force.
Sarah Wilson, a 31-year-old baseball content creator in New York, went further. New to soccer, she declared her obsession in a viral clip. “I love Erling Haaland more than life itself,” she said. “I cannot fathom being such a pretty Norwegian princess and also being one of the best strikers in all of football.” The Fortune piece captured her swift conversion and the wave of similar testimonials.
These posts did more than entertain. They introduced Haaland to audiences who tune out traditional sports coverage. Baseball fans. Beauty enthusiasts. Meme scrollers. The algorithm did the rest.
And. The content kept coming. Haaland posed undercover as a tourist in New York, baseball cap pulled low, sunglasses on. He swapped his Viking helmet for a cowboy hat while shopping in Texas. He posted a mocked-up selfie with Shrek captioned “Selfie with my twin.” He filmed himself “raw dogging” a flight—no snacks, no screen, no water. Each clip fed the machine.
His bromance with England’s Jude Bellingham became its own cottage industry. TikTok users shipped them. They called it “heated Haalandry.” One Dutch creator, 18, told The Guardian she followed the tournament mostly for the vibes. “I just like Erling Haaland’s vibe… his Snapchat posts are funny, and I like the bromance between Haaland and Bellingham.”
Even after Norway fell to England in extra time, the attention refused to fade. Nearly 100,000 Norwegians lined the streets of Oslo to welcome the team home. Haaland stepped off the plane carrying an unusual souvenir—a taxidermy raccoon. Social media lit up again. Posts on X joked about the odd choice. One user asked if he really carried it all the way from the U.S. AP News described the moment as the perfect capstone to his meme-filled summer.
Haaland leaned in. He called the American embrace genuine. “I like the Americans… They are funny,” he said. That openness contrasted with the typical athlete caution around social media. It made him seem accessible. Approachable. The internet responded with affection usually reserved for pop stars or pets.
Fans began referring to him as “babygirl.” They added bows and hearts to his photos. They created parasocial bonds usually reserved for influencers, not elite athletes. One Manchester City supporter group leader told The Guardian that Haaland had shed an early image of being quiet and reserved. “He’s really come out of his shell… that’s what people love most with him, off the field.”
The virality spilled into measurable business value. Brands noticed the crossover appeal. Merchandise tied to his hairstyles and one-liners moved. Soccer viewership among casual American fans climbed. The England-Norway quarterfinal drew the largest TV audience ever for an English-language World Cup quarterfinal in the U.S., according to The Athletic.
Yet the phenomenon exposed something larger. Modern sports fame no longer rests solely on statistics. Personality, shareability and cultural timing matter as much as goals. Haaland scored. He also delivered content that required almost no soccer knowledge to enjoy. Short clips. Self-deprecation. Visual jokes that traveled well across platforms.
Other players have tried. Few matched the organic spread. His physical presence helped. The long blond hair. The imposing height. The contrast between on-field dominance and off-field goofiness created perfect meme fodder. Add in a tournament hosted on American soil with heavy U.S. media coverage and the conditions aligned.
Russian model Anastasia Kostromitina also drew comparisons and went viral for her resemblance. She called the attention “not bad at all” and praised Haaland’s humility. Even that side conversation kept his name trending.
By the time Norway exited, Haaland had claimed an unofficial title. Most viral player of the tournament. The Guardian called it early. Subsequent data confirmed it. His Snapchat account sits at 4.7 million subscribers. TikTok posts under his name and hashtags multiplied.
So what happens now? Haaland returns to club duty at Manchester City. The World Cup spotlight dims. But the American influencer ecosystem that amplified him remains. Creators who discovered soccer through him may stick around. Fans who bought jerseys because of a viral video might watch Premier League matches.
The raccoon, meanwhile, sits somewhere in Norway. A strange trophy from a summer when a striker became America’s favorite internet personality. One “Hi” comment. One look-alike contest. One princess declaration. They combined to create something bigger than the goals alone could have managed. Haaland didn’t just play in the World Cup. He starred in the one the internet watched.
How Erling Haaland Became America’s Unlikely Soccer Crush first appeared on Web and IT News.