Erling Haaland Norwegian Footballer Born 2000 in Leeds

Early life

Erling Braut Haaland was born on 21 July 2000 in Leeds, England, while his father, the Norwegian footballer Alf-Inge Haaland, was playing for Leeds United. His mother, Gry Marita Braut, was a heptathlete. In 2004, when he was three, the family moved to Bryne, his parents' hometown in Norway. As a child he took part in several sports besides football, including handball, golf and athletics. In 2019 he changed the spelling of his surname from Håland to Haaland.

Career

Haaland started in the youth system of Bryne and made his first senior start for the club in May 2016. In February 2017 he moved to Molde, where Ole Gunnar Solskjær was manager. He finished 2018 as the club's top scorer with 16 goals in 30 matches and received the Eliteserien Breakthrough of the Year award. In 2019 he joined Red Bull Salzburg, and with the club he won the Austrian Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup. On his Champions League debut, against Genk in September 2019, he scored a hat-trick in the first half.

Borussia Dortmund confirmed his signing on 29 December 2019. He came off the bench for his debut on 18 January 2020 and scored three times in 23 minutes against Augsburg. In May 2021 he scored twice in the DFB-Pokal final win over Leipzig, and he left Germany in 2022 after reaching 50 Bundesliga goals faster than any player before him.

Manchester City signed him in 2022 through a release clause of 60 million euros. His first season in England was one of the most productive in Premier League history: 36 league goals, a record for a single season, and 52 in all competitions. City won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League that year, and Haaland won the Premier League Golden Boot and the European Golden Shoe. He claimed a second league title and a second consecutive Golden Boot in 2023–24. In January 2025 he signed a new contract running to 2034.

For Norway, he scored nine goals in a 12–0 win over Honduras at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, a tournament record for one match, and won the competition's Golden Boot. He made his senior debut on 5 September 2019 against Malta. On 10 October 2024, with two goals against Slovenia, he took his tally to 34 and became the country's all-time leading scorer. He scored in each of Norway's eight qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the team's first appearance at the tournament since 1998.

Recognition

Haaland's record lists 13 awards. Among them are the Golden Boy in 2020, the Aftenposten Gold Medal and Kniksen's Honorary Award in the same year, and the Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year award in 2020 and again in 2025. In 2023 he received a BBC Sports Personality honour, the FWA Footballer of the Year award and the Gullballen. Other entries on the list are the DFB-Pokal, the European Golden Shoe, a FIFPRO recognition and the Onze d'Or. He also finished as runner-up for the Ballon d'Or in 2023 and received the Gerd Müller Trophy that year.

Personal life

He has one child. Haaland and his father are known for sharing an interest in Norwegian history; in December 2025 they bought a 1594 edition of Snorri Sturluson's chronicles at auction, and he later donated it to a library in his home municipality of Time.