Erling Haaland’s man bun may have been kicked to left field, but his former hairstyle will never be forgotten.
According to People, the 2026 World Cup brought with it buzz around the 26-year-old Norwegian soccer player’s long blonde hair and the conversation grew even louder when he decided to shockingly snip it off this past August.
In an October 8 interview published by WSJ. Magazine, the athlete reacted to the popularity of his hairstyles as well as why the look was an “act of rebellion,” as put by the outlet.
As per WSJ, Haaland’s father Alf-Inge Haaland, a former soccer player who competed for Norway in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, felt less than happy when he saw “strikers with a man bun,” which actually “pissed” him off when he was younger.
When Haaland, a striker himself, decided to grow out his locks, his father told him he had to “perform,” which he ultimately ended up doing with a hat trick.
Haaland kept his hair long for years, without his dad’s dismay, but it only recently became a viral discussion. “Literally everything of me went viral” — including his newly shaven head.
“Let’s just surprise everyone,” Haaland told the publication after debuting his near-bald look. “I expected it to go viral. But I didn’t think the whole world would be talking about my haircut for four or five days.” Before taking the scissors to his tresses, he teased cutting it and growing “it all out again,” adding, “We’ll see what the future brings.”
In July, Haaland returned to his home country Norway after the team lost to England in the World Cup quarterfinals. His homecoming wasn’t sad, but hilarious enough to spark another internet-grabbing moment that had to do with something other than his hair.
That month, he was photographed with a taxidermied raccoon holding a whiskey bottle. The $750 souvenir joined the “two stuffed squirrels” Haaland had also bought in Dallas, per WSJ, to whom Haaland spoke about his accumulation of miscellaneous belongings, including his many Hermès Birkin bags.
