Erling Haaland: The Most Viral Footballer of the World Cup
Erling Haaland is chasing the Golden Boot in this World Cup, but he has already won a different race. Long before the final whistle on the pitch, he became the tournament’s most viral footballer.
The Manchester City striker arrived with a built‑in fanbase: a nation behind him in Norway, a worshipping blue half of Manchester, and a soft spot in Leeds, the city of his birth and the club he grew up supporting while his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, played there.
Now the rest of the planet has caught up. Norway’s run to the quarter-finals has turned Haaland from pure goalscorer into global content machine.
The algorithm’s favourite No 9
In the first week of July, “Haaland” smashed into the UK’s overall top 10 TikTok searches, with interest surging more than 300% week on week. During that spell, no World Cup player drew more searches on the platform.
Fans didn’t just want goals. They wanted clips. Searches for “Haaland best moments” exploded by 1,300% in the same period. Since the tournament began, more than 14,000 posts using #Haaland and #ErlingHaaland have appeared, an increase of almost 500% month on month.
The numbers are eye-watering. Across platforms there are 1.4 million posts about him. Yet even this avalanche still trails the sport’s twin giants: #Messi sits on 25 million posts, #Ronaldo on 22.3 million. Haaland is not at that altitude yet. But he’s climbing.
From Santa suit to “raw dogging” flights
This didn’t come out of nowhere. Haaland has been building his digital persona long before this World Cup.
Last Christmas he dressed up as Santa Claus in Manchester for a YouTube video, handing out presents to children. The idea was simple, the effect huge. Clips flew around social media.
His Instagram stories have become appointment viewing. One post, where he joked about “raw dogging” a flight – no food, no water, no entertainment – ricocheted across timelines. It showed a superstar comfortable with the absurd, not just the spectacular.
During the World Cup, that presence has gone into overdrive. Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat – he is everywhere. His Snapchat account alone has 4.7 million subscribers, a direct line to a young audience that often knows his memes before his movement in the box.
He doesn’t just let the content wash over him either. Haaland leans into it. When an Instagram user posted a picture of a green onion and asked: “Am I losing it or does this green onion look like Haaland?”, he responded with a meme of a dog winding up a car window – the digital equivalent of hiding behind the seat.
The fastest-growing superstar on Instagram
The World Cup has supercharged his following. On Instagram, Haaland has jumped from 40 million to 60 million followers during the tournament, the fastest growth of any major player. His Reels have been viewed more than 683 million times since the opening game.
He feeds that appetite with a blend of surreal humour and self-awareness. There’s the mocked-up selfie with Shrek, captioned “Selfie with my twin”. There’s Haaland disguised as a tourist in New York, head down under a baseball cap and sunglasses. There he is again, swapping his now-iconic Viking helmet for a cowboy hat while shopping in Texas.
Even Google has joined the show. Type his name into the search bar and rowers in Viking helmets glide across the screen in a playful animation. It is a digital nod to the mythology that now surrounds him.
Viral for kindness as well as chaos
The clips that travel fastest are not always about jokes. Some of the most shared videos show Haaland’s behaviour away from the limelight.
One widely viewed moment captures him carefully folding his jersey and handing it to a kit man, while teammates toss theirs on the floor. It is a small act, but the internet loves these glimpses of respect and humility.
His friendship with former Borussia Dortmund teammate Jude Bellingham has become its own storyline. Their easy chemistry has delighted fans, with some comparing the pair to the rival hockey players from HBO’s Heated Rivalry as Norway prepare to face England on Saturday.
On TikTok, Bellingham is riding that wave. There are 1.3 million posts about the England midfielder, dwarfing the 277,600 attached to England captain Harry Kane. Haaland’s orbit pulls others into the spotlight.
An 18-year-old creator from the Netherlands posted a video about Haaland and Bellingham that has been shared more than 100,000 times. She admitted she “didn’t know Haaland before this World Cup”. Like many, she normally tunes in only when her own country plays. This time, her For You page made the decision for her.
“This year, it kinda took over my FYP, especially Haaland and his funny moments and his Snap stories,” she said. She is not alone. “I just like Erling Haaland’s vibe. I think his Snapchat posts are funny, and I like the bromance between Haaland and Bellingham.”
A lookalike and a new kind of icon
The Haaland effect has spilled into stranger corners of the internet.
Russian model Anastasia Kostromitina has gone viral after her mother posted a video of her mimicking Haaland’s poses. Viewers pointed out the resemblance: long blond hair, piercing blue eyes, tall frame. The comparisons flooded in.
“At first, when people compared me to him I was a little bit confused,” she said. That soon shifted. “Then I realised that being compared to such an amazing athlete is not offensive at all.” She describes him as humble and “a great athlete”. For a new generation, looking like Haaland is a compliment.
“We’ve seen this for years”
Back in Manchester, there is a sense that the world is simply catching up.
“He is a great asset for our club,” said Dante Friend from the 1894 fan group. Supporters feel a connection that goes beyond goals. “He’s very active on social media, he follows the fan accounts, he’s in touch with some of the main fans behind the scenes, so we really feel he’s one of us.”
Kevin Parker, general secretary of the Manchester City official supporters club, sees a player who stands apart.
“He’s an unbelievable footballer, right up there with the best strikers, goalscorers in the world, but I think City fans for quite some time have seen Erling as just a different sort of footballer,” Parker said. “I don’t mean in terms of his ability, I mean in terms of his personality.”
“He just seems a genuinely likable sort of guy,” he added. The World Cup stage has simply amplified what City fans have watched for three seasons. “Because of how big the World Cup stage is, other people around the world are getting the benefit of seeing what we’ve seen for three seasons.”
From his perspective, that can only be good news. “I think he gives football such a positive vibe. Even in this World Cup, there have been some negative vibes, particularly about Fifa and some of the decisions they’ve made, but everything that Erling does, it’s just positive, positive.”
Howard Cohen, chair of the Manchester City Disabled Supporters Association, remembers the early narrative around Haaland when he arrived in England.
“When he first came, there was a public image projected, certainly in some of the media, of him being quite quiet and reserved,” Cohen said. The reality has been very different. “He’s really come out of his shell very quickly. He was clearly never that sort of quiet, reserved figure in reality, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously.”
“I think that’s important for anybody in public life, but particularly for footballers,” he added. “That, I think, is what people love most with him, off the field at least, that he can have a laugh with everybody and enjoy himself.”
Cohen knows what that means for the sport. “He’s certainly picking up plenty of support around the world, and providing entertainment for people,” he said. “And that’s what football should be about, after all.”
The goals may yet decide whether Haaland leaves this World Cup with the Golden Boot. The feeds have already delivered their verdict. In an era where the game lives as much on screens as on grass, he has become the tournament’s defining presence – a Viking centre-forward who scores, jokes, posts and, above all, keeps people watching.
