Ask Erling Haaland to name the quintessential goal from his young but storied career and he will note his sublime finish for Manchester City in a 2022 Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund.
“I think if you put this up,” he tells Complex, “it’s a great goal.”
His answer speaks volumes. There’s the beautiful assist to Haaland from former teammate João Cancelo, a pass that Cancelo sends into the air using the inner part of his foot so that the ball curves majestically in Haaland’s general direction. There’s the well-founded respect for the brilliant connection. There’s Haaland streaking towards the goal and flying horizontally in the air to karate kick the ball with his near foot—his left foot —past the goalkeeper while his momentum takes him away from the target.
Then there’s the context: Haaland had just left Dortmund for Manchester City, so he didn’t celebrate scoring. He simply acknowledged the moment by respecting his former club, an organization that helped him grow, as viewers bore witness to the reality that by moving from Dortmund to City the prolific Norwegian had leveled up. (Manchester City won the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League that season, performing as the best club team in the world.)
Haaland has continued to routinely find the net in the seasons since that epic goal, winning several trophies and establishing himself as the Premier League’s preeminent finisher in the absence of Harry Kane, leading the league in goals since his arrival—currently at 107 in almost four seasons—with no Premier League player within 25 goals of him during that span.
Haaland is looking to parlay his consistent excellent form for his club to soccer’s biggest stage, the 2026 World Cup, where he will shift from leading the line for a squad considered by many to be England’s dominant arch villains—Manchester City captured four consecutive Premier League titles from 2021-24—to a relative underdog.
“It shouldn’t stop now with one World Cup in the U.S,” he said. “I want to build and start something special together with Norway.”
“We have lots of young players,” he said of the Norway squad. “I’m 25 so I’m still kind of young. I’m not young young, but I’m young, and we’re up-and-coming. We have lots of positive energy and we’re building something great, so I’m excited. I think lots of people are excited to see us, and they should be, because we are a good team. We should not be afraid of saying this: that we’re a good team.”
Norway (currently #31 in the world) has a difficult draw, with group stage games against France (#1), Senegal (#14), and Iraq (#57). It may be a bit of déjà vu, reminiscent of Norway’s difficult group in the ’94 World Cup that saw all four teams finish 1-1-1. Haaland’s father Alfie, who also played for Manchester City, suited up for that Norway squad in the United States, a family connection that the younger Haaland notes.
For Erling Haaland, the journey to becoming a consensus top-five player in the world—he has ranked fourth, first, third, and sixth from 2022-2025 according to an annual list of the 100 best players in the world published by The Guardian—was always about a hybrid of hard work and enjoying the process, advice he passes on to the younger generations.
“Find something that gives you joy,” he said. “For me, when I was young, it was putting the ball in the back of the net—scoring goals. That’s why I was a striker my whole life. And yeah, find something funny because if you do find something funny when playing football, you’ll want to do it more, which means you’ve gotta be training more, and become better and become really good at it.”
Younger players (and older ones, too) should note Haaland’s advanced soccer brain in action as he thinks ahead, scanning his surroundings at a rate far higher than most other strikers, which facilitates on-field maneuvers that showcase his smarts. This hybrid of out-thinking opponents and consistently paying exceptional attention to his surroundings is a remarkable quality in the age of the short attention span.
As much of the soccer universe scans the current Premier League standings and Manchester City nips at Arsenal’s heels en route to what may be a remarkable comeback—the two sides go head-to-head in a massive match on Sunday—Haaland acknowledges his loyalty to his club when imagining where he might be in five-to-ten years.
“Yeah, I will still see myself in City,” he said. “I have a long contract here, so definitely staying here in City. Hopefully, winning more trophies, scoring more goals, performing for the team.”
Haaland’s ridiculous run of form for his national team—16 goals in eight qualifying matches, including three in two big wins over Italy—has rendered him arguably soccer’s foremost closer when it comes to scoring international goals, or “the Mariano of the Marriott” in Jay-Z parlance. Related, Haaland has teamed up with Marriott to promote the upcoming tournament, highlighted by an opportunity for two fans to stay in the Sleepover Suite at Met Life Stadium the night before the World Cup final.
“Whoever gets this will for sure be having the time of their life, as this is not a normal thing,” Haaland said with a laugh.
Maybe the fans in the Sleepover Suite will wake up to watch Erling Haaland lead Norway, a country that hadn’t previously qualified for the World Cup in the striker’s lifetime, onto the field for the final in what would be a true Scandinavian surprise.
“It will be a lot of preparation and everything because it’s the biggest games of our lives,” he said of the World Cup. “And hopefully it will be more than three games. It will be difficult, but we’ll do everything we can to try and go through and stay in the U.S. for as long as possible because that would be really special. And I’ll do everything I can to be the sharpest version of myself.”
