Erling Haaland was once a “little guy” with a buzz cut who couldn’t score for the first team of his hometown club in Norway. Manchester City’s 6ft 4in striker is now football’s most lethal predator, smashing the Premier League goal-scoring record with seven games to spare. With his long blonde hair lapping his shoulders, he scored against Arsenal on Wednesday, giving him 33 Premier League goals.
In total, he has 49 goals in his debut season in England so far. Erling Haaland has taken the Premier League by storm, after there were doubts whether Haaland would adjust quickly to life in England. But few expected him to score as many goals as he has, with the striker enjoying the best season of his life, or maybe just the start of it.
However, it’s the 22-year-old’s extreme diet, which has helped him become one of the world’s most lethal finishers. Even those who aren’t his fans can appreciate the effort put into his transition from lanky youngster to Viking marauder. Erling Haaland maintains a strict diet plan, which he had touched on in a documentary titled ‘Haaland: The Big Decision’.
Here’s how the ‘little guy’ from Norway turned himself into a goal-scoring machine.
For Erling Haaland, Calories the key
Erling Haaland consumes approximately 6000 calories every day to keep his physique in peak shape as he prepares to set more records in the near future. It’s difficult to believe now, but Erling was a little, slender infant. He has worked hard over the years to bulk up his 6ft 4in body.
To maintain a 6,000-calorie-a-day diet, he eats his father’s homemade lasagne before every home game, wolfs down cow’s heart and liver, and drinks milk mixed with kale, which he refers to as “my magic potion”. Erling also pays for his own chef, who prepares a lunch inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo, consisting of boiled fish and veggies.
Growth spurts hampered the young player’s development, resulting in injuries. To avoid them, he installed a £50,000 walk-in cryotherapy chamber in his Cheshire home and regularly takes ice baths. He spends hours every day in the gym working on his six-pack, giving him the moniker The Terminator.
A not so social, low-profile life
Erling Haaland is not the same as City’s most expensive signing, £100 million England forward Jack Grealish. While Jack is frequently spotted out and about with his friends and girlfriend, he keeps a low profile with his 19-year-old girlfriend Isabel Haugseng Johansen.
He met Isabel, who was also a member of the Bryne FK team’s football academy, during a vacation back home to Scandinavia about two years ago. Erling is not one to party or brag about his accomplishments, preferring to speak his mind on the pitch. Ex-coach Alf Ingve Berntsen had explained:
“In our part of the country we used to have a lot of farmers. People had to work very hard and not speak too much. So it’s in our genetics. It’s better to do the work than to talk a lot. So Erling is a typical person from our region.”
Friends in Norway have supposedly seen less of their golden kid since he moved to Manchester last summer. Bryne player Robert Undheim says:
“We see little of him. I think he has cut out a lot of people he knows and is halfway friends with. But he has a very good team around him that is easy to relate to. That makes a lot of sense, I think.”
Made to Self-Belief
Even though Erling Haaland was exceptionally quick and skilled, no one in his hometown expected him to become a superstar – save the player himself. His classmate Robert Undheim, who was replaced when Erling, then 15, made his Bryne football club debut in 2016, revealed:
“In high school he said he was going to be the best in the world in football. People made fun of him. But he meant it. One hundred per cent.”
His former coach Alfe Ingve Berntsen said:
“Erling was the best when he was a little guy, but we didn’t think when I began to coach him when he was seven that he would become top scorer in the Champions League.”
Erling never scored in Bryne’s 16 first-team games. When he was manager of Molde in Norway, Manchester United icon Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took notice of his pace. He recognised his ability and signed him as a 16-year-old, teaching him how to head the ball. In 2019, he joined Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg. He went to Borussia Dortmund in Germany a year later before joining Manchester City last summer.
Footballing Heritage
Erling isn’t the only top-tier player to come out of the Haaland family. He was born in West Yorkshire while his father, Alfie, was playing for Leeds United in the English Premier League. Erling was born with athleticism and mental toughness.
Alfie was brave enough to go head-to-head with Manchester United’s Roy Keane, and his mother, Gry Marita Braut, was a Norwegian heptathlon champion. Erling moved to Bryne, Norway, when he was three years old, where generations of the Haaland family have lived. It is a farming village, and Erling has been known to assist his maternal great-uncle, former Norway international Gabriel Hoyland, with his pigs and potatoes during the summer.
He visits his older brother Astor and sister Gabrielle on a regular basis, and his father has assisted him in managing his career. Erling’s constant ambition to succeed stemmed from a desire to outperform his footballer father, who also played for Manchester City.
Dedicated to the natural sleep
Erling Haaland is committed to the growing trend of adhering to the body’s natural sleep routine, known as the circadian cycle. He had revealed:
“The first thing I do in the morning is to get some sunlight in my eyes – it is good for circadian rhythm. I have also started to filtrate my water a bit. I think it can have great benefits for my body.”
Erling won’t touch his phone or any other electronic gadget for two hours before bedtime, and at night he wears special specs that filter out blue light from digital screens. He said:
“I see this as key to improving performance by even just a few percentages. It’s a matter of mentality.”