Surrounded by red hats, No 9 shirts and Erling Haaland action toys at her fabric shop in the small Norwegian town of Bryne, Olinda Haaland – no relation but proud to share the now world-famous name – said everybody in the striker’s home town was a football fan these days. “It’s been pure joy,” she said of her namesake’s rise to the top of world football. “We all love him so much and he’s doing so much for Bryne.”
Haaland’s shop faces on to Bryne’s central square, where hundreds of people will gather on Saturday to watch an outdoor broadcast of Norway’s World Cup quarter-final match against England. The retro World Cup shirts from 1998, the last time Norway qualified, sold out in two days. Now anything red will do, she said.
“Bryne celebrates Haaland as Norway face England in World Cup quarter-final; England unfazed by his mind games.”
Andreas Vollusund, the town’s mayor and Haaland’s former schoolteacher, said the 25-year-old had had a huge impact on the town. “We are proud of the little boy who has grown into a huge Viking,” said Vollusund, who – naturally – was wearing a Haaland shirt. “Now Bryne is the capital of Norway, not Oslo. When he’s speaking about his home town, you can see in his eyes he loves his homeplace and that makes us really happy and proud of him.”
Although born in Leeds, where his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, played for Leeds United, it is Bryne, a small southern Norwegian farming town near Stavanger, where the Manchester City striker grew up and trained. The 6ft 4in (1.95 metre) striker, who has scored 62 goals in 54 senior international matches, still pops up regularly at his old favourite haunts around the town. He also donates football equipment to children here and organises reading competitions. In the autumn, a rare 16th-century book of Viking sagas bought by Haaland will arrive in the local library.
Vollusund, who taught Haaland when he was 10 and knows his father well, recalled: “He was funny, he loved joking with others, lots of energy, loved sports, loved football. When he was 10-years-old he said he was going to be a footballer when he was an adult. He was very focused.”
On the eve of the quarter-final, England have hit back at Haaland’s mind games, with the Three Lions unfazed by the superstar striker’s antics before the huge contest. The match will be the ultimate test of whether a boy from a small farming town can take down a giant of world football – or whether England can stop the Viking.