Haaland
Erling Braut Haaland (né Håland [ˈhoːlɑn]; born 21 July 2000) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester City and the Norway national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is known for his athleticism, speed and finishing.[5]
Coming through the youth system, Haaland played at senior level for Bryne's reserve and senior teams. He moved to Molde in 2017 (also playing for their reserve team), with whom he spent two seasons. Haaland signed with Austrian Bundesliga side Red Bull Salzburg in January 2019, winning two league titles and one Austrian Cup. In December 2019, he moved to German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, where he won the DFB-Pokal in 2020–21.
Haaland won several individual awards and broke various records during his career. During the 2019–20 season with Salzburg, he became the first teenager to score in five consecutive UEFA Champions League matches. He was top scorer of the Champions League the following season. In 2020, Haaland won the Golden Boy award, while in 2021 he was named Bundesliga Player of the Season and was included in the FIFA FIFPro World11 in 2021.
Haaland has represented Norway at various youth levels. In the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, he won the tournament's Golden Boot, after scoring a record nine goals in a single match. He made his senior international debut in September 2019.
Early life
Haaland was born on 21 July 2000 in Leeds, England, as his father Alfie Haaland was playing for Leeds United in the Premier League at the time.[6] In 2004, at the age of three, he moved to Bryne, his parents' hometown in Norway.[7][8]
Along with playing football from an early age, Haaland partook in various other sports as a child, including handball, golf, and track and field.[9] He also reportedly achieved a world record in his age category for the standing long jump when he was five, with a recorded distance of 1.63 metres in 2006.[10]
Club career
Bryne
Haaland started in the academy of his hometown club Bryne at the age of five.[11][12] During the 2015–16 season, he played for Bryne's reserve team and impressed, scoring eighteen goals in fourteen matches.[13] In May 2016, Gaute Larsen was sacked as Bryne manager and youth coach Berntsen was promoted to caretaker boss. Having worked closely with Haaland in other youth teams, the interim manager handed the teenager his first start, three months before his sixteenth birthday.[14][12] His debut was a second-tier 1. divisjon match against Ranheim on 12 May 2016.[15]
After having initially being deployed as a winger, Berntsen put Haaland in his favoured central role as a striker after a few matches. Although he failed to score in his breakthrough season at Bryne, Haaland was offered a trial by German club 1899 Hoffenheim before eventually moving to Molde to play under Ole Gunnar Solskjær.[14] Haaland made sixteen total senior appearances for Bryne.[13]