SPARATUAL- SPORTS AND NATURE

FROM ZERO TO A STAR- THE RISE OF ERLING HALAND

The Norwegian striker has captured the headlines of the newspapers. He has also impressed many of the best footballers in the world. Many clubs are interested in him. Lets start his story.

Haland is the son of the Norwegian former Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Manchester City defender Alf-Inge Haland.He was born in Leeds and supports Leeds United. In February 2017, in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Haland stated that "The dream is to win the Premier League with Leeds." He moved to Bryne in Norway with his family at the age of three.

Bryne

Håland started in the academy of his hometown club Bryne. During the 2015–16 seasons, Håland played for the reserve team Bryne 2 where he impressed scoring 18 goals in 14 matches. His performances for the reserves led him to his senior debut, 15 years of age, Håland made his Bryne debut on 12 May 2016 in a 1. divisjon match against Ranheim. Whilst at Bryne, he also had an unsuccessful trial at German Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Håland played 16 matches for Bryne.

Molde

On 1 February 2017, Molde announced the signing of Håland. He made his debut on 26 April 2017 in the Norwegian Cup match against Volda TI. Håland scored his first goal for Molde in his debut in the 3–2 win against Volda. His league debut came on 4 June 2017 when he came on as a substitute in the 71st minute against Sarpsborg 08. He received a yellow card after 65 seconds on the pitch. Håland scored the winner in the 77th minute, a goal which was his first Eliteserien goal. Håland scored his second league goal of the season on 17 September, a match-winning goal against Viking in a 3–2 win. In the aftermath of the goal, he received criticism from teammate Björn Bergmann Sigurðarson for celebrating towards Viking supporters. Håland finished his first season at Molde with 4 goals in 20 appearances.

Red Bull Salzburg

Red Bull Salzburg

On 19 August 2018, Austrian Bundesliga club Red Bull Salzburg announced that Håland would join the club on 1 January 2019, signing a five-year contract. On 19 July 2019, Håland scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 7–1 Austrian Cup win against SC-ESV Parndorf, and followed it on 10 August with his first Austrian Bundesliga hat-trick in a 5–2 win against Wolfsberger AC. Håland scored his third hat-trick for Red Bull Salzburg on 14 September, in a 7–2 victory over TSV Hartberg, taking his seasonal record to eleven league goals in seven appearances, and three days later, he got another in his 2019–20 UEFA Champions League debut against Genk in a 6–2 victory, his fourth overall for the club.

Håland then went on to become only the second teenager in UEFA Champions League history to score in each of his first three appearances in the competition, after Karim Benzema, with a goal against Liverpool and two against Napoli. Thereby he also became the first player ever to score six goals in his first three matches in the Champions League. Later on, he scored a goal against Napoli to be the first teenager to score in four consecutive matches, and fourth player to achieve that feat, following Zé Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero and Diego Costa. On 27 November, he scored another goal against Genk, to reach five consecutive matches, and to join Alessandro Del Piero, Serhiy Rebrov, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski in doing so.

Borussia Dortmund

Håland completed his transfer to Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund a couple of days before the January 2020 winter transfer window for a fee reported to be in the region of €20 million, signing a four-and-a-half-year contract. He made his debut against Augsburg on 18 January 2020, coming on as a substitute in the 56th minute, and scoring a hat-trick within 23 minutes in a 5–3 win. He became the second player in Dortmund history to score three goals in their Bundesliga debut, after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. During his second appearance for Borussia Dortmund, played on 24 January against local rivals FC Köln, Håland came on once again as a substitute, in the 65th minute. He scored 12 minutes later, before scoring a second after 10 minutes, helping his team win 5–1. Håland became the first Bundesliga player to score five goals in his opening two matches, as well as the fastest player to reach that tally (56 minutes). On 18 February 2020, Håland scored both goals in a 2–1 home victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16. The Norwegian teenager has tallied 10 Champions League goals in just his first seven appearances in the 2019–20 campaign, eight goals for Red Bull Salzburg and two goals for Borussia Dortmund.

INTERNATIONAL CAREER

Although also eligible to play for England, Håland chose Norway, and has represented them at various age groups. With Norway U19, on 27 March 2018 he scored a hat-trick against Scotland in a 5–4 victory to help Norway secure their qualification to the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

On 22 July 2018, Håland scored for Norway U19 in a 1–1 draw against Italy in the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

On 30 May 2019, Håland scored nine goals in Norway U20's 12–0 win against Honduras U20 at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Lublin, Poland. This was Norway U20's biggest ever win and Honduras U20's heaviest ever defeat. This also set a new U-20 World Cup record for most goals scored by a single player in a match, and also the biggest win by any team in the history of the tournament. Despite the Norwegians being eliminated in the group stage, and Håland not scoring in any other matches in the tournament, he won its Golden Boot.

After the impressive performance in 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, a good run of form with Red Bull Salzburg and scoring six goals in the first four matches of the 2019–20 Austrian Bundesliga, on 28 August 2019 Håland was named by manager Lars Lagerbäck in the Norway senior team squad to face Malta and Sweden in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying matches, and made his debut on 5 September 2019 against Malta.

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