Norway Are Rowing Home, But Erling Haaland is Absolutely Fine - Here's Proof

Erling Haaland is Clearly Over Norway’s Loss to England Already, if These Social Media Videos Are Anything to Go By

By all accounts, the Norwegian team was devastated in the immediate aftermath of their, ahem, not-so-agonising World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of England.

Orjan Nyland was crying after his error led to [Jude Bellingham’s](Jude Bellingham’s) winner; his teammates were all sat on their backsides that their magical World Cup campaign had been brought to an abrupt end, and in the middle of all of it, Erling Haaland stood there, smiling.

não superei a carinha do haaland escutando a torcida da Inglaterra cantando wonderwall com a seleção, isso que é copa do mundo. pic.twitter.com/kxns9a5nw4

— dylan⁷ do carrascal (@spursmengo) July 14, 2026

He grinned while regarding the intensely loyal Norway fans once the full-time whistle blew; he smiled while the England fans serenaded their heroic team with the newly adopted secondary national anthem of Oasis’ Wonderwall – the big Norwegian, who has caught the eye of the world throughout the tournament, was clearly savouring every last moment.

It was a fitting way for Haaland to sign off: never one to feel sorry for himself, the big Manchester City striker took everything in good grace, and having become something of a social media icon over the course of the tournament, his recent posts indicate that the voracious Viking has already moved onto bigger and better things.

Honorary American

First of all, context must be given. In reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament in North America, and knocking out five-time winners Brazil the round prior, Norway ensured that their 2026 campaign would be one to remember regardless of when or how they were eliminated.

However, the fact that Haaland would not dwell on his country’s exit for long only sank in when the Norwegian stepped off the plane holding a taxidermied raccoon drinking a bottle of whisky, a sentence absolutely no one would have predicted at the start of the tournament.

Haaland had actually posted pictures of the raccoon, alongside a similarly taxidermied squirrel with a can of crushed Budweiser, earlier in the tournament in a visit to Wild Bill’s Western Store in Dallas, Texas, labelling them both 'geezahs' and clearly fond of the unusual keepsakes.

Clearly, the defeat to England had affected him one way or another, and in a move of self-medication, Haaland purchased one of the weird and whacky souvenirs as a way of cheering himself up, not to mention they were the most Haaland purchases possible anyway.

Erling Haaland arrived back in Norway with an unusual souvenir from the World Cup... pic.twitter.com/n0e0YjN15t

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 13, 2026

Posting an image of himself and his new furry friends disembarking the plane on Instagram, Haaland’s caption was simple: “It followed me home.” We, along with anyone else watching the live stream of the Norway side arriving home, had to scratch our eyes to make sure we were seeing correctly – it was truly the most random sight we’d ever seen.

Others on social media were quick to say just as much, with some even going as far to call him an “honorary American” - high praise from a country which, for the most part, had no idea who he was a month and a half ago.

However, given that he had publicly shown the animals on Snapchat earlier in the tournament and was clearly quite taken with them, the surprise has worn off and has instead been replaced with acceptance – it's Erling Haaland’s world, and we’re just living in it.

Past vs Present

Just a day prior to the already iconic racoon picture, Haaland posted two images from a photoshoot with the ‘original Erling Haaland’, Zlatan Ibrahimovic – commentator extraordinaire, leader of the unfiltered, and one of the best strikers of all time, all while providing the template for Haaland to succeed.

You can imagine that when Haaland eventually retires – or if he is a high-functioning robot, after all – he will become excellent friends with Zlatan. After all, they boast virtually the same personality, a similar playstyle, and a similar aura, not to mention their two countries are direct neighbours.

Zlatan also drew plenty of media attention throughout the World Cup while working as a broadcaster on American TV channel Fox, mainly for his and Thierry Henry’s open dislike of fellow broadcaster and proud American Alexi Lalas.

my favorite thing at the world cup coverage is how much henry and zlatan openly hate alexi lalas pic.twitter.com/shZrC4vAG2

— n x d (@nxd1979) June 16, 2026

Lalas is the sort of guy who came up with the “Christian Pulisic is the LeBron James of soccer”, claim, and quickly his opinions began to grate on Zlatan’s nerves. His barely veiled retorts and open disagreement and dislike of his co-worker quickly went viral across social media and earned the Swede an army of unlikely fans.

It was only natural that one social media icon met up with another – though the pictures were clearly taken while Norway was still in the United States and still alive in the World Cup, there is no denying that the snaps have a virtually unlimited aura.

Of course, Haaland will feel more than a twinge of regret that Norway didn’t crash their way into the semi-finals – you could see the raw disappointment on his face when Alexander Sørloth didn’t square it to him in a glaring 2v1 opportunity to hand Norway a second-half lead, and it’s a scenario that will replay itself in the minds of both Norwegian giants for years to come.

This angle of Sørloth ignoring Haaland. The reaction from Haaland says it all man. He was frustrated and disappointed, just like the rest of us. pic.twitter.com/i1sf0SjAH7

— Geronimo Morgans (@GeronimoMorgans) July 12, 2026

However, being one of football’s most fascinating, unique and inherently interesting characters, it was never going to be long before Haaland started acting like his old self again, and his upbeat, chipper nature even in the wake of devastating defeat shows his mentality – he knows that elimination from the World Cup, at least for him, far from signals the end of the road.

On the contrary, at an international level, it is just the start…