Haaland’s hometown hails ‘little boy who grew into a huge Viking’ | Erling Haaland

S.Surrounded by red hats, No. 9 jerseys and Erling Haaland action toys in her fabric store in the small Norwegian town of Bryne, Olinda Haaland (who is not related but is proud to share the now world-famous name) said everyone in the striker’s hometown is a football fan these days.

“It was pure joy,” he said of his namesake’s rise to the top of world football. “We all love her so much and she does so much for Bryne.”

Haaland’s shop overlooks Bryne’s central square, where hundreds of people will gather on Saturday to watch the outdoor broadcast of Norway’s World Cup quarter-final match against England.

As he speaks, a steady stream of people arrive looking for Haaland shirts, finally deciding it’s time to commit. The retro jerseys of the 1998 World Cup, in which Norway last participated, sold out in two days. “Anything red will do now,” he said.

Although he was born in Leeds, where his father Alf-Inge Haaland played for Leeds United, it was Bryne, a small southern Norwegian farming town near Stavanger, where Haaland grew up and trained to become the footballer he is today.

The 1.95-metre (6ft 4in) Manchester City striker, who scored 62 goals in 54 international appearances, still makes regular appearances at his old favorite haunts in the city. He also donates football equipment to children here and organizes reading competitions. In the fall, a rare 16th-century Viking saga book purchased by Haaland will arrive at the local library.

Andreas Vollusund, the town’s mayor and Haaland’s former teacher, stopped by Olinda’s shop and said the 25-year-old had a big impact on the town.

“We are proud of the little boy who has grown into a huge Viking,” said Vollusund, who was wearing a Haaland shirt. “Now Bryne is the capital of Norway, not Oslo. When he talks about his hometown, you can see in his eyes that he loves his hometown, and that makes us really happy and proud of him.”

Vollusund, who taught Haaland when he was 10 and knew his father well, said that as a child, “he was funny, he liked to joke with others, he was very energetic, he loved sports, he loved football. When he was 10, he said that he would be a football player when he became an adult. He was very focused.”

Vollusund highlighted Bryne’s down-to-earth, hard-working farming culture and traits Haaland inherited from his parents (his mother was a national heptathlon champion) as two factors that contributed to his success.

“We have a culture of having fun and working hard with our children,” he said. “We come from a down-to-earth place in Norway. Farmers, we work hard… and he has good genes from his mother and father.”

Norway’s focus on recreational sports for young children has played an important role in nurturing the talents of world-class athletes in a variety of sports such as football, handball, athletics, chess, skiing and golf.

Meanwhile, one of Haaland’s few sporting weaknesses is chess, according to Kjell Madland, who runs Norway Chess based in nearby Sandnes, where Haaland has invested. “I don’t think he’s very good, but he likes to play,” he said.

On Saturday, the mayor will serve hot dogs to 3,000 children and families at a non-alcoholic game screening at Bryne football stadium. “We’re doing everything we can to make this a big, big event,” he said.

Vollusund said Haaland has had a tremendous impact on young people in the town. “Everyone respects him. He showed that you can come from a small town like Bryne and be the best player in the world. If you’re a young girl or boy, you can see that you can be a football player.”

Gabriel Høyland, Erling Haaland’s great-uncle, said he thought Saturday’s match, which he plans to watch from his home on a farm just outside Bryne, was “wide open” and added: “I can’t wait for the game to start and for it to go on from there.” He said Norway and Haaland’s World Cup journey had been “quite remarkable”. “We have never experienced such an atmosphere”

On Friday, 10-year-old Emilian and his seven-year-old brother Leander, who were on holiday with their family from Oslo, posed for a photo in front of the Haaland mural in the city centre. “We’re going to the stadium to see where it all started,” said their mother, Chantal Samsing. Their father, Christopher Gundersen, said: “This is bigger than football. The whole country is coming together. This has had a huge impact.”

Alf Ingve Berntsen, who started training Haaland when he was eight at the Bryne FK stadium up the road, said Haaland’s extraordinary passion and talent were evident from the very beginning. “He was quite similar to what he is now. He was funny, he was smiling, he scored a lot of goals. You could see him shining at that level. It’s fire, it’s passion.”

Berntsen says social media divides many Norwegians, but the World Cup has had the opposite effect. “This has brought a kind of unity. Not just in Bryne, but all over Norway. It’s amazing.”