Erling Haaland Now Backs England After ‘Good Friend’ Bellingham Ends Norway’s Run

Erling Haaland’s World Cup ended in Miami on Saturday, but the Norway captain wasted no time picking a new team to follow. Norway’s run to a first ever World Cup quarter-final finished with a 2-1 extra-time defeat to England, and Haaland immediately threw his support behind the side that beat him.

“Yes, why not. I have some City friends at England,” Haaland said. “Of course, I want them to do well. I got an England shirt before I got a Norway shirt when I was little.”

Born in Leeds, raised on English football

Haaland’s connection to England runs deeper than his club career at Manchester City. He was born in Leeds while his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, played for Leeds United, and several of his City team-mates, including Nico O’Reilly, John Stones and Marc Guehi, started for England in the quarter-final. Cameras caught the trio embracing Haaland before kick-off.

That relationship extended to the opposite side of the pitch as well. Jude Bellingham, the player who ended Norway’s tournament with a stoppage-time equaliser and an extra-time winner, spent two seasons alongside Haaland at Borussia Dortmund before both moved to bigger clubs. Bellingham left for Real Madrid in 2023, two years after Haaland’s move to Manchester City, and the pair have stayed close, crossing paths four times in the Champions League along the way.

‘He is incredible’

Haaland had nothing but praise for his former team-mate after England’s win. “Jude is a good friend. We had two great years at Dortmund,” he said. “We are good friends and he is such a nice guy. I am not surprised that he is scoring today and performing the way he is.”

He also pushed back on criticism Bellingham has faced this year. “The only thing is that he gets a bit too much criticism sometimes for not scoring enough goals. I think that is undeserved,” Haaland said. “He still scores goals and dribbles everyone on the pitch. He is incredible and England are lucky because everyone wants a player like that.”

‘The greatest goalscorer of all time’

The respect Haaland commands inside the England camp was clear even before Saturday’s game. Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, asked to choose between Haaland and Harry Kane ahead of the quarter-final, picked the England captain, but only just. “I’ve got to say Kane,” Carragher said. “I love Harry Kane. I think there’s a bit more to Harry Kane’s game than Erling Haaland.”

What followed was a lengthy tribute to Haaland’s scoring record. “I actually think Erling Haaland, when he finishes career, will be remembered as the greatest goalscorer of all time,” Carragher said. “He’s probably the greatest goalscorer right now we’ve seen in English football. I know Ronaldo is going for 1,000 goals in his career, I think Haaland will do that himself. He’s just an absolute goal machine. His record at international level blows Lionel Messi and Ronaldo’s apart after 50 or 60 games.”

The numbers back that up. It took Haaland 53 games to reach 60 international goals, a mark Messi needed 122 games to reach and Ronaldo 129. Kylian Mbappe needed 100. Haaland went into the Norway game with 62 goals in 54 matches for his country and 379 in total for club and country, having scored in each of his last 14 competitive games for Norway before Saturday.

Carragher also warned England not to take Norway lightly, pointing to their performance in the last-16 win over Brazil. “I think Norway will be a tougher proposition than maybe a lot of people think,” he said. “I watched them against Brazil and I thought they were fantastic. They totally deserved to win that game. They dominated Brazil possession-wise in that second half. They have some really good players, but it’s a game we can win.” Carragher’s prediction of a narrow England win proved accurate, though the margin only became clear after extra time.

Seven goals and a run that fell just short

Haaland leaves the tournament with seven goals to his name, one behind the eight scored by both Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi heading into the semi-finals. His goals carried Norway through the group stage and past Brazil in the last 16, results that took the country into a first ever World Cup quarter-final. Against England, though, he could not add to his tally in searing Florida heat that stretched both squads to their limits over 120 minutes.

Norway had chances of their own to settle the tie before extra time. Andreas Schjelderup’s 36th-minute strike gave them a first-half lead, and Norway also had a goal disallowed and protested that the ball had struck an overhead camera cable before Bellingham’s stoppage-time equaliser. Football’s governing body later said there was no evidence to support that. None of it changed the outcome, and Norway’s historic run ended in extra time.

Norway had never been this far in a World Cup before. Haaland’s goals took them past Ivory Coast in the round of 32 and then past five-time champions Brazil in the last 16, a result few gave them a chance of getting before the tournament began. Reaching the quarter-finals already put this Norway squad in territory no previous generation from the country had managed, and doing it with Haaland leading the line made the run one of the stories of the tournament.

Carragher had also flagged England’s task of containing Haaland physically before the game, pointing to two defenders who had enjoyed some joy against him previously. “I think some of the England centre-backs have had decent results against him. Dan Burn and Ezri Konsa,” Carragher said. “He’s got a few goals against Jordan Pickford, so maybe that doesn’t bode well. But it’s a difficult one with Haaland because he’s not in the game that often really. He’s absolutely devastating in the penalty box, and Gabriel, who’s been one of the best centre-backs in the Premier League in these last three or four seasons, Haaland has just absolutely bullied him in Norway’s game against Brazil. He just comes alive when that ball is in the box. His physicality, his height, even his pace when he’s running on to things as well is breathtaking. I’m not sure you can stop him physically really. He’s a man-mountain, he throws people about on the football pitch.”

Perspective in defeat

None of that dampened Haaland’s mood in the immediate aftermath. Rather than dwell on the manner of Norway’s exit, he turned his attention to the team he grew up supporting from a distance and the friend he wants to see go further in the tournament. It is a notable gesture from a player whose own international summer has just ended in heartbreak, choosing to spend his first interview afterwards praising the opponent who put him out.

The scenes in the tunnel before kick-off said plenty about how Haaland is regarded inside the England camp. Nico O’Reilly, John Stones and Marc Guehi all play alongside him for Manchester City, and the trio made a point of finding him before the two teams walked out. For a player who has spent this tournament trying to end Norway’s long wait for a first World Cup knockout run, taking time to embrace an opponent from his club side is a reminder of how club and country ties can cut across a fixture like this one.

The Golden Boot standings heading into the semi-finals now show Mbappe and Messi tied on eight goals apiece, with Haaland’s seven the next best return of the tournament ahead of Bellingham and Kane on six each. Haaland’s exit means he cannot add to that total, leaving the race to be settled among the four teams still standing in Atlanta and Texas this week. Whoever lifts the trophy on 19 July, the tournament will end without its most prolific individual scorer on the pitch for the closing rounds, a quiet footnote to a summer in which Haaland’s finishing so often decided matches on his own for a country that had never asked so much of one player at a World Cup before.

What is next for England

Bellingham’s brace put him level with Harry Kane on six goals for the tournament and sent England into a World Cup semi-final against Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday at 8pm UK time. The winner will face either France or Spain, who meet in Texas on Tuesday, in the final on 19 July.

Haaland will be watching that semi-final from home, but on the evidence of Saturday’s comments, not as a neutral. For a player whose Manchester City ties, boyhood shirt collection and close friendship with Bellingham all point the same way, cheering on the team that eliminated him is no small gesture. It says as much about where his footballing loyalties were formed as it does about the bond he built with Bellingham at Dortmund. Norway’s players, meanwhile, head home with a first ever World Cup quarter-final to show for their tournament and a talisman who, on the biggest stage available to him, chose grace over bitterness in defeat.