Erling Haaland has exploded in the US and the major TV networks have clamoured to get the Norway and Manchester City striker on their late-night talk shows.

Millions tune in every night to watch the likes of Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel joking around with everyone from A-list film stars and pop singers to the biggest names in sport – and they have all been desperate for a piece of Haaland.

Advertisement

Norway’s World Cup schedule has precluded that possibility to date, but do not be surprised to see Haaland rubbing shoulders with Tom Cruise or Taylor Swift on one of those couches in the future.

The Lionel Messi effect has hit new heights during the tournament, the Inter Miami maestro’s extraordinary match-winning exploits for Argentina helping to drive record levels of interest in football stateside.

But the US has also fallen in love with Haaland and been left spellbound by the poster boy of a Norway team – and its colourful army of supporters – winning hearts and minds across the country. They have left an impression on every city they have visited.

After wowing North Carolina, Boston, New York and Dallas, Haaland and Co will enter Messi heartland when Norway take on England in the quarter-finals on Saturday and Miami will get its first taste of the viral “Viking row” celebration, which has been one of the viral sensations of the summer.

Advertisement

Haaland’s appeal is twofold. On the pitch, he has been the ruthless, almost robotic scoring machine well known to European audiences with seven goals in four games. He is Thomas Tuchel’s biggest headache and England’s main obstacle to a place in the last four.

But off the field, he is the complete opposite: warm, funny, genuine, relatable and with the personality and carefree spirit of a man determined to live in the moment that is captivating even Americans with little interest in the sport.

When he is not scoring goals or “breaking the internet”, Haaland has been busy charting his World Cup journey through a light-hearted docu-series on his rapidly growing YouTube channel.

There is a line in the first episode of “Erling Haaland’s Journey to the World Cup” that cuts to the heart of the mantra by which the free-scoring centre-forward seems to live his life. “One thing in life – don’t take yourself too seriously,” he says. “No matter what happens, just have a laugh, you know. Don’t be so serious – just enjoy.”

Haaland is certainly enjoying himself. A few hours after Norway beat Ivory Coast 2-1 in the round of 32 at the AT&T Stadium, where Haaland grabbed an 86th-minute winner, the City striker took himself to Wild Bill’s Western Store in downtown Dallas to buy himself four stetson hats (complete with EH9 branding) and a pair of snake-skinned cowboy boots.

“Hello y’all,” Haaland said as he entered the shop and later joked he could not wait to walk down the street doffing his hat to passers-by. “Dallas is amazing,” he said. “I’m coming back here. The people are so positive – they’re just enjoying life.”

Advertisement

As much as Haaland has left an impression on the US, the opposite is also true. It was evident when he went to watch the deciding game of the Stanley Cup between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey teams and admitted the American national anthem gave him “goose bumps”.

Haaland never looked happier than after Norway’s 2-1 last-16 victory over five-time winners Brazil at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, when captain Martin Odegaard handed over his usual drumstick duties to the striker – who had scored his team’s two goals – so he could lead the fans in the Viking row celebrations.

Norway have leaned into the whole Viking shtick. The entire squad even posed beside a fjord as grizzled Norse warriors, weapons in hand and longboats in the background, as if preparing to raid in a promotional photo before the tournament to mark their first World Cup finals appearance for 28 years.

With his giant frame, blue eyes and flowing blond locks, Haaland fits the Viking look better than anyone and was seen wearing a Viking hat after the Ivory Coast win. The sight of thousands of Norway fans performing a synchronised “Ro” chant in Times Square, New York, remains one of the tournament’s defining images.

The US cannot get enough of Norway – and Haaland in particular. At the University of North Carolina, where Stale Solbakken’s squad were based earlier in the tournament, 3,500 fans turned up to watch training, but local organisers said they had requests for 20,000 seats. “Haaland No 9 please sign my cast” read one banner.

Advertisement

Texas police – not normally known for their bonhomie – welcomed Norway’s players with a Viking row of their own when the team’s plane landed at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. The cops sat on the tarmac doing their own row as players disembarked.

Haaland’s commercial power has catapulted to new heights in the past month. There was a glimpse of what was to come at the Club World Cup with City in the US last summer, but the fixation since with Haaland has been extraordinary to witness.

Nike had the pick of a veritable who’s who of footballing royalty for the role of the final goalscoring hero in its six-minute World Cup “Rip the Script” commercial.

Advertisement

Yet it was not Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé or Vinícius Júnior who landed top billing but Haaland, who was even given a body double in the shape of Hollywood actor Channing Tatum in the advert, which also features NBA legend LeBron James and reality-TV billionaire Kim Kardashian.

Tatum’s character is twice seen motioning to Haaland to ask whether now is the moment for them to join in the fun, but is told to sit tight by the striker, cleverly teeing up the finale when Haaland comes from nowhere to meet the ball with a flying scissor-kick in front of everyone.

This idea of Haaland almost being out on his own was underlined in the build-up to the tournament. He had been invited along with some of the game’s other biggest names, including Mbappé and Jude Bellingham, to do a playful spin-off of James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment for the After Hours show the British presenter and comedian has been spearheading for the Fox TV network at the World Cup.

Advertisement

But there was a view in the Haaland camp that they did not want him to be “another cab off the rank”, so to speak. So Fox ended up devising a special After Hours show for the striker in which Corden challenged him to a series of left-field games including cake-making, chess and “fowling”, where American football meets bowling.

Corden even parachuted in the under-15 British table tennis champion to play Haaland, before the striker’s partner, Isabel Haugseng Johansen, was drafted in to take him on at “shuffleboard”.

It has been almost impossible to miss Haaland in the United States. Sophie Cunningham, one of the leading players in the WNBA who went viral with her recent “finger pointing” stunt during a game, was talking him up on a chat show this week.

Advertisement

There is a deliberate strategic commercial plan behind all of Haaland’s endearing goofiness.

Haaland’s team did not just want any sponsor to help fund his World Cup diaries. And Rafaela Pimenta, the player’s agent, pulled off a huge coup by striking an agreement with the people behind the forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster, The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan, to sponsor the first two episodes of the YouTube series. They will consider it worth the investment.

In the 28 days before the World Cup, Haaland’s YouTube channel had 5.9m views. In the 28 days since the tournament began, it has had 37.5m views, a staggering 535 per cent increase. The channel has attracted 693,000 new subscribers – and counting – during the World Cup, a 745 per cent rise on the month before the tournament when there were 82,000 new subscriptions.

Fans have spent 1.8 million hours watching what Haaland has been doing and the site has witnessed an explosion in US-specific traffic. Before the World Cup, the channel did not appear in the top five viewing territories but has now enjoyed 5.66 million views, a 1,130 per cent increase.

Advertisement

“This is Erling’s moment,” one well-placed source said. “Everyone’s talking about him.”

Sir David Beckham is ubiquitous at this World Cup. If he is not in a stadium being photographed, filmed or cheered, he is in adverts promoting everything from power tools to banks.

Haaland himself is well on the way to becoming one of the most marketable figures in sport.

What has struck a chord, though, is his willingness to give fans a genuine window into his life away from the pitch that adds another layer of warmth to a character who appears to be having the time of his life.

That playful side has been routinely on display in his social media interactions, where he has revelled in the memes flying around the internet.

Advertisement

That was never truer than before the Norway-Brazil game when a singalong scene in the film White Chicks was recreated using AI face-swaps with Haaland as Tiffany Wilson and Vinícius as Latrell Spencer, both performing the song A Thousand Miles. Haaland embraced the joke and tagged the Brazil star on Instagram with the message: “We need to recreate this.” Vinícius responded with laughing emojis.

Marcel Knobil, of BrandGuru and founder of Superbrands, feels Haaland’s appeal lies partly in him being so likeable.

“With the likelihood that the two traditional contenders for greatest of all time [Messi and Ronaldo] will be put out to graze in the near future, the honour is being fought for by new contenders,” Knobil says.

Advertisement

“Haaland has tremendous appeal. The Haaland brand benefits from his very appealing personality – he’s perceived as a really good guy, and the fact that he’s so distinctive, he literally stands out head and shoulders amongst most of his peers, and with his flowing golden locks. Most importantly, he is such a prolific goal scorer. These qualities serve him well in the battle to become the pre-eminent personality brand in football.”

Knobil notes that some of the game’s other biggest talents, including France’s Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé, and Spain’s Lamine Yamal, benefit from playing for nations that command “much greater attention on the international stage than Norway”.

But Solbakken’s players are making quite the splash in the US. And none more so than Haaland.

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.