The Night Erling Haaland Announced Himself to the World

Seven years before his senior World Cup debut, Erling Haaland produced the match that announced him globally. In June 2019, the then little-known Norwegian teenager scored nine goals in a FIFA U20 World Cup match, an extraordinary performance that turned an unknown “Norwegian player” into a name the football world would soon know.

The article recalls how Haaland was still mainly known as the son of former Premier League player Alf-Inge Haaland. In the 2019 tournament in Poland, he opened the floodgates in the 7th minute with a header from a Jense Peter Hauge cross, added his second in the 20th minute after controlling a through ball, and completed a hat trick from the penalty spot minutes later. He kept going, scoring again before halftime and then immediately after the break, before the seventh, eighth and ninth goals followed, along with an assist, in a match he largely took over himself.

That nine-goal haul broke the all-time single-match scoring record at a U20 World Cup. The previous mark had belonged to Adailton, who scored six for Brazil in a 10-3 win over South Korea in Malaysia in 1997. Norway still failed to advance from the group stage, and Haaland did not score in the first two matches, but those nine goals were enough for him to finish as the tournament’s top scorer.

The article quotes Haaland after the game saying, “It’s a bit annoying that I didn’t score with my last shot. I’ll have to sit and think about it a little and maybe I’ll figure out what happened.” Seven years later, he is set to play his first senior World Cup match for Norway, against Iraq, as part of a team that includes Hauge, Martin Odegaard and other leading figures from a strong qualifying campaign, including results against Israel. Norway, the piece says, is now hoping to go far, with Haaland still carrying the side’s biggest burden.