Erling Haaland Debuts New Haircut for Premier League Season
Erling Haaland has turned up for the new Premier League season with a new look – and it’s a dramatic break from the image that has followed him across Europe.
The Manchester City striker arrived for Sunday’s curtain-raiser against Bournemouth live on Sky Sports having ditched his trademark long, tied-back hair. In its place: a much shorter cut, closer to the style he wore in his early Borussia Dortmund days.
He had already teased the change hours earlier. On X, the 26-year-old posted a series of images charting the stages of the chop, captioned simply: “New hair don’t care”. The post landed with the kind of reach only a handful of players in world football now command.
It also marked a clear departure from advice he once publicly embraced. Speaking to Fox Sports in July, Haaland revealed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had urged him to keep the flowing locks.
“Zlatan – you know what he told me? ‘Never cut your hair because the strength is in the hair,’” Haaland said at the time.
On Sunday morning, he ignored the superstition and unveiled the new style across his rapidly expanding social media channels, just hours before Bournemouth’s visit to the Etihad.
That audience has exploded since the 2026 World Cup. Haaland emerged from the tournament as one of its biggest online phenomena after helping Norway reach the quarter-finals. He scored seven goals during Norway’s run and added more than 32 million Instagram followers across the 39-day competition – the largest growth of any player involved.
The numbers underline how far his influence now stretches beyond goals and trophies. His personality and constant stream of content have pulled in fans who might barely watch Manchester City or Norway, but know every new post, every off-pitch twist.
Now those followers will see the haircut tested in competitive action for the first time as City step into the post-Pep Guardiola era.
Guardiola walked away at the end of last season after more than a decade in charge, leaving Enzo Maresca to inherit a serial-winning machine and reshape it in his image. The Italian’s first Premier League match at the Etihad comes with one reassuring constant: Haaland remains the focal point.
Despite a bruising 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield last weekend, Maresca has backed his squad to respond as they launch their title defence. The system might evolve, the man on the touchline has changed, but the plan up front is familiar.
Haaland will lead the line. New era, new manager, new hair. Same expectation.
