Football <\/p>\n
Erling Haaland<\/a><\/span> stands at 6 feet, 5 inches, an intimidating force who can make fellow soccer players look tiny in stature and talent. Scoring seven goals across four World Cup matches entering Saturday, the Norwegian player has been described as a machine. But if you ask some loyal new fans, he\u2019s also a babygirl and princess. <\/p>\n Haaland has become a social media phenomenon, with his own posts and memes from others turning even soccer novices into diehard fans.<\/p>\n His domineering physical appearance coupled with his goofy online persona have contributed to the craze. Fans remark on his flowing blond mane, color-coordinated hair ties and playful posts like a Snapchat-filtered selfie in which he proclaimed Shrek his \u201ctwin.\u201d The contrast between his strength and skill on the field and his softer, looser online presence has also subjected him to the \u201cbabygirl\u201d treatment online. That term is used frequently by fans of endearing male celebrities or characters who come across as sensitive, caring or vulnerable.<\/p>\n Haaland is emblematic of a broader embrace of soccer players as pop culture figures, driven in large part by how they present themselves off the pitch.<\/p>\n Sarah Wilson, a baseball content creator in New York, is new to following soccer, but has become a big enough fan in the past month that she embarked on a lengthy hunt to buy the jersey of her new favorite player.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Erling Haaland more than life itself,\u201d Wilson, 31, said in a now viral video. \u201cI cannot fathom being such a pretty Norwegian princess and also being one of the best strikers in all of football.\u201d<\/p>\n Haaland is being catapulted into a fame even more intense than he had already known as the Premier League\u2019s top scorer<\/a><\/span>. This moment boils down to the pairing of elite skills with quirky personality, Wilson said. <\/p>\n \u201cHim being really, really talented \u2014 that\u2019s the first pillar of it all. And then you find out that he\u2019s 25 years old and he\u2019s probably the most Gen Z athlete in the World Cup,\u201d Wilson told The Associated Press, noting his use of Snapchat and goofy filters in photos online. Many are thinking, \u201c\u2018Wow, I love that guy, he\u2019s hilarious. Now he\u2019s my new favorite player,\u2019 which is exactly what happened with me,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Haaland\u2019s expressive reactions on the pitch and his unique appearance have spawned hundreds of memes. He\u2019s leaned into this virality, posting cheeky selfies on Instagram, uploading long-form vlogs on YouTube and interacting with fans on his public Snapchat stories, often poking fun at himself. <\/p>\n After scoring two goals to knock out Brazil<\/a><\/span>, he posted a smug selfie from the locker room with the caption, \u201cWell well well.\u201d When an Instagram video with nearly 100 million views likened his appearance to a green onion \u2014 its wiry roots standing in as his hair \u2014 Haaland responded in the comments with a side-eyeing dog GIF. When Google added a Viking row<\/a><\/span> animation to his search results, Haaland wrote on X, \u201cOne thing to do today\u2026 search my name on Google,\u201d with a winking emoji.<\/p>\n Haaland said in a team news conference on Thursday that he\u2019s enjoyed being embraced in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a good thing because I like the Americans. I think they are kind of hilarious as well. They are funny. I like the way they are,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just good and honestly, on every single thing, the World Cup so far here has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n Sports are a \u201ccultural force,\u201d one on par with politics or religion, said Jeffrey Kassing, an Arizona State University professor who has studied fans\u2019 and athletes\u2019 social media use. It\u2019s natural that Haaland has \u201ccrossed over\u201d into non-soccer audiences, he said. A song from his youth has gone viral. A lookalike contest is in the offing. Even dogs are sporting blond wigs.<\/p>\n \u201cThere used to be a whole lot of gatekeeping that would happen with athletes; you would only ever hear from athletes maybe in an interview or in a press conference,\u201d Kassing said. Haaland is evidence of how players have much more control in shaping their image now, he added. <\/p>\n Fans\u2019 access to athletes contributes to what is called a parasocial relationship<\/a><\/span>, defined by one-way knowing, said Gayle Stever, a professor at Empire State University who has studied the dynamics between celebrities and fans for decades. Haaland\u2019s fans feel like they know him on a personal level, but he doesn\u2019t know the nearly 60 million people who follow him on Instagram alone.<\/p>\n The majority of parasocial relationships are \u201cpositive, healthy and normal,\u201d Stever said. Only a small percentage of people take it to the extreme, she said. <\/p>\n Skyla Clarke, a 19-year-old sports management student in Brisbane, Australia \u2014 and lifelong soccer fan \u2014 says she\u2019s seen that uglier side rear its head; attacks on players after poor performances, and even unprovoked hate toward athletes\u2019 wives and partners are not uncommon. Haaland himself called AI-generated content of players a \u201cbit scary.\u201d But he noted in Norwegian that the attention on the team and its traditions \u2014 the rowing cheer, for example \u2014 is a sign of praise.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually if it\u2019s like that, it means that you\u2019re doing something right, and that your country is doing something right,\u201d Haaland said.<\/p>\n Even healthy parasocial dynamics can seem unusual to those uninitiated in internet culture. Haaland is not the only player whose persona has blown up on social media, nor is he the only one fans have anointed a babygirl.<\/p>\n Fans have described feeling \u201cmaternal\u201d toward Luka Modri\u0107<\/a><\/span> \u2014 especially after Croatia\u2019s elimination<\/a><\/span> in the 40-year-old\u2019s final international game. Modri\u0107 is a \u201cspecial case\u201d whose difficult upbringing amid Yugoslavia\u2019s dissolution<\/a><\/span> plays into how fans characterize him online, Clarke said. Some will incorporate childhood photos of him into their content, creating \u201ca deeper appreciation for him as a player,\u201d she added. Clarke\u2019s TikTok video about Modri\u0107\u2019s potential retirement reached hundreds of thousands of viewers in a matter of days. <\/p>\n Modri\u0107 himself has a rather tame social media presence, especially compared with Haaland, but Kassing noted fans \u201ctake it upon themselves to try to shape the perception\u201d of those with whom they develop a parasocial attachment. In Modri\u0107 and Haaland\u2019s cases, some do this by overlaying bows and hearts on their images.<\/p>\n Ahead of Norway\u2019s match against England in the quarterfinals<\/a><\/span> on Saturday, fans have also focused intensely on Haaland\u2019s friendship with English player Jude Bellingham<\/a><\/span>, his former teammate. Some have \u201cshipped\u201d the two footballers, making edits of them hugging or celebrating together and drawing comparisons to the television sensation \u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d<\/a><\/span> in which two pro hockey opponents develop a romance off the ice.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have been saying \u2018heated Haalandry,\u2019\u201d said Nulara Ratwatt\u00e9, a 19-year-old art student at the University of Melbourne. She\u2019s one of many fans whose videos about their newfound love of Haaland have gone viral.<\/p>\n Ratwatt\u00e9 said she\u2019s \u201cnot supposed to talk about football\u201d because of her lack of knowledge, but she\u2019s not looking back after catching Haaland fever. She describes him as a \u201cbig, friendly giant,\u201d and despite her lack of soccer savvy, she\u2019s now tuning in to cheer Norway on.<\/p>\n \u201cTruly, from the bottom of my heart,\u201d she said, \u201cI love him.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nFootball Haaland as a \u2018pretty Norwegian princess\u2019<\/h2>\n
Football Fans also try to \u2018shape the perception\u2019 of their favorite players<\/h2>\n