Soccer Legend Shocks Fans With Dramatic Hair Transformation
Julian Finney - FIFA / Julian Finney/FIFA via Getty Images It’s the end of an era: Norwegian soccer star Erling Haaland buzzed off his famous shoulder-length hair.
During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 26-year-old’s signature shoulder-length blonde hair got almost as much attention as his impressive performance on the field.
On Sunday, the 6-foot-5 center forward shocked his fans and colleagues when he made two Instagram posts debuting his new unexpected hairstyle: a buzz cut.
First, Haaland posted a video looking into the camera with his infamous long hair, then covering the camera with his hand to reveal the new buzz cut.
The video got over 84 million views by Monday morning.
In the clip, he directed fans to go watch his longer YouTube video from the day, titled “New Season, New Hair!” In the longer video, Haaland said he was “a bit nervous” to cut his hair, but that his goal was a “really short” buzz: “Like I’ve been in the military.” “The only thing is [ Zlatan Ibrahimović ] told me, ‘Never cut your hair because your strength is in your hair,’” he said.
After his haircut, Haaland called the soccer legend, who was visibly shocked by his new hairstyle.
“What did you do?” Ibrahimović asked.
“You lost a bet or what?” Haaland, who was nicknamed “Viking prince” during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, quipped in the video, “the Vikings, they go short as well.” Haaland’s second Instagram post included 12 selfies of him during his hair-cutting process.
In the last photo, his hair was completely buzzed off.
The post got over 12 million likes and over 200,000 comments, with the most popular comments demonstrating shock and disappointment.
Other soccer stars, like Britain’s Jude Bellingham, weighed in on Haaland’s new hair in the comments.
His comment, “No way,” got over one million likes.
Brazilian soccer star Vinicius Júnior disagreed with most commenters and got almost half a million likes for his simple comment: “Nice.” Haaland had just shown his signature long hair in a selfie on Friday.
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