Erling Haaland Debuts New Haircut for Premier League Season
Erling Haaland turned up for the new Premier League season with something no defender was expecting: far less hair.
The Manchester City striker arrived at the Etihad on Sunday for the opener against Bournemouth having ditched his trademark long, tied-back look. In its place, a sharper, shorter cut that instantly recalled his early Borussia Dortmund days – and set social media moving before a ball had even been kicked.
Haaland, 26, had already teased the change. On X, he posted a sequence of images charting the trim from start to finish, signing it off with a simple caption: “New hair don't care”. The post did the rest, bouncing around his ever-growing online following in the hours leading up to kick-off.
The new style marks a break from advice he once took very seriously. In a July interview with Fox Sports, Haaland revealed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic – another long-haired Scandinavian No 9 and one of his footballing idols – had warned him against reaching for the scissors.
“Zlatan – you know what he told me?” Haaland said at the time. “‘Never cut your hair because the strength is in the hair.’”
On Sunday, the strength was getting tested without the famous flowing locks.
Haaland’s decision comes at a moment when his profile has never been bigger. He emerged from the 2026 World Cup as one of the tournament’s breakout global personalities, not just its deadliest finishers. Norway reached the quarter-finals, powered by seven Haaland goals, but his impact stretched far beyond the pitch.
Across the 39-day tournament he added more than 32 million followers on Instagram – the largest increase of any player involved. The numbers underlined what was already obvious: Haaland has crossed over into a different tier of stardom, where every post, every celebration, and now every haircut becomes part of the show.
That expanding audience will now see him step into a very different Manchester City, too.
This is the first league game of the post-Pep Guardiola era. After more than a decade in charge and a haul of trophies that reshaped the club’s history, Guardiola stepped down at the end of last season. Enzo Maresca has returned to the Etihad as head coach and takes charge of his first Premier League match as the man in the dugout.
The system may evolve, the touchline voice has changed, but one thing remains fixed: Haaland is still the focal point. Maresca’s City will be built with the Norwegian at its spearhead, the expectation unchanged that he will lead the line and lead the scoring charts as another title challenge begins.
City do not come into the opener on a high. A 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield last weekend offered a jolt and a reminder of how quickly standards can slip. Maresca, though, has publicly backed his squad to respond as the real business starts.
All eyes, inevitably, will drift back to the No 9. New coach. New season. New look.
The question now is whether the goals keep flowing as freely as the hair once did.
