Erling Haaland has ignored a direct warning from Zlatan Ibrahimović and cut off the long blond hair apparently responsible for his strength.
The Manchester City striker revealed a dramatically shorter hairstyle on Sunday, replacing his familiar tied-back look with a military-style buzz cut ahead of the new Premier League season.
Haaland documented the entire process in a video published on his official YouTube channel. He explained that he had considered cutting his hair immediately after the World Cup but had been too busy, leaving the start of the domestic season to provide the required “fresh start”.
There was one obvious reason to reconsider.
Haaland recalled Ibrahimović previously telling him never to cut his hair because “your strength is in your hair”. This represented potentially important advice from another Scandinavian striker who spent much of his career scoring goals while maintaining a considerably longer hairstyle than most of his opponents.
Haaland proceeded with the haircut anyway.
His girlfriend, Isabel Haugseng Johansen, warned that she might cry before the transformation. She later described the finished result as both nice and tough, while appearing uncertain when asked whether she preferred it to his previous appearance.
Haaland then revealed the new look through a series of video calls. Ibrahimović initially wondered whether he had lost a bet before asking if the reduced weight would make him faster.
Former City manager Pep Guardiola approached the situation from a different perspective, pointing out that Haaland was fortunate to possess enough hair to make removing it an option.
The striker subsequently presented his new appearance on social media with the captions “New season, new trim” and “Short hair don’t care”.
Haaland’s long hair had become one of football’s more recognisable visual features and helped maintain the widespread description of him as a Viking whenever simply calling him Norwegian appeared insufficient.
Manchester City still have the same centre-forward for the new season. There is merely considerably less of him.
