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It would be easy to write off Erling Håland as just a beefy striker bro. But the more media attention he receives, the more you realize he’s a thoughtful kid who is living his dream.
Håland is one of Europe’s most precocious strikers. At 19, he’s torn up the Champions League and two different Bundesligas this season (he moved from Salzburg to Dortmund in January) with an astonishing 40 goals in 33 appearances.
Håland’s quirks have been well publicized, from sleeping with match balls given to him for scoring hat tricks to driving around town blaring the Champions League anthem through his car speakers. He idolizes two of the brashest footballers in recent memory — Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
But make no mistake: Håland is more than an oafish goal machine.
Håland scored both goals in Borussia Dortmund’s 2-1 first-leg win over PSG in the Champions League Round of 16. Håland has become known for his “Zen” celebration, where he sits cross-legged and holds his hands out, palm up, as if meditating, a move he went to after scoring against PSG.
After PSG beat Dortmund 2-0 in the return leg to advance 3-2 on aggregate, most of the team, led by Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, openly mocked the teenager’s celebration.
If someone openly mocked me like that, I’d be pretty pissed, especially since meditation is a very personal, spiritual experience for many around the world and something Håland takes seriously. Håland saw it in a different light.
“I think they helped me a lot to get meditation out in the world and to show the whole world that meditation is an important thing, so I’m thankful that they helped me with that,” Håland told ESPN in an exclusive interview this week.
That’s a nice way to look at it. Without being parodied, Håland probably would have never been able to express how much he enjoys meditation.
“It makes feel calm and gives me tranquility,” Håland has said. “This is why I sometimes celebrate like that when I score.”
Another good thing about the incident was it confirmed that many of PSG’s players are twerps.
Håland had some other nice words to say during the ESPN interview as well, this time about his American teammate Gio Reyna. The 17-year-old son of former USMNT star Claudio Reyna, Gio assisted Håland on the game-winner against PSG in the first leg and has proven to be a new rising American star in Dortmund.
While just 2.5 years older than Reyna, when you’re a teenager that’s a lifetime, and Håland said he’s been impressed with Reyna’s abilities.
“He’s 17-and-a-half soon, so in such a young age to be so calm on the ball and play for such a big team, it’s very fascinating to see how calm he is and he doesn't care about anything, he just jumps right into it,” Håland said.
If Håland is Paul Bunyan, I guess that makes Reyna Babe the Blue Ox. (Notably, the two were both born in North England.)
Read the rest of the interview, if you want, over on ESPN, but we’ve already highlighted the important bits. The rest is just him answering questions from British people who are just as obsessed with Jadon Sancho as we Americans are with Gio Reyna.
