Erling Haaland is the man. The Norwegian striker is leaving Borussia Dortmund after 2.5 seasons, heading for the riches of Manchester City this summer. But before he leaves Germany, he bought every one of his teammates and coaches wristwatches worth more than most people’s cars. The numbers behind the Haaland Rolexes gifts are staggering.
According to Bild, Haaland gifted 33 players and 20 staff members luxury wristwatches estimated to cost from $5,000 to $15,000 each.
Erling Haaland gave each of his teammates an engraved Rolex watch and every member of Dortmund's backroom staff an OMEGA watch as a goodbye gift, per @BILD_Sport pic.twitter.com/QSyhgnx1PQ
— B/R Football (@brfootball) May 20, 2022
Erling Haaland has gifted each of his 33 Dortmund teammates, as well as coaching staff, a luxury watch worth up to $15,000 before leaving to join Man City ⌚ pic.twitter.com/lrGDO7Xj23
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 20, 2022
Haaland Rolexes Gifts By The Numbers
- Rolexes Gifted: 33
- Cost Of Rolexes: $15,000
- OMEGA Watches Gifted: 20
- Cost Of OMEGA Watches: $5,000
- Total Cost: $595,000
The reports say the Haaland gave players Rolexes worth $15,000 each and staff members OMEGA watches worth $5,000 each. This means Haaland spent about $600,000 on watches for his former team.
As if Dortmund wasn’t going to miss him enough as it was.
Interestingly, Haaland didn’t buy any watches from MicroMilSpec, a custom watch company for which he is a brand ambassador.
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For most people, gifting this amount of money is almost inconceivable. Add up two of the Rolexes and one OMEGA watch and you’ve got the annual salary of many NWSL players.
For Haaland, these gifts will barely dent his bank account.
Haaland is heading to Manchester City over the summer in a deal worth a reported $63 million, which honestly feels like a steal for City given the 21-year-old is one of the game’s best strikers already.
Once he arrives in England, Haaland will be making about $26 million per year as one of the highest-paid footballers in the world. For a weekly salary, that comes out to $500,000 per week, meaning Haaland spent just about eight days’ worth of his new salary on the gifts.
In the U.S. in 2019, the median annual wage was $34,248. By that number, if the average American wanted to make a similar gesture to coworkers, they’d be looking at spending $750 total, which comes out to $14 per person for 53 people.
Essentially, the Haaland Rolexes gift is equivalent of you handing out $15 gift cards to Chipotle on your way out the door. (Or rather: $20 gift cards to the people you liked, $5 gift cards to those you didn’t like as much.)
Still, it’s the thought that counts, I guess. Haaland gets to be seen as this wonderful, magnanimous teammate, his former coworkers receive expensive watches they’ll wear once and the media goes crazy about the Haaland Rolexes for a few months until he starts scoring goals for Man City and the soccer returns to the headlines.
