Haaland’s hometown hails ‘little boy who grew into a huge Viking’

A mural of Haaland on a wall in the centre of Bryne, a small farming town near Stavanger where the Manchester City striker grew up. Photograph: Marie von Krogh/The Guardian The people of Bryne are proud of local hero’s rise to the top of world football as Norway prepare to face England By Miranda Bryant in Bryne S urrounded by red hats, No 9 shirts and Erling Haaland action toys at her fabric shop in the small Norwegian town of Bryne, Olinda Haaland – no relation but proud to share the now world-famous name – said everybody in the striker’s home town was a football fan these days. “It’s been pure joy,” she said of her namesake’s rise to the top of world football. “We all love him so much and he’s doing so much for Bryne.” Haaland’s shop faces on to Bryne’s central square, where hundreds of people will gather on Saturday to watch an outdoor broadcast of Norway’s World Cup quarter-final match against England. View image in fullscreen Olinda Haaland, no relation, who sells merchandise for the Bryne football club, says ‘we all love him so much’. Photograph: Marie von Krogh/The Guardian As she speaks, a steady stream of people enter in search of Haaland shirts, having decided that now is finally the time to commit. The retro World Cup shirts from 1998, the last time Norway qualified, sold out in two days. Now anything red will do, she said. Although born in Leeds, where his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, played for Leeds United, it is Bryne, a small southern Norwegian farming town near Stavanger, where Haaland grew up and trained to become the footballer he is today. The 6ft 4in (1.95 metre) Manchester City striker, who has scored 62 goals in 54 senior international matches, still pops up regularly at his old favourite haunts around the town. He also donates football equipment to children here and organises reading competitions. In the autumn, a rare 16th-century book of Viking sagas bought by Haaland will arrive in the local library. As he swung by Olinda’s shop, Andreas Vollusund, the town’s mayor and Haaland’s former schoolteacher, said the 25-year-old had had a huge impact on the town. View image in fullscreen Andreas Vollusund, the mayor of Bryne and a former schoolteacher who taught a 10-year-old Haaland. Photograph: Marie von Krogh/The Guardian “We are proud of the little boy who has grown into a huge Viking,” said Vollusund, who – naturally – was wearing a Haaland shirt. “Now Bryne is the capital of Norway, not Oslo. When he’s speaking about his home town, you can see in his eyes he loves his homeplace and that makes us really happy and proud of him.” Vollusund, who taught Haaland when he was 10 and knows his father well, said that as a child he was “funny, he loved joking with others, lots of energy, loved sports, loved football. When he was 10-years-old he said he was going to be a footballer when he was an adult. He was very focused.” View image in fullscreen Farmland around the town of Bryne. Photograph: Marie von Krogh/The Guardian Vollusund h