Ronaldinho, Bale, and Neymar, aside from their outstanding athletic abilities, have one thing in common: they all have – more or less explicitly – stated that watching football, as opposed to playing it themselves, doesn’t bring them much joy. Therefore, outside of their own games, they hardly engage with other leagues and teams – at least not for pleasure in their free time.
City superstar Erling Haaland seems to be the complete opposite. In the podcast ‘The Rest Is Football‘, he revealed that this sometimes even leads to disagreements with his partner Isabel Haugseng Johansen.
When co-host Alan Shearer asked how often he follows football matches aside from his own performances and whether he analyzes them, the 25-year-old Norwegian replied: “Yes, I am a football fan – so I watch all kinds of football.”
He then shared an anecdote from his private life: “In fact, we had dinner yesterday, and I checked if there were any games on.” After finding out that Manchester United was playing against West Ham that day, he said to his girlfriend: “Let’s watch it.”
She was – let’s say – not too thrilled and essentially said she was really tired of football: “We watch it all the time.”
Haaland replied that this was the reason they were there – exactly what he meant by that remained unclear. Nevertheless, the game was turned on. “So, of course, we watched it,” he added in the podcast.
In the conversation, Haaland also revealed another interesting thing that sets him apart from many other football stars: He likes the video assistant referee!
His father had already said when the controversial system was introduced: “VAR will be perfect for you.” The reason: Haaland has always placed great importance on not being in the offside zone.
📸 Kate McShane – 2025 Getty Images
“It’s always about timing, and I’m not often offside,” explained the Norwegian national player. “If you’re not offside but a bit further from the defenders, you still have a chance – so the worst for me is being offside.”
Only in the game against Fulham did his impressive streak of two years without a single offside call in an away game come to an end – there he was called offside again for the first time.
📸 Catherine Ivill – 2023 Getty Images
