Man City striker Erling Haaland meditates, doesn’t care what others think, stays away from stress, keeps his mind relaxed before the game.

Erling Haaland has just done a photo shoot and an interview for the sports issue of GQ magazine . The famous Norwegian striker looks romantic, letting his golden hair down instead of tying it up like every time he enters the field. He also shares his views on life and career.

On his personal page with nearly 25 million followers, Haaland posts many competition, training and personal photos. But the guy born in 2000 said he doesn’t pay too much attention to social networks and is not the type to be passionate about reading match reports or discussions and comments after the game. “I don’t read about myself on social media. You can’t control what people say, think or write about you. So I don’t do anything. I don’t care.”

Haaland focuses on the spiritual side the most. A few years ago, the Norwegian striker attracted attention with the act of sitting down on the field with eyes closed and placing his hands on his thighs to simulate meditation. Haaland says meditation has had a positive effect on him. “I think it’s really good. Try to relax, don’t think too much. Stress is not good for anyone, I hate being stressed and always try not to get stressed. The concept of meditation is trying to let go. These thoughts. It’s personal, but for me it works very well,” said the Man City star.

Haaland came to meditation not by accident, but through a constant effort to improve herself. Haaland’s father said: ‘He is very curious about how to get better, even with the outside of football. The 22-year-old striker also focuses on sleep quality, often wearing light-filtering blue glasses in the evening, turning off wifi before sleeping. “I really focus on sleep. To me, the most important thing in life is sleep, not a lot of sleep, but a good night’s sleep,” Haaland said.

Personally, the Man City star radiates composure. He leads a disciplined life like a Zen master when he doesn’t go out much. Haaland doesn’t play FIFA and doesn’t watch many movies. Before the question: “So what do you do?”, the striker who is leading the scorer list in the Premier League said with a little confusion: “Really, I don’t do much. In the morning, I wake up, I have breakfast. come here to practice. Then undergo therapy. When the day is coming to an end, I come home, relax and prepare for the next training session, cook dinner, and then go to bed.”

“I don’t think too much about the game before I play. I try to live in the present, not thinking about what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow,” the young talent said. GQ also commented that one of Haaland’s strengths is his ability to get rid of self-doubts the way an ascetic throws away possessions.

When the interviewer mentioned the risk of injury preventing him from setting records like his father, who had to retire at the age of 30 because of a series of knee injuries, Haaland replied: “I don’t think you should worry about that stuff. I don’t think that’s a good idea so I’m not worried about getting injured because it’s part of our job. Maybe I’ll get injured again, hopefully not but you You never know what will happen in a football match. It’s a dangerous sport.”

“In Norway, we have a saying: Life isn’t always brilliant. Some days are worse than others, but that’s life. I think I’m really good at letting go of everything to relax. relax. Enjoy because life is short,” added Haaland.

Last year, Haaland was shortlisted for the 2022 Ballon d’Or – the title then belonged to Real striker Karim Benzema. When asked if he was interested in winning this prestigious individual award, the young star said: “I think everyone is interested. But I don’t think it’s a good thing to think about. If you and your team is playing really well, you’re going to do well too and you’re going to start to win cups and then maybe be shortlisted for the Ballon d’Or, like De Bruyne – he was third last year – and I think it worthy. But you can’t think of such things.” Haaland said he tried his best to bring the Cup back to Man City, trying to be a game changer. His goal is to win the Champions League, and beyond that, with Norway reaching the finals of the 2026 World Cup.

After moving from Borussia Dortmund to last summer, Haaland quickly adapted to life in Manchester because coming to the foggy country was like returning home to him. The Norwegian striker was born in Manchester when his father – former player Alfie Haaland – was playing for Man City. Three years later, Alfie retired, the family returned to Norway. At that time, Haaland was still a young boy, so his memory of England was not much, only vaguely remember when looking at the photos but still felt connected to the blue shirt team. “My parents know what this country is like, which is a good thing. And for me, playing at my father’s old team was very special,” Haaland said. Man City is also one of the few clubs that can meet the salary requirements of young talents.

Erling Haaland is a “born child” of sports when his father is a former football player, and his mother is also a champion of 7 pentathlons. But when he was a child, Haaland was very thin, but his agility and talent really stood out. The teacher who coached the Man City striker as a teenager said Haaland had no fear and was not “bored” of an opponent. When he was a child, Haaland was sad about his small appearance many times but was encouraged by his teacher that in 3-4 years he would be bigger and stronger than them, and rightly so. The young man began to grow rapidly from the age of 16. “Honestly at the time my goal was to eat as much as I could because I grew up so fast,” Haaland recalls. He is currently 1.94 m tall.

“Monster”, “robot”, “not human”, “scary” are the media words, the rival coach talks about Haaland when he has continuously scored for Man City since coming to Manchester last summer. . The Norwegian star is considered a player that is both fast, strong and technical. The young striker is leading the list of goalscorers in the Premier League with 21 goals, 6 goals more than second place Harry Kane.