BENGALURU: OVER the last month or so, a long-haired Norwegian has stolen the hearts and minds of people across the globe. Erling Haaland may have scored a ton of goals for Man City in the Premier League since 2022, but his exploits at the ongoing World Cup are what have put him front and centre in the minds of people.
His vlogs on YouTube, his self-deprecatory ways and the way he has connected with fans on Snapchat have won him new admirers, including in India. In a clip that has since gone viral since it was published before Norway's pre-quarterfinal against Brazil, Diljit Dosanjh, an Indian megastar, says: 'I don't watch football. I don't know anything about football. The only thing that I know is there are football matches going on and there is this one guy with long hair, who walks in style. I have only seen his reels."
Dosanjh and scores of other Indian fans of Haaland could be in for a surprise. The Norwegian forward and his business partner, Morten Borge, could visit India as early as next year. "It's my dream to get Erling to India," Borge tells this daily. Borge and Haaland set up Chess Mates last year, the company which owns a stake in Norway Chess and its new tour format, the Total Chess World Championship.
There's an interesting story behind why the 25-year-old decided to invest in chess. "Haaland and me looked at a few sports and how commercialised they had become in the last 10 years. Formula 1, tennis, cricket... they had all become more commercialised, spectator-friendly. When we saw chess, we saw an opportunity.
"For us, India is a big piece of the puzzle (in promoting chess). There are so many great players in India. We are talking with a few cities and hopefully one tournament can be in India next year. It would be my dream to get Haaland to come there, but of course the calendar is very tight. Let's see." What's the forward like off the park? "What you see on the TV screen, this is the way he's 100%," Borge says. "He's a normal guy from a small town on the west coast of Norway. He's humble and a very down to earth guy."
His next target? Plotting a route past England in the last eight on Friday