Cucurella-inspired Spain strike the right chords
Espen Undheim has clung on to clips of a 10-year-old Erling Haaland playing football at his first club Bryne FK. The pre-teen facsimile of the present-day Haaland captured for posterity in these grainy video clips does not quite have the same signature hairdo that the Norway star rocks these days. Back then, he was tiny too — tinier than others in his age group — Undheim pointed out. But there’s something that Haaland had at the age of 10 that he still possesses: his sense of timing and his positioning on the pitch.Early on Monday, Haaland used these skills to evade Brazil defenders and stab two goals into the net, thus sending Norway to the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup. In doing so, Haaland also propelled himself upwards in the Golden Boot race, where he now co-habits the top spot with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.“You can see the runs that he makes now. I have videos from when he was 10 and 11. You can see the same situation and the same run,” Undheim had told The Indian Express in 2025. Undheim was Haaland’s first coach, having worked for 25 years at Norwegian football club Bryne FK. The boy arrived at the humble club in the south of Norway as an eight-year-old for an after-school football program for boys. ALSO READ | Erling Haaland, and the leap that felled an empire At Bryne, not just Undheim, everyone else remembered Haaland, who currently towers at 6’5”, as someone who was physically smaller than his teammates in that age group. “Now he has power. Back then, he was not as strong or big. But he developed the ability to be at the right place,” said Sondre Norheim, who was Haaland’s teammate in his first team days at Byrne.Story continues below this ad Being a stickler for positioning almost made Haaland acutely aware of where his opponents were on the pitch. When Haaland was playing in his first game for Norway, as a 14-year-old playing for the U15 team, he scored a goal against Sweden from the kickoff because he noticed that the keeper was standing 12 metres out of his line.
Espen Undheim talks while flanked by the club’s ground at the background. (Express Photo by Amit Kamath)Undheim narrated how Haaland used to be pushed around in training sessions by an older girl, who went to play as a defender for some of the biggest clubs, and a male player, who towered at 185cm. That’s why being at the right place was something Haaland obsessed over even as a 10-year-old. What he lacked in brawn, he tried to make up for with brain. ALSO READ | Erling Haaland, the little guy from humble Bryne in Norway who became a footballing colossusStory continues below this ad “Even when he was nine years old, he would say, ‘I have to start earlier. I have to be one metre to the left.’ You don’t see that normally in kids that age. He was always thinking, ‘where should I be now?’” Undheim recollected of the boy he trained three days a week for four years before he became a club regular till the age of 15. “If he didn’t get the ball when he was in the right position or if he didn’t score when he had obvious chances, he would be very angry. He was always hungry for goals.” That hunger made the young Haaland train more than others. Before the team met for training sessions, Haaland would train alone for an hour. Just dribbling and shooting. On weekends, when everyone else was off, he would train four more hours by himself. “He practically lived in our indoor arena. His mom gave him some food and water. And that was it,” said Undheim.
Erling Haaland in his youth football days for Bryne (Courtesy: Bryne FK)Haaland also hit the genetic lottery by being born to a footballer father and a mother who was Norwegian national heptathlon champion, who passed on speed to him. Under Undheim, Haaland sharpened his technical abilities. “He was not a good technical player. You can even see that today. When he was a youth player, he couldn’t use his right foot. That foot was quite dead. Only the left worked: shooting with the left, receiving with the l
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- Espen Undheim has clung on to clips of a 10-year-old Erling Haaland playing football at his first club Bryne FK. The pre-teen facsimile of the present...
- Espen Undheim talks while flanked by the club’s ground at the background. (Express Photo by Amit Kamath)Undheim narrated how Haaland used to be pushed...
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