When Erling Haaland’s youth coaches realized he was something special

Espen Underheim smiles remembering the early training sessions where he first met Erling Haaland. The superstar striker was nowhere near today’s physical specimen, but his former coach remembers seeing glimpses of potential in the “skinny” kid who had such passion for the game.

The pair first met at Bryn FK, a soccer club in the southern tip of Norway. There was and still is a youth coach for the Andheim team and Haaland, who was about 8 years old at the time, was one of thousands of local children eager to learn the game.

“The special thing with him was he was always looking to score goals, even if he wasn’t in a position where he could, but he stepped up and tried to be in situations where he could score,” Underheim told CNN Sports.

“And when he scored goals, he celebrated them a lot, running all over the pitch. Even as a kid, I could see he had the intuition for scoring.”

It seemed unlikely at the time, but that goalscoring knack later propelled Haaland to the top of football, where he is now one of the best players on the planet.

His record speaks for itself. In his four seasons at Manchester City, Haaland has been the Premier League top scorer on three occasions. It took him only 111 league matches to score 100 goals in the division, the fastest player ever to reach this milestone.

The 25-year-old has also led Norway to this summer’s World Cup – the first time his country has qualified for the tournament since 1998 – and is expected to shine on the biggest stage.

But before the fame and multimillion-dollar deals, Haaland was just like every other kid growing up in his small Norwegian town.

Underheim remembers how Haaland and his friends practically lived on an indoor soccer pitch in the city. If he wasn’t eating, sleeping or at school, he could be found there kicking a ball with a group of boys a year older than him.

He then began training in a program run by Underheim three times a week after school. After a few years, he was moved to the Bryansk youth team.

“At that time, he was almost only left-footed,” Undheim said. “So he had to work a lot on his right foot to get better.”

“But it was all about his mentality. If he didn’t get the ball, he was very angry at his teammates, and if he didn’t score a goal in obvious situations, he was very angry at himself. That’s what was special about him.”

That anger is still an important part of his game. Despite winning the FA Cup for his club this season, Haaland was upset that a teammate did not pass him the ball in the final attack of the game. It is this drive and desire that has helped him become the goal machine he is today.

But what’s important is that Haaland knows how to turn that edge on and off – using it to help the team, not as a destructive force.

It’s not exactly clear where this mentality comes from, but according to his former coach, it has had two major influences.

At first, Underheim said that Haaland’s childhood environment, a proud farming community in Bern, helped him develop toughness. Second, he was getting good advice from his father Alf-Inge Haaland, who also played professional football for Manchester City.

But, despite his famous father, Underheim says there was no extra pressure on Haaland’s shoulders. As a child, he played only for fun.

“He was a typical city boy,” Underheim says, smiling. “He was funny. He always responded very quickly. Before the match and after the match, he loved to be funny.”

“When I listen to interviews with him now, I can still say that this is the same guy I know from Bayern… He hasn’t changed.”

But as he began to move up in the ranks, things started to get a little more serious. By the age of 15, he was already playing for the Bayern under-18 team and attracting attention from other Norwegian clubs.

In 2017, he was signed by Molde, one of the biggest clubs in the country. After initially playing for the reserves, he quickly broke into the first team, scoring several goals, which attracted the attention of some of the biggest clubs in Europe.

This was the time when Haaland was also attracting attention from the national team. Leif Gunnar Smerud is currently the assistant manager at NWSL team Angel City. But the 49-year-old started his coaching career in his home country of Norway.

In a varied career, which also saw him work as a psychologist, Smerud was a national youth coach and held responsibilities as coach of the under-18s and under-21s, as well as both the men’s and women’s senior teams.

During his time with Norway, he recalls a small discussion about a young player named Erling, but tells CNN Sports it wasn’t much different than usual, at least in the beginning.

“I saw him very early on,” he said. “We have these talent camps in Norway for 14- and 15-year-old players.

“You could see he had a passion. We looked for players who really had passion, almost more than talent, and he had that talent. He loved football and you could see it.

“But his development was interesting, and really took off in the later stages. Of course he was good, but he wasn’t what we were all waiting for.”

This was the time when Holland began to develop physically. Over the years, he had to find different ways to get past defenders, often coming up against opponents stronger than him.

However, in his teenage years, Haaland began to grow up and become bigger. It is his physical ability that he has continued to develop to such an extent that he can now threaten defenders with his sheer size and pace.

Smerud says that not having that physical advantage as a child was beneficial to his overall development.

“I think it really helps because when players are kids, they don’t have a lot of size, they have to be smart,” he said. “If you’re very big when you’re young and you have a physical advantage, you can sometimes fall into bad habits and you get used to doing things just because you’re big.

“(Haaland) didn’t have that, so he had to work on his timing and his positioning, movement and technique, all these things. So I think that really helped him.

“I also think it helps him get the physique he has now, because it’s a physical game at the top level.”

Haaland would represent his country in various age groups, but he really made his name at the Under-20 World Cup in 2019.

Despite Norway’s exit after the group stage, Haaland was the tournament’s top scorer – all nine of his goals came in a 12–0 thrashing of Honduras.

Smerud was the under-21 coach at the time, but said that Haaland’s performances in the tournament earned him a direct call up to the senior national team.

At the same time he signed for Austrian side RB Salzberg, with Haaland continuing to rise to the occasion.

He scored 28 times in 22 games in his first season in Austria, including eight goals in six Champions League matches. It was this form that brought him onto the radar of Europe’s biggest clubs, particularly Manchester United.

But it was German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund who won the race to sign the young player, completing a transfer worth more than $20 million in 2019. While in the Bundesliga, Haaland found appalling form and soon became one of the most sought-after players in world football.

A move to City in 2022 and four trophy-laden seasons later, but those who knew him before can still see the little boy in Bryan.

“I think his biggest strength is that he’s the kind of guy he is. He’s a good teammate, he’s a good person, and I don’t think anything can change that,” Smerud says.

“There will always be risks of success, but I would be very surprised if he doesn’t deal with it well. He’s from a part of the country where people will tell him if he’s changing too much. He loves his hometown, he loves the people there, and if he loses their respect, I don’t think anything else matters to him.”

And while Haaland has already captured the attention of the football world, he could become an even bigger star if he is able to perform at this summer’s World Cup.

Norway faces a tough group with France, Senegal and Iraq, but has enough talent to make it to the knockout stage.

The Norwegians will play Iraq in their first group game on June 16, with Haaland set to make his World Cup debut.

No matter what, he will have the support of his hometown Bryan. Underheim says there are plans to invite 1,000 young players to the indoor pitch on which Haaland used to play, to watch Norway play France.

“We are very proud of him. We have a painting of his in our indoor arena that is 50 meters high and 15 meters wide,” says Underheim.

“Of course he is very, very popular and people are looking forward to seeing him at the World Cup.”