Sport

Erling Haaland's cousin has become an instant meme after fans were duped by his goal stats

Footballer Erling Haaland reveals diet includes hearts and liver
Haaland: The Big Decision

It’s fair to say Erling Haaland is doing quite well in his debut premier league season with 15 goals in 9 just games.

He’s made such a big impression in Pep Guardiola’s side that people have practically given up on this year’s title race and already handed it to Manchester City.

Haaland’s performances have been so good, in fact, that people are looking at the wider Haaland family to see if there’s more talent to be discovered.

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His father Alfie played for Nottingham Forest, Leeds and Manchester City, of course, and it turns out his cousin plays as well – and social media has become weirdly obsessed with him over recent days.

Video footage of his cousin, Albert Tjåland, has been circulating online, with people trying to claim that Erling’s cousin is another world-class talent waiting to be unleashed on the premier league.


One video, in particular, sees him scoring an incredible bicycle kick, while other posts wax lyrical about his record of scoring 64 goals in 37 games for Norwegian side Brann at the age of 18.

Only, the figures are totally false, and the video in question is actually a clip of Preston North End's Brad Potts.

Albert Tjåland has enjoyed scoring plenty of goals at youth level but has only managed one goal to date in the Molde first team, and while we’re sure he’s a talented young player, he’s not at the level of his cousin yet.

That hasn’t stopped the player from becoming a viral sensation, though.

Most fans had never heard of him a week ago, but Albert has become the most memed player on the internet over recent days, with people posting his fake stats with pictures and videos of everyone from Boris Johnson to Didier Drogba.



It’s all wonderful nonsense and proves that sometimes football twitter is a good place to be.

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