Erling Haaland Unveils New Hairstyle Ahead of Premier League Season

Erling Haaland walked into the new Premier League season on Sunday with a new manager, a new era at Manchester City – and a very different look.

The long blond hair that had become part of his on-field persona has gone. Out is the trademark, tied-back warrior style. In is a sharper, shorter cut that throws back to his early Borussia Dortmund days, a look he unveiled hours before City’s curtain raiser against Bournemouth, live on Sky Sports.

He teased the change on social media, posting a sequence of images on X charting the trim from start to finish, signed off with the caption: “New hair don’t care.” The post landed on a Sunday morning already buzzing with anticipation for City’s first Premier League game without Pep Guardiola on the touchline.

The shift is striking because Haaland once suggested this moment might never come. In a Fox Sports interview in July, he revealed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had urged him to keep the flowing locks.

“Zlatan – you know what he told me? ‘Never cut your hair because the strength is in the hair,’” Haaland said at the time.

Haaland has ignored the advice of one Scandinavian icon as he steps into a season where his own status has never been bigger. The 26-year-old comes into the campaign off the back of a landmark 2026 World Cup, where he fired Norway to the quarter-finals and turned the tournament into his personal social media launchpad.

Across 39 days, he scored seven goals and exploded online, adding more than 32 million Instagram followers – the biggest surge of any player at the tournament. The numbers underline what City already know: Haaland is no longer just a prolific No 9; he is one of the sport’s defining global figures, his reach stretching far beyond what he does in the penalty area.

That audience, now tens of millions larger, will see the new hairstyle in competitive action for the first time as City open the post-Guardiola era. Guardiola stepped down at the end of last season after more than a decade in charge, handing the reins to Enzo Maresca, who takes his first Premier League game at the Etihad.

The faces on the touchline have changed, the hair has changed, but one thing has not: City still build around Haaland. He remains the focal point of a side trying to evolve without losing its edge, the man expected to lead the line and the goal charts as Maresca stamps his ideas on a squad used to winning.

The build-up has not been smooth. City were beaten 3-0 by Arsenal in the Community Shield last weekend, a jolt that underlined how much work lies ahead. Maresca has publicly backed his players to respond as the real business starts, trusting that the setback will sharpen rather than shake them.

Now comes the first real glimpse of what this new City might look like – and how their biggest star intends to shape the next chapter of his career, with or without the so-called strength in his hair.