Erling Braut Haaland^[4] was born Erling Braut Håland^[5] on 21 July 2000^[6] in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, as his father Alfie Haaland was playing for Leeds United in the Premier League at the time.^[7] In 2004, at the age of three, he moved to Bryne, his parents' hometown in Norway.^[8][9]

Along with playing football from an early age, Haaland took part in various other sports as a child, including handball, golf, and track and field.^[10] He also reportedly achieved a world record in his age category for the standing long jump when he was five, with a recorded distance of 1.63 metres in 2006.^[11]

Haaland started in the academy of his hometown club Bryne at the age of five.^[12][13]

During the 2015 and 2016 seasons, Haaland played for Bryne 2 (Bryne's reserve team) in the Norwegian fourth tier and impressed, scoring 18 goals in 14 matches.^[14] He debuted for Bryne 2 on 5 October 2015 in the Group 6 of the 2015 fourth division against Start reserves (0–1) ^[15]and five days later he scored his first goal on senior level against Hei in a 2–1 defeat away to Heistad.^[16] The following season he appeared more often in the Bryne 2 squad and he scored his first career hat-trick^[17] on 19 September 2016, aged 16 and 2 months, in an away 5–3 win over Vard Haugesund 2 in the Group 6 of the Norwegian fourth tier.^[18]

In May 2016, Gaute Larsen was sacked as Bryne manager, and youth coach Berntsen was promoted to caretaker manager. Having worked closely with Haaland in other youth teams, the interim manager handed the teenager his first start, three months before his 16th birthday.^[19][13]His first game with Bryne FK was a second-tier 1. divisjon match against Ranheim on 12 May.^[20]

After having initially being deployed as a winger, Berntsen put Haaland in his favoured central role as a striker after a few matches. Although he failed to score in his breakthrough season at Bryne, Haaland was offered a trial by German club TSG Hoffenheim before eventually moving to Molde to play under Ole Gunnar Solskjær.^[19]Haaland made 16 total senior appearances for Bryne.^[14]

On 1 February 2017, Molde announced the signing of 16-year-old Haaland.^[21] He made his debut for the club on 26 April in a Norwegian Cup match against Volda TI, scoring on his debut in a 3–2 win.^[22] Haaland's debut in the Eliteserien came on 4 June, being brought on as a 71st-minute substitute against Sarpsborg 08 and receiving a yellow card in just over a minute of play on the pitch.^[23] On 6 August 2017, Haaland scored the winner for Molde in the 77th minute against Tromsø IL, his first goal in the league.^[24] His second strike of the season came on 17 September, as he bagged the decisive goal against Viking FK in a 3–2 victory. In the aftermath of the game, Haaland received criticism from teammate Björn Bergmann Sigurðarson for celebrating his goal towards Viking supporters.^[25]Haaland finished his first season at Molde with four goals in 20 appearances.^[26]

On 1 July 2018, Haaland scored four goals in the opening 21 minutes against Brann, securing his team a 4–0 victory over the unbeaten league leaders at the time. After the match, Molde manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær compared Haaland's style of play to Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku, and said the club had rejected several bids for the striker from different clubs.^[27] In the following match a week later, Haaland continued his scoring run with a brace against Vålerenga in a 5–1 win.^[28] He scored his first goal in UEFAcompetition on 26 July, converting a penalty in Molde's 3–0 Europa League qualifying victory against KF Laçi.^[29] Due to a sprained ankle, Haaland did not participate in Molde's last three league matches of the season.^[30] For his performances in the 2018 Eliteserien, Haaland received the Eliteserien Breakthrough of the Year award.^[31] He finished the 2018 season as Molde's top goalscorer, scoring 16 goals in 30 matches across all competitions.^[32]

On 19 August 2018, Austrian Bundesligachampions Red Bull Salzburg announced that Haaland would join the club on 1 January 2019, signing a five-year contract.^[33] The Athletic's Phil Hay would later reveal that prior to his move to Salzburg, Haaland was also subject of an offer from his father's former club Leeds United.^[34] He made his debut for the club on 17 February, the 2018–19 Austrian Cup quarter-finals against Wiener Neustädter, and scored his first goal on 12 May in the Austrian Bundesliga 2–1 win over LASK.^{[citation needed]}

On 19 July, he scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 7–1 Austrian Cup win against SC-ESV Parndorf,^[35] and followed this up with his first hat-trick in the league on 10 August, scoring three in a 5–2 victory against Wolfsberger AC.^[36] He got a third hat-trick for Salzburg on 14 September in a 7–2 victory over TSV Hartberg; this was the sixth consecutive league game Haaland had scored in, with 11 total goals.^[37] Three days later, Haaland made his debut in the UEFA Champions League against Genk, where he scored three goals in the first half of an eventual 6–2 victory, his fourth overall hat-trick for Salzburg,^[38]becoming the only player to score a first-half hat-trick on competition debut.^[39]

In his next two matches of the Champions League season, Haaland recorded a goal against Liverpool at Anfield and a further two against Napoli, becoming only the second teenager after Karim Benzema in the history of the competition to score in each of his first three appearances. His six goals were also the most scored by any player in their first three Champions League matches.^[40]After converting a penalty in Salzburg's reverse fixture against Napoli, Haaland became the first teenager to score in his first four matches in the competition, and only the fourth player of any age to achieve this feat, following Zé Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero and Diego Costa.^[41] He then scored all three goals in Salzburg's 3–0 victory at Wolfsberger AC on 10 November, recording his fifth hat-trick of the season and his second against Wolfsberg.^[42]

On 27 November, Haaland came off the bench to score another goal against Genk, joining Del Piero, Serhii Rebrov, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski as the only players to score in the first five matches of a Champions League group stage, and becoming the first teenager to score in five consecutive matches in the competition.^[43][44] However, he would fail to find the net in Salzburg's final group match against Liverpool, as his team lost 2–0 and were eliminated from the competition.^[45] This would prove to be Haaland's final game for the club; he departed Salzburg having recorded 29 goals, with 28 of these coming in only 22 appearances made during the 2019–20 season.^[46]

Despite being a reported target of Manchester United and Juventus, Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund confirmed the signing of Haaland on 29 December 2019, three days before the winter transfer window opened, for a fee reported to be in the region of €20 million, signing a four-and-a-half-year contract.^[47][48]

Haaland made his debut for Dortmund away to FC Augsburg on 18 January 2020, coming on as a second-half substitute and scoring a hat-trickwithin 23 minutes in a 5–3 win.^[49] This made him only the second player in Dortmund history after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score three goals on their Bundesliga debut.^[50] Six days later, Haaland once again came off the bench, making his second club appearance in Dortmund's match against FC Köln. He scored after 12 minutes and netted a second goal 10 minutes later, contributing to a 5–1 victory.^[51] Haaland became the first Bundesliga player to score five goals in his opening two matches, as well as the fastest player to reach that tally (56 minutes played).^[52]Despite being on the pitch in the league for only an hour, he won January's Bundesliga Player of the Month award.^[53] Haaland got a brace against Union Berlin on 1 February, becoming the first player in history to score seven goals in their first three Bundesliga games.^[54]

On 18 February, Haaland scored both Dortmund goals in their 2–1 first leg victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16. This brought his total to 10 Champions League goals for the 2019–20 campaign in only his eighth overall appearance in the competition, adding to the eight he had scored for Salzburg in the group stage.^[55] Dortmund would lose 2–0 in the return leg on 11 March however, as Haaland saw elimination from the competition for a second time in the same season.^[56] Following the Bundesliga's return on 16 May in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Haaland scored Dortmund's opener of their 4–0 Revierderby win over Schalke 04, his tenth goal of the Bundesliga season.^[57] On 20 June, he scored both goals in a 2–0 win against RB Leipzig to secure second place for Dortmund, which would lead to Champions League football in the following season.^[58] Haaland concluded his 2019–20 campaign with 44 goals in 40 club appearances across all competitions played for both Salzburg and Dortmund.^[59]

On 19 September 2020, in Dortmund's first match of the new season, Haaland scored a brace in a 3–0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach.^[60] He scored his team's equaliser in their 2–3 Der Klassiker defeat to Bayern Munich in the DFL-Supercup on 30 September,^[61] and again found the net against Bayern when the sides met in the league on 7 November, with Dortmund losing 2–3 once more.^[62] On 21 November, Haaland scored four goals in 32 minutes of a 5–2 away victory against Hertha BSC.^[63] These five goals in November saw him crowned the Bundesliga Player of the Month for a second time.^[64]

Haaland continued his goalscoring feats in the Champions League, scoring six times in the first four matches of the 2020–21 group stage, with his brace in a 3–0 win over Club Brugge on 24 November making him the fastest player to record 15 Champions League goals; he had reached this benchmark in 12 games.^[65] Hours before Dortmund's fifth group match against Lazio on 2 December, however, the club announced that Haaland had suffered a hamstring injury, which kept him out of action until after the new year.^[66]

Haaland made his return against VfL Wolfsburg on 3 January 2021.^[67] He scored a brace away against RB Leipzig in a 3–1 win on 9 January,^[68]and another two in a 4–2 defeat to Mönchengladbach on 22 January.^[69] On 17 February, he scored two goals in Dortmund's 3–2 away victory against Sevilla in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16.^[70] In Dortmund's reverse league fixture against Bayern at the Allianz Arena on 6 March, Haaland scored twice within the opening 10 minutes to give his team a 2–0 lead. However, he was substituted off in the second half after picking up a knock, as Bayern rallied to win the match 4–2.^[71] Haaland's second goal was the 100th of his senior career, reaching this milestone in 146 appearances.^[72]

Haaland scored another brace against Sevilla in the second leg on 9 March in a 2–2 draw, advancing to the quarter-finals 5–4 on aggregate.^[73] With only 14 matches played, this made him both the fastest and youngest player to reach 20 goals in the competition, also becoming the first player to score multiple times in four consecutive Champions League appearances.^[74] After missing two matches due to deep bruising,^[75] Haaland returned to Dortmund's starting line-up on 13 May for the 2021 DFB-Pokal final; he scored a brace in his team's 4–1 win over Leipzig, securing his first title with the club.^[76] He ended the season with 41 goals in all competitions, including 27 in the league, which won him the fan-voted Bundesliga Player of the Season award,^[77] and finished the season as the top scorer of the Champions League with 10 goals,^[78] later being awarded the competition's best forward.^[79]

Haaland started off the 2021–22 season with a hat-trick versus Wehen Wiesbaden in the first round of the DFB-Pokal on 7 August 2021.^[80] A week later, on matchday one of the Bundesliga, he scored a brace and assisted two goals as Dortmund beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5–2.^[81] During the first months of the season, Haaland was sidelined with a hamstring injury, returning on 16 October and scoring a brace against Mainz in a 3–1 victory.^[82] Shortly after, Haaland suffered a hip flexor injury, which sidelined him for two months.^[83] He made his return on 27 November, scoring his 50th Bundesliga goal in a 3–1 victory over Wolfsburg, setting a new record for the fewest appearances and also became the youngest player to score 50 league goals.^[84]

On 10 May, Dortmund announced that Haaland would be leaving at the end of the season to sign for Premier League club Manchester City.^[85] Four days later, he bid farewell to the club at the Westfalenstadion prior to Dortmund's final match against Hertha BSC, and scored Dortmund's first goal in a 2–1 win.^[86]