Catherine Ivill / Getty Images Sports via Getty Images
By Stella Cereus
“I was single for a long time. If I have any advice? It’s to go out and have fun. Meet people and get to know people. In my experience, you find your girlfriend when you least expect it. If you’re always looking for a girlfriend, you’re not going to find her.” – Erling Haaland
The advice comes from a guy whose only known relationship started when a woman entered his DMs. Haaland told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that his girlfriend, Isabel Haugseng Johansen, sent him the message first. “He sent me a message. He played at the same club as me, Bryne. So he looked at me, I didn’t look at him,” he said with a smile.
The two grew up in the small Norwegian town of Bryne and both played for Bryne FK’s youth set-up, although Haaland admitted that he doesn’t remember their first meetings well and he does. Johansen played for the women’s team before leaving the sport. “To be honest, I wasn’t the best at driving and stuff. I was fast. I was running. I miss you a lot,” he said in an October 2025 YouTube video with Haaland. He was called about all this, and he said it’s good that he understands football because he played for himself.
They met again as adults around 2021, after he had already moved to Borussia Dortmund, and for almost five years they are the parents of a son who was born in December 2024, the birth of which Haaland rushed to the game to attend. He told the AP that being a father has really sharpened him: “Having a child, it makes me a lot better because I actually cut more than before … I don’t think about football at all.” Their leisure time is deliberately low-key: playing Minecraft, eating kebabs in their hometown, quiet nights.
Johansen has slowly stepped into public life this year, landing her first magazine cover with Norway’s KK in June 2026 and signing on as an ambassador for jewelry brand Langgaard, with her collection due in fall 2026. He was a familiar face in the stands during Norway’s World Cup run, and after a July 5 victory over Brazil’s Hamland at MetLifea he sent Brazil. you are very proud of yourself and everything you have done, you have worked, you have not given up, and you really deserve this.
Haaland joked that he might serve kebabs from his hometown at their future wedding.
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