Manchester City ended up having an easier-than-expected route to winning their third successive Premier League title and saw themselves crowned as the champions even before the match at the Etihad Stadium against Chelsea on May 21.
After Arsenal completed their breakdown with an embarrassing loss to Nottingham Forest, City were crowned as the new champions. They are only the second team in Premier League history to have won three-successive Premier League titles in a row – a feat only achieved by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.
For Erling Haaland, however, this was his first taste of winning a major trophy with the Sky Blues during his stint with them. Even though the Norwegian striker had won the Austrian Bundesliga title with RB Salzburg multiple times during his stint with them, that doesn’t quite match the euphoria of winning the most-watched football league in the world.
So it doesn’t really come as a surprise that Haaland was in a full-blown party mood on the day when the Cityzens were officially handed the league trophy. Even though he didn’t really make an impact against Chelsea, mostly due to him being rested for it and only getting some late game time, Haaland didn’t mind because he was only focused on having a good time after the match was over.
Erling turned into a bit of a party animal in the chaotic celebrations. That included dropping an F-Bomb on live television after he gate-crashed an interview that teammate Jack Grealish was giving. Haaland was just full of energy and happiness, which allowed him to have a great time with not only his teammates but also their children as well.
Indeed, Haaland seemingly assumed the persona of that cool, entertaining uncle you are likely to see at parties. Even though he’s not even been a part of the City squad for a whole year, it’s quite clear that the Norwegian’s extrovert personality has helped him create some close buddies at the club.
One of his closest friends is, understandably, Phil Foden because of their similar age. The Englishman might only be 22, but he already has two children. Foden brought his son, Ronnie, to the title celebrations and Haaland was delighted to see him, as he started playing with Ronnie and even started throwing him in the air in the celebrations.
Uncle Erling, however, wasn’t just done there because he appears to be a real hit among the children and looks to enjoy spending his time with them too. He also went to meet Ilkay Gundogan’s newborn son Kai, born on March 15, 2023. Haaland clearly loves Gundogan’s son and was pictured playing with him during the celebrations too.
The Norwegian striker also seems to have a jovial relationship with his partner-in-crime Kevin de Bruyne’s son Mason Milan De Bruyne, who is among the elder children of his teammates. Haaland was seen teasing Mason on the pitch as he tried to playfully get the child to stop him from scoring.
At one moment, he even gave the ball away for the boy to try and score a goal, before stealing the ball off him to score it himself. Perhaps this could be the start of a link-up at City if Erling is still at the club and KDB junior is able to break into the City first-team later this decade.
Haaland might be a terrorizing goal machine during matches, but actually seems to be a loveable character outside the pitch. He definitely deserves to be having this amount of fun and happiness after playing a huge role in City’s Premier League title success, having broken the Premier League single-season goal record with 36 goals – which he can further add upon in the next two games.
