- Erling Haaland bounced around and hit the flag to mark his second goal
- The reason why Manchester City’s Norwegian star did that may surprise you
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There’s a funny – or possibly annoying – reason behind one of Erling Haaland’s celebration dances against Ipswich.
Haaland scored a hat-trick as Manchester City came from behind to beat Premier League freshmen Ipswich Town 4-1.
His second came after just 16 minutes, when he cancelled out an Ipswich lead set up by Sammie Szmodics, the former Blackburn star scoring his first goal for the club.
And to celebrate his victory, fans could see Haaland jumping around with his arms wide before hitting the corner flag.
Perhaps the one who saw this the most was YouTuber and now boxer KSI, who had urged Haaland to celebrate in one of his videos.
Erling Haaland’s celebration – which you can watch in the attached video – was inspired by KSI
KSI had instructed Haaland to celebrate the victory by boxing the way he did, bouncing around and hitting the corner flag
Haaland agreed to try KSI’s celebration, though his version was slightly less flamboyant
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“Haaland was celebrating haha,” KSI wrote on X after encouraging the striker to dance “like I fight.”
In reality, Haaland didn’t follow KSI’s instructions to the letter – the YouTuber’s style is more of a star jump pose, but the Norwegian’s arms didn’t quite reach those stratospheric heights.
While some of his grumbling detractors worried that KSI’s influence would spill over into the Premier League, there were plenty of fans who were happy to see Haaland channel his inner social media star.
“It secretly looked pretty cool,” wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter.
“Haaland is slowly becoming my favourite player,” said another.
“Loves a good party, it gives the game that little bit extra,” someone said.
Others didn’t want the YouTuber to disrupt their striker’s focus.
“Why he partied too much in this match,” someone said.
Fans had mixed feelings about KSI’s interference in Haaland’s matchday antics
“Don’t make Haaland a joker, mate,” wrote another.
Of course, someone else could claim credit for being the inspiration: Tim Cahill. Corner-flagging was the Australian’s trademark during his eight seasons at Everton.
City shot to the top with a 4-1 win, beating Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton despite a late 2-1 victory over Manchester United.
Haaland has already scored four goals this season, putting him two goals ahead of the league leaders, having also scored in the 2-0 win over Chelsea last weekend.
As for Ipswich, their season will not be judged on their results against Liverpool and City.
The Tractor Boys are second-to-last after two defeats, but the upcoming games against Fulham, Brighton and Southampton will show more clearly how much they have developed since the summer in the Championship.