We all know that Erling Haaland was born in Leeds, where his father Alf-Inge was playing at the time. The question is: could he have played for England if he had wanted to?
We should acknowledge that this exercise is purely academic. Haaland moved to Norway when he was three years old and lived there until he joined Red Bull Salzburg in 2019, aged 18.
The man himself says it was never in question as to which nation he would represent, telling Goal: “It was natural for me to choose Norway. You never know how it would be if maybe my father played longer in England or whatever. Maybe I would be English, I don’t know. But yeah, I’m Norwegian and I’m proud of it.”
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Could Haaland have played for England?
But just for the sake of a pub argument…could Haaland have played for England if he had so desired?
For the younger readers, the same conversation used to be had around Ryan Giggs during his playing career, on the basis that he had played for England schoolboys as a youth.
Giggs never would have been eligible to play for England seniors even had he wanted to, though, as he was born in Wales to Welsh parents, which at the time disqualified him from England duty.
His England schoolboys appearances came because he was schooled in England, having moved to the Manchester areas as a young boy due to his rugby player father getting a move to Swinton.
Haaland’s situation is similar for slightly different reasons. He was born in England, and that would be enough to qualify him under FIFA statute 6.2(a)….as long he held UK nationality.
Haaland was born in England, and is likely to have been considered a UK national if either of his parents had settled status in the UK – which, as EEA internationals, they almost certainly did at the time.
The Home Nations – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – also have agreements between one another as to what makes a player eligible for any one of them. The current agreement has been in effect since 2010, and would not have posed any impediment to Haaland either: under agreement article 1(a), a player is eligible if ‘he was born on the territory of the relevant Association’.
So…Haaland would have been eligible to play for England, right? Well, this is where the situation gets complicated.
You see, to prove his UK national status to FIFA, the hypothetical England-obsessed Haaland would likely have needed to have had a UK passport. And in reality, he has never had one.
He told Manchester City’s club magazine earlier this year: “There was never a conversation about it because I was in Norway and it was not possible to get the passport then. I can get the passport now. I’d love to get the English passport, you know? Why not?”
The suggestion that it was ‘not possible’ for him to get a UK passport may not be strictly true, as far as we can tell. But it would probably have been a lot of faff and paperwork for his parents to complete for no good reason whatsoever unless they were absolutely dead set on Haaland playing for England in future. And why would they be?
So: if Haaland had really wanted to, and he had gone to the bother of attaining a UK passport solely for that reason, then yes, he would have been eligible to play for England.
As it is, though, he was raised in Norway to Norwegian parents, and never had any particular desire to represent anyone else…so it’s entirely a moot point.
Besides, Harry Kane’s working out alright for England, isn’t he.
