Erling Haaland has spent the 2026 World Cup doing what he does best — scoring goals and generating content.
The Norwegian striker's unpolished posts on his Snapchat account, which has upwards of 3.3 million followers, have made him one of football's most meme-able personalities, with regular posts featuring his nostril-angle selfies comparing himself to Shrek, bald filters, silly Q&As and comedic skits.
The problem is that much of the content circulating online, however, is not actually his and it is largely AI-generated.
A video that racked up more than 31 million views on X in a matter of days last week showed the Manchester City forward mid-mouthful in a restaurant, flinching at his own reflection.
Community notes flagged it almost immediately and fact-checkers traced the footage to a comedic skit by Chinese duo Jin Long and Qiu Qiu, posted to TikTok on 15 June with Haaland's face swapped in using AI. The correction did not slow the clip down.
