Just how popular has Erling Haaland become on the back of Norway’s appearance at the 2026 World Cup? Popular enough to ensure that a stuffed, whiskey-drinking raccoon worth $750 has become one of the tournament’s most sought-after pieces of memorabilia.The 25-year-old purchased the raccoon from Wild Bill’s Western Store in downtown Dallas, Texas, where he also filmed a YouTube video showing himself gleefully trying on (and purchasing) a cowboy hat, boots and a T-shirt stating ‘Y’all can kiss my Dallas,’ the day after Norway beat Ivory Coast 2-1 in the round of 32.The family-owned store has received so many requests since Haaland’s visit that it has now introduced international shipping. The one thing that isn’t available? The raccoon. That’s been sold out ever since Haaland was pictured purchasing one on the store’s website.It’s all part of the weird journey Haaland has been on since arriving in the U.S. with Norway for the World Cup in June.“It has been the best weeks I’ve had in my entire life”, he said after Norway’s quarter-final exit to England. But Haaland’s American adventure has also changed his life forever, propelling him to a whole new level of stardom. The question now is, how far can Brand Haaland go?On a simple level, the numbers tell their own story. At the beginning of the tournament, Haaland had 40million followers on Instagram; he left it with 68million.“That’s an extraordinary leap,” Steve Martin, founder of MSQ Sport & Entertainment, tells The Athletic. “This has not been seen before, in terms of the speed and the growth. I think it was 12.9, nearly 13 million added in the knockout stages. That’s crazy numbers.”His top-performing posts during the tournament were a locker-room selfie in reaction to Norway beating Brazil in the round of 16 (an engagement rate of 52.91 per cent according to Metricool) and his post of Norway’s famous Viking row after their group-stage win over Senegal (22.53 per cent). Overall, his Instagram engagement rate increased by 174 per cent during the course of Norway’s World Cup run.Erling Haaland leads the row for Norway (Lars Baron/Getty Images)His numbers might still be dwarfed by the likes of Lionel Messi (512m Instagram followers) and Cristiano Ronaldo (676m), but Haaland is still relatively popular. This was Norway’s first World Cup in 28 years, meaning it was the first time Haaland had access to the kind of platform Messi and Ronaldo have dominated for the past 20 years — and he did not waste a minute of it.While many athletes prefer to step back from their social media accounts during big competitions or hand over the keys to their management teams, Haaland embraced the opportunity to give fans an insight into life as a World Cup player. He vlogged, he updated his Snapchat account regularly and as Norway made their way deeper into the tournament (thanks in no small part to Haaland’s seven goals), fans who wanted to know more about the eye-catching striker were drawn to his channels.Once there, they got what U.S. branding expert Camille Moore described as “a doorway into his world”. In an Instagram post about how Norway and Haaland had “won FIFA,” Moore described Haaland’s approach to social media during the World Cup as “seismic for sports athletes”.It is in America that Haaland-mania has been most evident.“He has been the breakout individual story of this tournament for the U.S. audience,” says New York-based Andrea Nirsimloo, managing partner at MSQ Sport & Entertainment. She points out that while Haaland entered the tournament as an established star in Europe and with soccer fans, for a large segment of the U.S. audience, this was an introduction.As a first impression, Haaland couldn’t have done much better.“Engagement around him has been exceptional”, says Nirsimloo. “His content, memes, and quotes have consistently flooded social media and dominated online conversation, and U.S. fans have adopted Norway’s fan chant for him organically.”Even after he headed home this week, the conversation around him continued, with images of him carrying his stuffed raccoon flooding the internet. “The fact it’s being covered by People — a major entertainment platform — is significant and shows his appeal beyond sport,” says Nirsimloo.It’s also a sign that Haaland’s newfound popularity in the U.S. might have staying power – something that Nirsimloo attributes to a combination that’s difficult to manufacture. “His elite on-field ability paired with a self-aware, unguarded, likeable personality and a visible affinity for the U.S. and American culture.Haaland’s personality makes him even more marketable (Julian Finney – FIFA via Getty Images)“That mix is what separates a strong tournament performance from a lasting profile shift — and it’s why this moment looks like a foothold in the U.S. market that can be built on.”That profile shift has moved Haaland a step closer to becoming a “global cultural icon,” says Misha Sher, sports marketing expert and founder of One of Not Many. “That’s what a tournament of the scale and attention of the World Cup will do, because it attracts so many casual fans,” adds Sher. “It will have put him on the map for people who don’t necessarily follow football every day or don’t follow the team that he plays for.”His commercial value is probably not what Haaland was referring to when he spoke about the World Cup “changing” him. Still, it’s clear that the opportunities likely to come his way now are very different to those he enjoyed before the tournament, and in two key ways, according to Sher.“Their value in terms of what they can command with commercial partners, and the breadth of those partners,” he says. “When you are known specifically in your sport, it tends to keep you in a particular category of partners that engage sports people — like apparel or sports drinks. But when it comes to becoming a global cultural icon, which he’s starting to become, it broadens the type of companies interested.”A clue as to where Haaland’s future might lie came in the pictures he posted on X yesterday, showing him and his partner at a Dolce & Gabbana event in Taormina, Sicily.