Ladies, gentlemen, man-bun enthusiasts of all ages—something major has occurred. Erling Haaland, the Manchester City forward and my favorite part of the 2026 World Cup, has cut his hair. Actually, shaved his head is probably a more accurate description, considering this was by no means a trim. But whichever way you’d like to phrase it, the striker’s free-flowing golden locks are gone. And in their place, a buzz cut has emerged. “This beautiful blond hair…time to let it go,” Haaland explained in a recent YouTube vlog, which has racked up over four million views since it was posted on Sunday. “I was thinking about [cutting] it straight after the World Cup, but I was so busy so I didn’t do it. The season starts now, so it’s time to get a fresh start.”Short hair don’t care 😅✂️ pic.twitter.com/tPzQVFoUIL— Erling Haaland (@Erling) August 23, 2026After taking fans through the process of the cut itself—“I look like Kevin from Home Alone,” he says at one point in the video—Haaland then calls up a few famous friends to get their reactions via FaceTime: among others, Oasis guitarist and Man City superfan Noel Gallagher; former team manager Pep Guardiola; and Swedish soccer legend Zlatan Ibrahimović, who previously cautioned Haaland against cutting off his locks, lest he rid himself of the strength they carry.“What the f--- did you do?” said Ibrahimović, who used to rock a ponytail himself, is heard joking on the call. “Block me and erase my number!”Unfortunately, the fresh start Haaland was after didn’t immediately translate onto the pitch. Although City was victorious, 2–1, in its first game back, it was no thanks to the striker, who failed to score. Now, his quiet game in mind, you might be asking yourself … was Ibrahimović right about Haaland? Was his otherworldly skillset actually tied up in the length of his locks? Certainly not, in my opinion—as torn up as I am about this change, I am not about to suggest that the striker is doomed just because he’s rocking a Justin Bieber-esque hairdo. But the switch did get me thinking: Why does it feel like such a big deal when sports’ biggest stars change up their hair? For better or for worse, athlete hair transformations have provided some of the greatest and most consistent fodder for sports fans over the years. In the 1990s, the color covering Dennis Rodman’s scalp proved just as interesting and newsworthy as his output on the court. In 2000, the entire country of England nearly sank from the weight of David Beckham’s bombshell buzz. In 2008, Allen Iverson shocked his basketball counterparts by ditching his longtime braids, and in 2012, Shaun White took the axe to his signature, tomato-red curls. Megan Rapinoe won a World Cup with a bright pink mop. Jimmy Butler had a meme-worthy punk-rock phase (though we all know it was never really a phase), and Trevor Lawrence almost broke the internet when fans thought he had shaved his long locks ahead of the 2026 NFL season.All of these instances felt profound, and maybe even historic, at the time. But why?Well, for one, there is certainly a bit of woo-woo thinking at play here. Athletes are some of the most superstitious people on the planet (hello, Sidney Crosby), and often believe that any change to their pre-, post-, or mid-game routine might throw them off their groove, so much so that their performance materially suffers. Fans themselves then play into this, too—even if there is no real reason to believe that a change as superficial as a haircut will or did have a tangible effect on play, we often grab hold of such explanations because, well, it’s at least something to blame.“Many athletes have some sort of personal ritual, routine or superstition, and haircuts can be part of these,” Zeynep Atha, a lead sports psychologist at Sheffield Hallam University, told The Athletic in 2024. “Adhering to such rituals can provide psychological comfort and confidence that help athletes cope with uncertainty and things that are uncontrollable.“In today’s sport culture, we have seen athletes eating an exact food or shaving before the games because the idea is that consistency there will lend a hand to consistency of performances.”Moreover, to Ibrahimović’s point, there is certainly a spiritual element to this conversation, too. Take the Biblical parable of Samson and Delilah, for example, in which an unexpected trim brings a powerful man to his knees. As serious as it sounds, perhaps we’re harkening back to some version of this—whichever version is most closely associated with your individual faith—when we fret and foment and freak out about a trip to the barbershop.But what if I told you that haircuts are, in fact, good for athletes, not some invisible bogeyman to be feared? In that same article for The Athletic, Atha emphasized how a new ‘do might actually boost a player’s confidence, which in turn could positively alter their play on the pitch. That’s sounding a lot like the “look good, feel good, play good” ethos that Deion Sanders championed in the NFL so many years ago.Actual science backs it up, as well. According to a 2023 study published in the Academy of Management Journal, dressing well at work not only boosts an employee’s self-esteem, but increases productivity, too. Another study, from 2015, concluded similarly. And while your hair is not the same as your clothes, and professional athletes are not the traditional office workers, it nonetheless follows that footballers might see a tangible boost in productivity and/or performance when they’re feeling and looking their best out on the pitch.So, yes—it is shocking and maybe even a little scary when our faves change up their looks, if only because, well, change itself is scary. But every so often, it is good to remind ourselves that our superstitions are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts at control, and that, in sports, appearance only matters if it’s a detriment to what’s inside.Happy for you, Halaand!More from Sports IllustratedAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow