Haaland Shows Loyalty to Norway Despite Chance to Represent England

Erling Haaland, a top player for Manchester City, acknowledges that he had the option of playing for the Three Lions but chose to represent Norway instead, a nation that has been conspicuously absent from the World Cup.

Despite the 22-year-old superstar scoring 21 goals in 23 games for his nation, Norway was unable to advance to the competition this year.

Halland's injury prevented him from playing against the Netherlands, and the result was a 2-0 loss.

Millions of Norwegians were devastated when Steven Bergwijin and Memphis Depay denied them their chance to represent their country in the World Cup.

Since 1998, the Scandinavian nation has only participated in three World Cup matches.

Haaland claimed that he might have joined Gareth Southgate's team on the field before the 2017 World Cup in Qatar.

The Leeds-born striker says it was "natural" for him to play for Norway while being eligible to represent England.

"I lived in Norway for such a long time, and I stayed here [England] for three and a half or four years, so it was logical for me to select Norway," Haaland told Goal.

Haaland said: "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,”

Certainly, Southgate's team would have benefited from the young star's assistance given their injury issues.

Even though he has just played 53 minutes of football this year, Kalvin Phillips has been named to the roster.

Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ben White, and an exhausted Harry Kane will all make their World Cup debuts.

“We have had to cover a couple of players who do not fully match fit as well so having 26 players means you can take a couple of risks,” Southgate said after the calling.

“We think the balance is there. We think we have everything covered,” Southgate added.

This November, England will face a challenging Group B placing them against Iran, the US, and Wales.