“It’s been tough to keep this one quiet” – Erling Haaland becomes new face of world-renowned mobile game Clash of Clans

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has become the new face of world-renowned mobile game Clash of Clans, accompanied by a blockbuster announcement this week.

It is the latest move in a long line of commercial scalps for the rapidly-growing football behemoth in his young career, having established himself as one of the most iconic athletes in the game at present.

In fact, such has been the development of Erling Haaland on the global football scene, largely since his move to Borussia Dortmund, that his agent Rafaela Pimenta has already tipped the Manchester City man to become the sport’s first-ever €1 billion player.

Speaking in 2023, Pimenta explained, “For me, Haaland is worth €1 billion. Maybe nobody is going to pay that, but it is the potential he has when he arrives at a club. With him comes fans, goals, sporting results, professionalism, digital content, notoriety, sponsors.”

Now, Haaland’s ventures have taken him back to the digital gaming world, after becoming the cover star of the world’s most-played football game EA FC 24, or formerly known as FIFA – as part of EA Sports’ franchise.

As per confirmation across social media channels, Clash of Clans have unveiled Manchester City and Norway international striker Erling Haaland as their first in-game character to be based on a real person.

An animated version of the 23-year-old will become the ‘Barbarian King’ in game, and players of Clash of Clans – which has been downloaded more than two billion times since it’s release over a decade ago – will be able to recruit Haaland to join them, or try to ruin his village.

Speaking upon being announced as a part of Clash of Clans, Erling Haaland – who is openly a long-time fan of the game – admitted that becoming a playable character was a “really cool” moment for him personally.

“It’s been tough to keep this one quiet, but I’m excited to finally be able to talk about this epic partnership with Clash of Clans,” Haaland admitted. “I’ve been a huge fan of the game for a long time and know everything about it, so to appear as an in-game character is really cool.”

Stuart McGaw, general manager of Clash of Clans, explained, “When we heard (Erling) Haaland was a fan of our game and that he wanted to partner with us, it was really a dream scenario.

“Our team did everything we could to bring him, one of the world’s best athletes, into the world of the game so our players could enjoy a truly special moment.”

Back on the pitch and Erling Haaland returned to match-action in the most typical fashion on Sunday afternoon, scoring a decisive goal to bank Manchester City all three points on the road against Nottingham Forest.

Haaland and his Manchester City teammates have just five games remaining this season, four of which will come in the Premier League as part of an enthralling title battle with Arsenal, while the campaign closes with an FA Cup final against Manchester United.