Erling Haaland knew exactly what he was doing with his birthday post

The World Cup has been over for three days. Some people are happy they don’t have to hear about football anymore, and some people are in withdrawal that there’s no more wall-to-wall football coverage. No matter how you feel about all that football though, it’s undeniable that the World Cup was the cultural event of the summer 2026, with known stars in the spotlight and new stars reaching new levels of cultural popularity. It is what we know to be the celebrity cycle.

And Erling Haaland is now a celebrity. He of course was known in football circles and by football fans but Haaling awareness is now at a new level, considering how popular Norway’s team was with the audience and how viral the Viking row became. To the point where Haaland and Lamine Yamal have “emerged from the World Cup as the world’s most valuable players with a new market value of €220m” according to Transfermarkt.

That assessment is based on skill, cultural relevance, and also age. Lamine just turned 19 years old, and Erling Haaland’s 26^th birthday was yesterday. He celebrated in St Tropez with family and friends. And he knew exactly what he was doing with this birthday post.

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A post shared by Erling Braut Haaland (@erling)

What else happened today…

This headline for Kayleigh Donaldson’s latest post made me laugh. Because I have said before that I’m not a Christopher Nolan sycophant so going in to The Odyssey I actually wasn’t expecting to f-ck with the film as hard as I do. And also, because I’m a troll, whenever I’m around any Nolan-ites, I get messy by throwing into the conversation that I thought Dunkirk was boring. This is not a lie, I think I might have fallen asleep for a few minutes when I was watching it. But still, I acknowledge that I’m a goddamn mosquito about this movie who needs a good slap. Kayleigh is too nice to slap me, but I look forward to seeing her, hopefully, in a few weeks and she can tell me over drinks that I’m an asshole. (Pajiba)

An excellent green leather dress on Lauren Cohan, wow. (Go Fug Yourself)

OMG where did the time go. Thirteen years? It’s been thirteen years? Prince George, formerly known here as Big G, is now a proper teenager. Unfortunately, like most teenagers, he’s probably not allowed to go around calling everyone “bro” and wear his hair in a mullet. But god I would love to see it. (Celebitchy)

If you have a Belmont Cameli problem, or a Garrett Graham problem, as in an Off Campus problem, this is not going to help. Or maybe it does. (Out)

Big news for the Love Island USA audience, which includes me: Nicolandria is over. Exactly a year later and never beating the fauxmance allegations. If it was fake, and I’m still not decided, they kept that up for a long time. A year is just a year but not when you’re living constantly in the next, which is how these influencers exist. (People)