Erling Haaland on breaking down in tears after Norway’s 2–1 extra-time defeat to England in the FIFA World Cup.
🗣️ “Those tears weren’t because I missed out on a semi-final. They came because I felt like I had let an entire nation down. When you wear the Norway shirt, you don’t just play for yourself you play for every child dreaming in the streets, every family watching from home, and every supporter who believed in us. That weight is impossible to describe.”
“People will see me crying and call it weakness. Let them. I call it love. If losing for your country doesn’t break your heart, then football doesn’t mean enough to you. I would rather cry after giving everything than smile knowing I could have done more.”
“I looked around that dressing room and saw teammates devastated. Some couldn’t speak. Some were staring at the floor. Others were crying just like I was. That’s when it truly hit me. Our dream was over. All the sacrifices, all the hard work, all the belief… gone in a single night.”
“To every Norway supporter, I’m sorry we couldn’t give you one more match. You deserved to see us in the semi-finals. You stood by us from the first minute of this tournament until the last, and hearing you sing even after the final whistle made the pain even harder to take. We heard you. We felt your love.”
“England were better when it mattered most, and they deserve credit. But don’t think this defeat will break us. It will stay with me for the rest of my life. Every time I train, every time I score, every time I wear this badge again, I’ll remember this night and the tears that came with it.”
“This isn’t goodbye to our dream. It’s a painful chapter in our story. Right now my heart is broken, and nothing can change that. But I promise the people of Norway one thing we will get back up. We will fight again. And one day, these tears will be replaced by tears of joy. Until then, I’ll carry this pain with me every single day.”
🚨Jude Bellingham on his friendship with Erling Haaland:
🎙️ Interviewer: “Jude, earlier in the tunnel we saw you playfully kick Erling Haaland, and during the match you were both laughing while waiting for a free-kick. Tell us about your friendship.”
🗣️ Jude Bellingham:
“That’s just our thing. During our time at Dortmund, we were always kicking each other after someone scored or even in training. It was never anything serious—it was just our way of saying hello.
So when I saw him in the tunnel today, I used our little formula again. People probably thought it was strange, but for us it’s completely normal. He knew exactly what I was doing and just laughed.
Now I’m at Real Madrid and he’s at Manchester City, we don’t get to see each other as often, so whenever we meet, we always have a laugh. I know how much he tried to convince me to join Manchester City back then, and we still joke about it today.
Once the whistle goes, though, everything changes. He’s fighting for Norway, I’m fighting for England. There are no favours on the pitch. We both want to win.
After the game, we’re friends again. That’s football. You compete with everything you’ve got for 90 or 120 minutes, then you leave it all on the pitch and enjoy seeing your friends again.”