{"id":35189,"date":"2026-07-14T12:15:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/watch-erling-haaland-arrives-home-carrying-a-raccoon-breaks-silence-on-viral-companion-football-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T12:15:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:45:02","slug":"watch-erling-haaland-arrives-home-carrying-a-raccoon-breaks-silence-on-viral-companion-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/watch-erling-haaland-arrives-home-carrying-a-raccoon-breaks-silence-on-viral-companion-football-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Erling Haaland arrives home carrying a &#8216;Raccoon&#8217;, breaks silence on viral companion | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-articlebody=\"1\"><video-embed value=\"false\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"ihgno clearfix  \">\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132382359,imgsize-978773,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/132382359.jpg\" alt=\"Watch: Erling Haaland arrives home carrying a 'Raccoon', breaks silence on viral companion\" title=\"Erling Haaland arrives Norway (Image: X)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Erling Haaland arrives Norway (Image: X)\">Erling Haaland arrives Norway (Image: X)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Erling Haaland returned to Norway as a national hero after the team&#8217;s memorable <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/fifa-world-cup\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> campaign, but it wasn&#8217;t just the striker who caught everyone&#8217;s attention. As the Norwegian squad arrived home to a rousing reception, Haaland was spotted stepping off the team plane carrying a stuffed raccoon, an image that quickly went viral across social media.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>The Manchester City star embraced the joke. Reacting to the now-famous pictures on X, Haaland wrote: &#8220;It followed me home,&#8221; adding a raccoon emoji and a laughing face emoji.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/>He didn&#8217;t stop there.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>Haaland also asked fans to help name his unusual companion through an Instagram Stories poll, offering four choices: &#8220;Cowboy,&#8221; &#8220;Ranger,&#8221; &#8220;TEX,&#8221; and &#8220;R.O.W. (Raccoon on Wheels),&#8221; the latter seemingly a playful nod to Norway&#8217;s viral &#8220;Viking Row&#8221; celebration that became one of the defining fan moments of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/><\/p>\n<div data-pos=\"0\" class=\"id-r-component iIpbx undefined  &#10;        \">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Haaland's Instagram\" msid=\"132382251\" width=\"\" title=\"\" placeholdersrc=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/83033472.cms\" imgsize=\"\" resizemode=\"4\" offsetvertical=\"0\" placeholdermsid=\"47529300\" type=\"thumb\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-132382251\/haalands-instagram.jpg\" data-api-prerender=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>The light-hearted moment came as Norway received a hero&#8217;s welcome back home. More than 100,000 fans packed the streets of Oslo, turning the Norwegian capital into a sea of red, white and blue to celebrate the team&#8217;s historic campaign. The celebrations reached a fitting climax when Crown Prince Haakon led one final &#8220;Viking Row&#8221; celebration, beating the drums as the players and thousands of supporters joined in unison, bringing the curtain down on Norway&#8217;s unforgettable World Cup journey.<!-- --> <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h3>Erling Haaland&#8217;s memorable World Cup campaign<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p>In his debut FIFA World Cup, Erling Haaland signed off with 7 goals across 6 matches. He didn&#8217;t pick up a single yellow card, registering 14 shots on target. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"cdatainfo   id-r-component \" data-pos=\"28\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Opponent<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Stage<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Result<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Score<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Erling Haaland&#8217;s Performance<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Iraq<\/td>\n<td>Group Stage<\/td>\n<td>Won<\/td>\n<td><strong>4\u20131<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>2 goals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Senegal<\/td>\n<td>Group Stage<\/td>\n<td>Won<\/td>\n<td><strong>3\u20132<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>2 goals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>France<\/td>\n<td>Group Stage<\/td>\n<td>Lost<\/td>\n<td><strong>1\u20134<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Rested (Did not play)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ivory Coast<\/td>\n<td>Round of 32<\/td>\n<td>Won<\/td>\n<td><strong>2\u20131<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>1 goal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Brazil<\/td>\n<td>Round of 16<\/td>\n<td>Won<\/td>\n<td><strong>2\u20131<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>2 goals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>England<\/td>\n<td>Quarterfinal<\/td>\n<td>Lost (AET)<\/td>\n<td><strong>1\u20132<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Played 105 minutes (0 goals)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/football\/fifa-world-cup\/watch-erling-haaland-arrives-home-carrying-a-raccoon-breaks-silence-on-viral-companion\/articleshow\/132382094.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erling Haaland arrives Norway (Image: X) Erling Haaland returned to Norway as a national hero after the team&#8217;s memorable FIFA World Cup campaign, but it wasn&#8217;t just the striker who caught everyone&#8217;s attention. As the Norwegian squad arrived home to a rousing reception, Haaland was spotted stepping off the team plane carrying a stuffed raccoon, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}