Erling Haaland revealed a fresh haircut before Manchester City's Premier League curtain raiser against Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, live on Sky Sports. The striker ditched his trademark long, tied-back look and returned to a shorter hairstyle reminiscent of his early Borussia Dortmund days. The 26-year-old posted another image on X showing the various stages of his haircut, which he captioned "New hair don't care." In a July interview on *Zlatan Sports*, Haaland said he kept his previous style on the advice of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, another prolific long-haired Scandinavian striker.

Haaland said: "Zlatan - you know what he told me? 'Never cut your hair because the strength is in the hair.'" He unveiled his new look on his ever-growing social media accounts on Sunday morning ahead of Bournemouth's visit. Haaland emerged from the 2026 World Cup as one of the tournament's biggest social media stars after helping Norway reach the quarter-finals. The 26-year-old scored seven goals during Norway's run and gained more than 32m Instagram followers during the 39-day tournament, the biggest growth of any player involved.

His growing profile away from the pitch has added another dimension to Manchester City's status as one of football's biggest global stars, with his personality and social media content attracting a new audience beyond his performances for club and country. That audience will get its first look at Manchester City's new hairstyle in competitive action when Manchester City begin the post-Pep Guardiola era. Enzo Maresca stepped down at the end of last season after more than a decade in charge, with Enzo Maresca taking over as City's new head coach. Maresca will oversee his first Premier League game at the Etihad.

Haaland remains the focal point of the new-look City side and will be expected to lead the line as Maresca begins his reign. City suffered a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield last weekend, but Maresca has backed his squad to respond as they begin their league campaign.