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Ladies, gentlemen, and man-bun aficionados of every age—something significant has taken place.
Erling Haaland, Manchester City's star forward and arguably the most captivating figure of the 2026 World Cup, has gone under the clippers. In fact, shaved his head is likely the more precise way to put it, given this was far from a simple trim. However you choose to describe it, the striker's flowing golden mane is no more. In its place stands a buzz cut.
"This beautiful blond hair…time to let it go," Haaland shared in a recent YouTube vlog, which has accumulated over four million views since being posted on Sunday. "I was thinking about [cutting] it right after the World Cup, but I was so busy I never got around to it. The season is starting now, so it's time for a fresh beginning."
Short hair don't care 😅✂️ pic.twitter.com/tPzQVFoUIL
After walking fans through the entire cutting process—"I look like Kevin from Home Alone," he remarks at one point in the clip—Haaland then rings up several high-profile friends for their reactions via FaceTime: including Oasis guitarist and devoted Man City supporter Noel Gallagher; former head coach Pep Guardiola; and Swedish football icon Zlatan Ibrahimović, who had previously warned Haaland against chopping off his locks, fearing he might lose the power they supposedly carried.
"What the f--- did you do?" said Ibrahimović, who once sported a ponytail himself, is heard quipping on the call. "Block me and delete my number!"
Unfortunately, the fresh start Haaland was seeking didn't immediately show up on the field. Although City claimed a 2–1 victory in its opening match back, the striker had little to do with it, failing to find the net.
With that quiet performance in mind, you might find yourself wondering … was Ibrahimović onto something? Could Haaland's extraordinary talent have actually been intertwined with the length of his hair? Personally, I don't think so—as heartbroken as I am over this transformation, I'm not ready to declare the striker finished simply because he's now sporting a Justin Bieber-style cut. But the change did spark a thought: Why does it feel like such a monumental moment when sports' biggest names alter their hairstyles?
For better or worse, athlete hair makeovers have been a reliable source of fascination for sports fans throughout the years. In the 1990s, the ever-changing colors on Dennis Rodman's head were just as compelling and headline-worthy as his performances on the court. In 2000, the entire nation of England nearly buckled under the weight of David Beckham's jaw-dropping buzz cut. In 2008, Allen Iverson stunned the basketball world by abandoning his iconic braids, and in 2012, Shaun White took scissors to his trademark fiery-red curls. Megan Rapinoe lifted a World Cup trophy with a vivid pink crop. Jimmy Butler went through a meme-worthy punk-rock phase (though we all know it was never really a phase), and Trevor Lawrence nearly broke the internet when fans believed he had shaved off his long hair ahead of the 2026 NFL season.
Each of these moments felt weighty, even historic, at the time. But why exactly?
Well, for starters, there's definitely a touch of woo-woo thinking involved. Athletes rank among the most superstitious individuals on the planet (hello, Sidney Crosby), and frequently believe that any disruption to their pre-, post-, or mid-game rituals could throw off their rhythm, to the point where their performance genuinely suffers. Fans themselves feed into this as well—even when there's no rational basis for believing something as surface-level as a haircut will impact play, we tend to latch onto such explanations because, at the very least, it gives us something to point to.
"Many athletes have some sort of personal ritual, routine or superstition, and haircuts can be part of these," Zeynep Atha, a lead sports psychologist at Sheffield Hallam University, told The Athletic in 2024. "Adhering to such rituals can provide psychological comfort and confidence that help athletes cope with uncertainty and things that are uncontrollable.
"In today's sport culture, we have seen athletes eating an exact food or shaving before the games because the idea is that consistency there will lend a hand to consistency of performances."
Furthermore, and in line with Ibrahimović's point, there's undeniably a spiritual dimension to this discussion as well. Consider the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah, in which an unexpected haircut strips a mighty man of his strength. As dramatic as it may sound, perhaps we're drawing on some version of this narrative—whichever resonates most with your own beliefs—when we panic and obsess over a visit to the barber.
But what if haircuts are actually beneficial for athletes, rather than some invisible curse to be dreaded? In that same The Athletic piece, Atha highlighted how a new hairstyle could genuinely boost a player's confidence, which could in turn have a positive effect on their performance. That sounds remarkably like the "look good, feel good, play good" philosophy that Deion Sanders championed in the NFL decades ago.
Hard science supports this view, too. According to a 2023 study published in the Academy of Management Journal, dressing well in the workplace not only elevates an employee's self-esteem but also enhances productivity. A separate study, from 2015, reached a similar conclusion. And while hair isn't quite the same as clothing, and professional athletes aren't conventional office workers, it still stands to reason that footballers might experience a genuine boost in output and performance when they're feeling and looking their sharpest on the pitch.
So yes—it can be jarring, even unsettling, when our favorite athletes change their appearance, if only because change itself tends to unsettle us. But every now and then, it's worth reminding ourselves that our superstitions are little more than thinly disguised attempts to feel in control, and that in sports, looks only matter if they get in the way of what's within.
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Happy for you, Haaland!
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Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing management (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.