Revealed: How Erling Haaland Became Deadlier Than Ever During His Extended Summer Break

Raspeballs. Ever heard of them? Probably not. A Scandinavian potato dumpling made with flour, butter and some meat. It’s a staple food, but staple food is what Erling Haaland devours.

Especially when he’s back home. Raspeballs at Vangen Café, the place to eat in Voss County – the adrenaline capital of Norway, according to the tourist board. The Haalands have a holiday home in the village of Rasdalen, towards the west coast. If Voss is small, with 15,000 inhabitants, then Rasdalen is miniature.

Haaland was there the week before he returned to Manchester City training in the third week of July. Strolling through the farmers’ market, Felleskjøpet. Rejuvenating, having his photo taken on the rocks of Lake Voss in that famous Lotus Pose. At one with the mountains and nature in a part of the world known for its hiking, white-water rafting and skiing.

Voss has won 98 world championships and Olympic medals over the years. And now one of the three most recognizable faces in football spends his holidays there. And he does so with relative impunity.

This was Haaland’s chance. His longest break from football in seven years. Back then, he was at Molde under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, more of a beanpole than the towering figure who shoved aside strange new foe Marc Cucurella during their Premier League re-introduction on Sunday. He was not the phenomenon he is now.

Erling Haaland scored in Man City’s win over Chelsea on his return to Premier League competition

Haaland looked in good form after a summer in which he was finally able to rest

It was in fact Haaland’s longest end-of-season break since he was a youngster at Molde

Haaland scored in last weekend’s win over Chelsea – Haaland scored, of course, his 91st goal in 100 appearances for City – and there is a sense that this extended period of rest while everyone else was at the Euros or the Copa America has made him a more daunting prospect this season.

“I had the feeling that he feels better at the moment than last season,” Pep Guardiola said. “After the Treble he felt tired.”

The trip to Voss came at the end of the summer, although there was still time to visit his actual home. A six-hour drive south is Bryne, where Haaland grew up, and he went to Kafé Jærbuen. Haaland ordered the kjottkaker, a traditional Norwegian meatball dish in a place that uses recipes from cookbooks dating back to the 1830s, and is said to have eaten the menu. The café’s name is derived from the collective noun for those who live in the area, and Jærbuen is how Haaland is affectionately remembered in the newspapers.

That marked the end of his 36-day absence from football after international friendlies, roughly 10 days longer than any other off-season he has enjoyed before. He watched the Euros only occasionally, and the pain of Norway’s failure to progress continues to manifest itself.

Haaland was in a cheerful mood upon his return to City. As well as teasing the doctor who examined him at the Manchester Institute of Health & Performance ahead of his pre-season test, the 24-year-old complained of tight hamstrings and an aching back. He blamed his father, Alfie, for sending him to chop wood in Norway.

Yet he scored a superb goal in City’s season opener, gently tapping the ball over Sanchez into the Chelsea goal and looking fit and sharp.

“These are Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s numbers,” Guardiola said after Haaland’s 91st goal in 100 City games on Sunday. “They controlled absolutely everything in the last 10 years, 15 years. In terms of numbers, it’s that level. I don’t know how he does it, but scoring 91 goals in 100 games in this country is incredible.”

By sailing on a 100,000 euro a week superyacht, the Norwegian boat has become even more dangerous

Haaland even jumped on the DJ tables at Marbella’s Playa Padre club during his break

It comes after Haaland was criticised for failing to influence the biggest games despite scoring nine in his last 10 games, and he looked ready to go on Sunday after the crushing disappointment of just 27 Premier League goals in his second season.

On Sunday, the emphasis in some quarters was more on the fact that he completed just three passes at Stamford Bridge than on the “magnificent goal” – Guardiola’s words – and the unfortunate foul he was awarded as Rico Lewis looked to have doubled their lead.

It’s a situation where you come before the king and he undoubtedly takes note of opponents. The reaction to Roy Keane a few months ago made headlines and, strange as it may sound, Haaland wears the badge of a man with something to prove.

Guardiola has also given him a few nudges in the past month. The Catalan has said that he pushes the striker to be more focused – normally no problem. He has said that if Haaland feels tired, he should go to bed earlier. Interesting, considering the only thing Haaland loves more than a bowl of kjottkaker is the nap afterwards; it felt sharp to hear Guardiola mention these things during their tour of America.

Haaland suffered from muscle pain and was unable to fully participate in training in the United States, which his manager described as “harassment”, before adding that “sooner or later he will have to step up his training and play more minutes”.

It has been heard, the holiday mode is long gone. Rondo brawls – mostly when he is chasing the ball in the middle, it must be said – and a hat-trick in a friendly win over Chelsea were moments when the bite seemed to be back.

He was somewhat subdued in the Community Shield, with some of City’s first-team staff shouting his name as Harry Maguire beat him easily on a loose ball. ‘Come on Erling.’

Pep Guardiola insisted Haaland looks better than usual at this point in the season

Haaland occasionally skipped watching Euro 2024 out of frustration that Norway failed to qualify

Understated at Wembley perhaps, but the spaces he dragged Maguire into probably deserved to be exploited by those behind him. And who’s to say that if Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden had been on the scene it wouldn’t be a very different story.

Either way, Sunday brought the true return of the threat, even if he believes there is more to do. “I don’t feel perfect, I’m not in perfect shape,” Haaland said. “The best players are the best at the easiest things. Touching the ball with your right hand and passing with your left hand. That’s the most important thing. Pep says this to me all the time.

“I want to get more involved, that’s what Pep wants. I want to get more assists and become a better player. But in these kind of games, do I need to be that much more involved? That’s the million dollar question.”

The debate over how many touches he takes in a game is largely redundant. Seventeen in West London for those of you still tickled by this sort of thing, one a bullet-defending header from a corner.

Guardiola may want to involve him more, but he knows that Haaland doesn’t necessarily need to touch the ball. What they need from him is a clear mind, almost empty. So the trip around the Mediterranean, to eat the Fjords, could be the most important work Haaland has done in a long time.

This was a real holiday. Jumping on the DJ decks at Playa Padre in Marbella – one night like Hilda Ogden, wearing a headscarf – right by another family home. A few days there, great fun. And then renting a €100,000-a-week yacht to Saint-Tropez. Jet ski on board, paddleboards, diving gear.

The whole gang in a yacht with sleeping accommodations for 11 people, a party including his family, girlfriend Isabel Haugseng Johansen and people like Erik Botheim, who plays for Malmö and traveled all the way to the Italian island of Capri, where they visited the picturesque sea cave Blue Grotto.

It wasn’t all flying for Haaland during City’s pre-season tour of the US last summer

The 24-year-old was also somewhat subdued in the Community Shield against Man United

But Sunday brought the real return of the threat, even if Haaland believes there is more to do

He was absolutely in love with it. He was eager for the Euros but was taking his time. That said, he couldn’t have missed the Cucurella episode during Spain’s title celebrations when the left-back bizarrely suggested that Haaland was trembling at the thought of facing him. Bizarre in the sense that the two had barely touched. They now have a photo of Haaland standing over a floored Cucurella from Sunday’s win that is particularly striking.

“It was an interesting song, that, from that guy,” Haaland said – using much of the same language he reserved for Keane last season. “There’s not much to say. I don’t really think about it. He can do whatever he wants. Last year he asked me for my shirt and he started singing about me.”

The minor negatives, the brutality, are back. Haaland is back. One Premier League goal down, many more to go before this all ends for a year. He will never get a better chance to destroy the rest straight away and, with Guardiola crumbling, there is the potential for this to be something special indeed.