“Haaland comes from a pretty wholesome family as well. I think with both of them it is the European touch (playing in Europe at club level) that has made them aware of different cultures and made them who they are.
“The last World Cup was a massive success. This one has provided a feel-good factor.”
The friendship between the pair was noticed first at BVB, who even put out a video on YouTube on Valentine’s Day of them reading cheesy pick-up lines to each other.
They included Haaland reading, “I’d like to take you to the movies but they don’t let you bring in your own snacks.”
“Is your name Google, because you have all I’m searching for,” was one from Bellingham.
Some fans of the duo have invoked the gay ice hockey romance Heated Rivalry, suggesting the players – though both reportedly in relationships with women – have the personal charm and sexual tension to fuel their own football version – enthusiastically dubbed “Cleated Rivalry”.
Social media expert Mark Navarra said the friendship showed a different, more affectionate side to footballers.
“In some ways it is a bit of an antidote in the sense that it gives people some relief from the more exhausting sides of football social media,” he told the BBC.
“Football online is often built around outrage and tribalism and turning every player into either heroes and villains, so I think what these clips do is re-humanise two people who are normally cast as multi-million pound assets or rivals or goal-scoring machines. These are two of the most ruthlessly competitive players in world football, but off the pitch they are funny, affectionate and clearly comfortable in showing they care about each other.
“There is also something incredibly refreshing about two young male athletes displaying a warm notionally open friendship without feeling the need to perform hostility for the cameras – they can desperately still want to beat each other but still like and respect each other.
“Their chemistry feels earned rather than engineered. This friendship has years of history behind it.
“They are also a brilliant character pairing, Bellingham is polished, articulate, emotionally expressive, Haaland is much more eccentric, deadpan, naturally meme-able – I think together they reveal sides of each other fans don’t normally see when they are performing as elite athletes.”
The two players’ respective lives off the pitch are also part of their popularity.
Haaland’s girlfriend is childhood sweetheart Isabel Haugseng Johansen.
They appear to eschew the excesses of footballers’ lives, explaining a typical night in during an interview with Norwegian channel NRK.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9l8pzxv7vo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
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