It's hard to imagine a 2022 World Cup in Qatar without Erling Haaland. Right now, the 22-year-old star is probably the best player on the planet considering his immediate impact with his new team: Manchester City. Haaland has 18 goals in 13 matches in the Premier League (23 total in all competitions).
Even though he once had the chance to play for England, Erling Haaland decided to represent internationally his family's country and the place where he grew up: Norway. Haaland was born in Leeds, while his father was playing for Leeds United in the Premier League, but then he moved to Bryne, the Norwegian city where he was formed and developed as a player.
Erling Haaland made his senior debut for Norway on September 2019 against Malta in a qualifier for the 2020 UEFA Euro. From that moment on, the striker's dream was to lead his country to their fourth World Cup appearance and the first one since 1998 when they reached the Round of 16 in France.
Why is Erling Haaland missing the Qatar 2022 World Cup?
Norway played in Group G of the UEFA Qualifiers for the World Cup and had a real chance to at least get into the playoffs. After eight games, Norway had 17 points and controlled their destiny to be in the World Cup. With two victories in the final two matches against Latvia and the Netherlands, Erling Haaland could have fulfilled his dream to be in Qatar.
However, on November of 2021, Erling Haaland was injured and couldn't help his team. In the most disappointing game of their entire campaign, Norway ended 0-0 with Latvia in Oslo and complicated everything towards the last match. They had to beat the Netherlands in Amsterdam to have a slight hope for the playoffs.
So, in the final game of Group G, Norway lost 2-0 against the Netherlands in Rotterdam and, combined with a victory by Turkey at Montenegro, they were eliminated from the World Cup. The crushing feeling for Erling Haaland is that we will never know what would have happened if he was healthy enough to play those final matches for the National Team.
