Hair may be the focus of Emma Kate Willman’s social media content, but since she started posting, she’s been receiving comments about something (well, someone) completely different.
“I swear if I get one more comment about how I look like Erling Haaland,” the American content creator joked in a video this week. She heard this comparison for years and under every post, but during the World Cup the situation escalated.
Emma Kate Willman’s comment section was filled with one name: Erling Haaland. Instagram, Getty
This week, in just one two-hour period, Willman, from Charleston, received 100,000 comments comparing her to the Norwegian striker the world can’t get enough of.
“This guy has some of the best hair I’ve ever seen in my life, so I’ll take it,” she told her followers.
Now the already surreal situation has taken a new turn: Haaland himself has stumbled upon his online double.
The content creator woke up to find a comment from the football figure himself. Instagram/@emmakwillman
“I never really noticed the resemblance until I woke up and he commented on my Instagram,” Willman said. The soccer superstar posted a simple “Hi” with a thumbs up emoji underneath the French braid tutorial she posted a few weeks ago.
With thousands of followers to her name, Willman was used to a constant stream of notifications, but she was baffled when the humble Reel was inundated with a whole new audience.
“It must have been the right algorithm and suddenly all the World Cup teams commented on it, Adidas commented on it,” she said on Tuesday.
The video now boasts more than 160,000 comments, most of which highlight and mock Willman’s resemblance to the long-haired jock.
“Two great goals against Brazil today!” one reads and another asks if she is “Haaland’s long-lost sister.”
While preparations for the World Cup quarter-finals should keep him busy, Haaland is known for being active on social media, so it’s no surprise Willman’s video made its way to him.
“I never thought my biggest social media moment would be looking like a famous sports athlete,” she told her followers.
Over the years, Willman’s followers have noted her resemblance to other celebrities, including Zara Larsson, “baby Taylor Swift” and Millie Bobby Brown.
However, comparisons to Haaland were constant and appeared in “every post” she shared during her social media career.
“Can’t we just go back to when you guys called me Zara Larsson?” Willman joked in one video. AP Photo/Scott Garfitt
Haaland has become a star of the 2026 World Cup. Getty Images
“The best double you give me is a male football player. Is it true?” she joked on TikTok.
“Can we just go back to when you guys called me Zara Larsson, please? No offense to Haaland, but I’m just a little girl from Charleston.”
However, Willman admits that he sees similarities in some of the materials.
“I think half of it is that I have the same facial structure as him and we’re both very blonde with very light eyebrows,” she said.
Oddly enough, she’s not the only female Haaland lookalike to go viral on social media, with Swedish model Yulia Grop and Russian model Anastasia Kostromitina comparing her to the flamboyant striker.
Willman, for his part, hopes to turn the online attention into a real-life World Cup experience.
“I think they should let me fly out and do his hair before the game, it will be the highlight of my life,” she said.