Videoes posted by Anastasia Kostromitina, a Russian model with no connection to football have gone viral online for an unexpected reason: she bears a striking resemblance to Norway star Erling Haaland, who has been enjoying a wave of popularity during the 2026 edition of the World Cup, football’s biggest extravaganza.
The 25-year-old sports sensation Haaland, who has scored seven times in four appearances so far in this World Cup, made both goals in his team’s historic victory against Brazil and has helped ensure their first-ever quarter-final appearance, against England on Sunday at 1am UAE time.
Anastasia, who is blonde and has blue gray eyes, looks like a female version of Haaland. However, she stands at 170cm tall, while the Norwegian giant player is 195cm tall.
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Over 1 hundred million views
For Anastasia, she never realised how much she looks alike Haaland until one friend pointed out to the resemblence. “First a female friend told me I look like a soccer player, then my friends and family picked up on it and it went on and on,” she told Reuters during an interview in Moscow.
“When he became popular during this World Cup, a trend appeared on the internet with people looking like him making videoes. So, I decided why not do the same, especially that everyone was telling me about it,” she added, while holding a mobile phone where Haaland appears on the screen and immitating his reactions.
Her videoes got more than one hundred million views, she said. “I did not expect that it will go so viral at all but the views are still going up. Now I have more work and more commercials and this is great. I think”.
Imitating Halaand’s every move
Anastasia, who has 139,000 followers on Instagram, invested in the natural coincidence. She posted videos of her imitating famous and sunny reactions by Haaland on and off the pitch. Take a look:
Baby Haalands
Since the beginning of this World Cup, clips of Haaland’s funny reactions has taken the world by storm and his popularity has skyrocketed worldwide.
In Peru, Haaland’s fans have gone as far as naming their children after him, with 468 bearing his surname, according to the national identity registry in the South American country.
Another 91 infants carry the full name Erling Haaland, it said. Most newborn Peruvians named after Haaland were registered in the weeks following the World Cup’s kick-off, with numbers soaring when Norway advanced to the quarter-finals.
Football fever has inspired new parents in Peru in the past, with 3,402 people born in the country bearing the name Messi—292 of whom bear Argentine star Lionel Messi’s full name.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has 1,185 Peruvian namesakes, while 1,241 are called Yamal after Spain’s prized player Lamine Yamal. A whopping 33,809 are named after Brazil’s Neymar.
(With inputs from AFP)
Source: Khaleej Times