Erling Haaland Statue Stolen After Complaints It Doesn’t Look Like Him

The three-meter-high effigy was built on the trunk of a century-old tree and they suspect that a man with a crane pulled it out at night.

The gigantic statue of Erling Haaland has been stolen after constant complaints about how little resemblance it bore to the footballer. The sculpture was 10 feet tall and had been carved entirely from a tree trunk weighing almost a tonne, but a disgruntled fan reportedly used a crane to rip it out overnight. It was located in a privileged enclave above a store in Bryne, his parents’ hometown in Norway and where he grew up from the age of three.

The effigy depicted the Manchester City player wearing the Norwegian kit with the iconic number 9. At his feet, a ball and the DFB Pokal trophy that he won with Borussia Dortmund before his transfer to Pep Guardiola’s team. The idea of immortalizing Haaland in this way came from the businessman Tore Sivertsen, who invested €12,000 to commission the statue... although even he finally admitted that it was very ugly.

Two weeks ago, the work by wood sculptor Kjetil Barane was placed on the site and Sivertsen’s plans included an auction supposedly to fund a hospital in Tanzania, but it all fell apart following its sudden disappearance. It should be noted that the effigy had been made from a hundred-year-old trunk and that the sculptor took a year to finish the project.

Source: Allfootball