And What About Alexander Sørloth?
There is also a player-level dimension. A statement attributed to Norwegian striker Alexander Sørloth—“We’re sorry for all the people of Palestine”—has circulated extensively across pro-Palestinian football pages and social platforms. Multiple posts carry the quotation in Sørloth’s name.
An EEAT-standard publication, however, should draw a distinction the social-media algorithm rarely bothers to make: the Sørloth quotation is widely circulated, but I have not located a primary full-length interview, official federation transcript or original video that independently establishes the exact wording beyond doubt.
That does not mean the quote is necessarily false. It means the evidence standard is different from the Klaveness statement, which is firmly documented through mainstream reporting and the federation’s public policy.
This distinction matters because the Palestine cause does not need fake celebrity endorsements. It does not become stronger by putting the right words into the wrong mouth. When an actual football federation is donating revenue to Gaza, publicly debating Israel’s suspension and challenging FIFA’s political conduct, fabricating—or carelessly misattributing—a Haaland quote only gives opponents an easy escape hatch from the much harder facts.
They can shout “fake news” at the meme and pretend the entire Norwegian position was imaginary.
It was not.
Haaland Himself Is More Complicated Than Either Side Wants
The attempt to turn Haaland into a clean ideological symbol also collapses under scrutiny. In April 2025, he held a video call with Omer Shem Tov, an Israeli who had been held hostage in Gaza and was reportedly a major Haaland fan. That act was real.
But calling a released hostage does not automatically establish support for every action of the Israeli government, just as sympathy for Palestinian civilians does not establish support for Hamas. The political internet hates such distinctions because tribal narratives require every celebrity to be either completely “ours” or completely “theirs.”
Human beings do not always cooperate with that script.
Haaland can perform an act of compassion toward a former hostage without having made the viral Gaza statement attributed to him. Norway’s football federation can take a far stronger institutional position on Gaza than its most famous footballer personally chooses to articulate. Both facts can exist simultaneously.
The truth is untidier than propaganda. That is precisely why it is more useful.
