Google “Halland”. The portal will reply “Perhaps you meant Haaland.” But no, there is a Swedish city called Halland whose online searches have been completely overshadowed by the success of the Norwegian striker.
Jimmy Sandberg, director of tourism for the Halland region, has had enough of Google burying his land because of the Manchester City attacker’s goals and has written a letter asking the world of football to be careful when differentiating to the city and the footballer.
“We are Halland, he is Haaland. The popularity of this football phenomenon is drowning out our online presence,” Sandberg said. “To our despair, all our efforts to promote Halland have disappeared. If nothing is done, we fear that our beloved region is at risk of becoming a forgotten Atlantis, a place known only in history and ancient writings.”
Perhaps Sandberg is being dramatic when comparing his city to Atlantis, but the truth is that when you search for Halland on Google, you have to go through 25 photographs of Haaland, with the shirt of Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City, before finding a first photo of a landscape of Halland.
An error of just one letter that disrupts the tourism plan of this region, located in the south of Sweden and which has a population of around 300,000 inhabitants. Halland is not known for the goals it scores, but for its beaches. Not even soccer is the most popular sport, but it is handball that wins the game, with the jewel of HK Drott, winning eleven times in the Swedish First Division.
Still, Sandberg acknowledges that the Haaland explosion has led to a multiplication of the word “Halland” on social media, albeit for the wrong reason. He does not hesitate to invite Haaland to get to know the region and assured that many Norwegians usually go on vacation to these beaches and that he will feel at home.
At the moment, it does not seem that Haaland plans to spend the summer in his twin city, but that his plans during the next World Cup, in which he does not participate since Norway did not qualify, are quite far from Sweden.
The Manchester City striker will spend a few days in Marbella, where he has a house and where he has already been seen on the beach on several occasions as if he were just another man from Malaga. EFE
