Fact check: Viral video of Norwegian footballer Haaland getting startled by his reflection is doctored

Multiple users have been sharing a video across social media platforms since Monday, showing Norwegian footballer Erling Haaland getting startled by his reflection in the mirror. However, the video is doctored.

How it started

On June 28, a social media user shared a video on X, showing Haaland getting startled by his reflection in the mirror, with the following caption: “I’m seriously going to die laughing at Haaland.”

The post gained 31.5 million views.

Another social media user shared the same clip with the following caption: “Shocking: Monster Haaland’s reaction, as if startled by his own reflection in the mirror, becomes a hot topic. On SNS, voices of laughter and healing gathered, saying things like How hungry are you lol, Gorilla character lol, and So adorable. At this point, every gesture just looks like Majin Buu lol.”

The post gained 11.4m views.

A football fan, based on past posts, posted the same clip with the following caption: “With Haaland eating and getting scared looking at himself in the mirror, I just can’t handle it. I’m crying over that jump he makes.” It gained 6.4m views.

Another user shared the same clip with a similar caption, accumulating 5.6m views.

Another football fan account posted the same clip, gaining 1.7m views.

The same video was posted by another football fan with the following caption: “Haaland getting scared looking at himself.” It gained 748,000 views.

Similarly, the video was shared by several other users on social media platforms Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X, as can be seen here, here, here, here and here; collectively gaining 805,000 views.

Methodology

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and the public’s keen interest in the Norwegian player amid the ongoing World Cup.

Analysing the video frame by frame to identify visual discrepancies shows a difference in the footballer’s ear structure: appearing pointed in the clip whereas in real life it appears more rounded.

Secondly, at the 4-second mark, his pinky and ring finger appear to be blurred and melting together, a typical feature of digits in AI-generated or edited videos.

The video was then analysed using AI-detection tools with Truth Scan labelling the video as 91 per cent AI-generated, while Detectvideo AI labelled it 53% AI-generated.

Meanwhile, Sora AI Detector flagged it as 53% AI-generated.

X marked the video as AI-generated content in the post’s context section and also shared the original video used to create the doctored clip of Haaland.

A reverse image search revealed that the same original video was posted by a Facebook account on June 19, 2026, and it was the oldest found on the internet.

The claim that a viral video shows Norwegian footballer Erling Haaland getting startled by his reflection is false.

The video is doctored.

This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.