The story behind Erling Haaland and his taxidermy raccoon: ‘Lock the doors, let’s make this special’

Norway star Erling Haaland returned home from the World Cup in North America with an unusual souvenir.

As he stepped off the team plane in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, the Manchester City striker was photographed carrying a pair of bags over his right shoulder, holding a taxidermy raccoon in his left hand. The Norway team was arriving back home after being eliminated from the World Cup at the quarter-final stage by England on Saturday.

Haaland, 25, had an excellent debut at the World Cup, scoring seven goals in five matches. He has seen a surge in popularity in the U.S. during the World Cup, gaining more than 22 million Instagram followers, as a result of his on-pitch performances and off-field personality.

The Manchester City striker bought the raccoon, which is holding an empty bottle of Greenall’s wild berry gin, during a visit to Wild Bill’s Western Store, which has been in Dallas for almost 50 years, where he also donned a pair of snakeskin cowboy boots and a cowboy hat branded with his initials and No 9 shirt number.

The raccoon is currently sold out on Wild Bill’s website, though it has previously been listed for sale at $750 (£562; €659).

Wild Bill’s owner Julie Newport, who bought the store from founder Bill Dewbre with her business partner four years ago, said Haaland had purchased the raccoon and other items, rather than being gifted them.

“It was from us,” Newport told The Athletic. “We’ve had a couple of these taxidermy raccoons in the store for the last few years, and he obviously gravitated to that and a couple of the squirrels. (Since he posted on social media), we ordered another raccoon — we put it out on the floor today, but by the time we put it on the floor, someone already bought it online.

“The taxidermy guy that we buy from has retired. I think I might have one or two more coming. It was $750.”

Haaland, meanwhile, described Dallas as “amazing” and said that he would be returning to the city. “(It’s) unbelievable, so nice,” he said in a vlog of his visit on his YouTube channel, posted on July 3, three days after Norway had beaten Ivory Coast 2-1 in its round-of-16 game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. “I’m coming back here.

“The people are so nice here, so positive. I don’t know what it is, they’re just enjoying life.”

Newport confirmed that a banner on Wild Bill’s site which reads, “Now shipping internationally”, is new, having never done business outside the U.S. before.

“We are somewhere around 2,000 online orders right now, about 30 percent of that is international, but every day when we wake up, we have more orders,” she said. “For international, we just didn’t have that ability turned on before (Haaland visited).

“We sell boots and hats mostly online. People are looking for a specific style or specific brand and then maybe oddly enough, our top-selling product prior to this was the Texas-sized jelly bean right behind you. Now, that’s obviously changed a little bit …

“It’s been really exciting and everybody wants to recreate the moment on the steps. They want the boots and we’ve set up a picture of him, which has become a shrine. It’s been a lot of fun. Then at the end of all of it, I felt really bad that people were starting to ask him for photos, but he autographed two FIFA balls for us that I had here in the store, and my hat that’s sitting up in the hat bar, so I guess you could say this is a huge blessing.”

So, how did Haaland end up at a Western store in Dallas?

“We were contacted the day before the (round-of-16) match,” Newport explained, “and they said someone from the team was coming in and that we wouldn’t know for sure because it was dependent upon security and just getting everybody on the same page.

“So the day of, someone came in and said, ‘Yep, we think it’s happening, we’ll give you a call, heads up.’ We were excited because they said they might want to learn how to line dance and they’re going to want hats. My colleague Emma worked with our team that was here and they learned a line dance (in preparation).

“We got a half an hour heads up, it was actually like five, ten minutes, in between the phone call. He snuck in right behind me as I was scoping out the street to make sure things would be secure. I had the hat bar roped off so he could have a little privacy.

“He had some of the kitmen come and then soon after that, two team members came, and when I was talking with him, I was asking him how his time in Dallas has been. And he said this is the only thing he’s gonna have time for, cause he’s leaving tomorrow.

“I turned over to my manager, Miguel, and I said, ‘Lock the doors. We’re going to make this special for him.” So we locked the doors. There were people out there waiting, but, for these guys, to be on such a world stage, I thought if I could give them anything, it would just be a really amazing experience here in Dallas. So we let them roam about the store for about an hour and a half, and they had the time of their lives.”

Haaland had previously posted a video to his social media showing the raccoon on what appeared to be a hotel room window ledge, alongside a stuffed squirrel standing upright and a stuffed squirrel with a crushed can of Budweiser beer, saying: “There’s one geezer, another geezer, another geezer,” as the camera pans across the three animals.

On Monday, Haaland then posted again about his furry friend on X, saying that it “followed him home” from the United States. He also posted about it on Instagram, writing: “Help me name my new buddy” with “Cowboy”, “Ranger”, “Tex” and “R.O.W. (Raccoon on wheels)” as options.

It followed me home 🦝🤣 pic.twitter.com/IwMhgv0CAb

— Erling Haaland (@Erling) July 13, 2026

Haaland “loved” his time in Wild Bills, Newport said. “You immerse yourself in this Western culture, this Americana nostalgia. He was just very happy and excited in the moment and the team spent a lot of time with him and making sure the hat fit and gave him a little bit of education on the products. It was a really authentic experience for all of us.

“We’re working on getting some exposure for our raccoon t-shirt, because we’ve already had that. Maybe we’ll get some traction, but honestly, we’re happy for the five minutes. I hope that with this exposure when people do make their way to Dallas, it is somewhere they want to come and have a similar experience.”