Erling Haaland is suing airline Norwegian over a marketing campaign during this year’s World Cup, a lawyer for the footballer confirmed to dpa.
“The case concerns Norwegian’s unlawful use of Haaland’s trademarks in the marketing of flight tickets during the football World Cup,” the lawyer said on Thursday.
No details were given on which marketing campaign it involved.
But the Verdens Gang newspaper reported that the airline had deleted an Instagram post featuring an edited image of one of its aircraft decorated with Haaland’s blond locks – the player’s hairstyle at the time – and a caption saying: “We’ve never looked so Norwegian.”
The report said that Norwegian reacted with incomprehension to the lawsuit, with the parties are set to meet at an Oslo district court on October 9.
“Like almost all of Norway, we cheered on the national team during the summer – through a few spontaneous posts based on trends on social media,” it was quoted as saying.
“It is a shame that the cheers were answered with a lawsuit. However, we hope for a reasonable dialogue so that we can continue to cheer on our shared sporting heroes in the future.”
Manchester City star Haaland scored seven goals as Norway reached the quarter-finals at the World Cup, beating record winners Brazil in the process, before being stopped by England.