Haaland angered Van Dijk so much after Anfield debut that he walked out of interview

Erling Haaland left Virgil van Dijk so rattled after RB Salzburg’s stunning 3-3 comeback at Anfield in October 2019 that the Liverpool defender walked away mid-interview rather than discuss the teenage striker’s performance, according to former Norway international Jan Aage Fjortoft.

Salzburg arrived at Anfield for a Champions League group-stage fixture and found themselves 3-0 down inside 36 minutes. What followed was one of the more remarkable recoveries in the competition that season: Hwang Hee-chan, Takumi Minamino, and Haaland — then 19 years old — all scored to level at 3-3 before Mohamed Salah’s winner sealed a 4-3 victory for the hosts.

Fjortoft, speaking on the Blood Red podcast in 2020, recalled attempting to get Van Dijk’s assessment of Haaland after the final whistle. “After the game, I interviewed Van Dijk, who I always like to interview because he is a gentleman, and I said, ‘I have to ask you about the Norwegian, Erling Haaland,’” Fjortoft said. “And he just said, ‘Well, we won the game.’ So I said, ‘Yes, but what do you think about him?’ Van Dijk said, ‘I didn’t see a lot of him,’ and he was a bit angry because there was some mistakes done. And then he just went away.”

Fjortoft noted that Haaland’s ability to create space was what struck him most on that first viewing in person. “He scored one goal but he could have had three or four — he was unbelievable. I was amazed how he created space and how I define that is how his runs are wise and experienced,” he said.

The anecdote has resurfaced in the context of the 2026 World Cup, where Haaland has carried Norway deep into the knockout rounds. The 25-year-old has scored five goals in his debut World Cup tournament and is set to lead the line when Norway face Brazil in the round of 16 on Sunday. A win would take the Scandinavian nation to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1998.

Van Dijk, meanwhile, captained the Netherlands through a more turbulent group stage, with the Dutch drawing 2-2 against Japan before recovering with victories over Sweden and Tunisia.