Meet the Beauty Influencer Who Looks Just Like Soccer Star Erling Haaland

Emma Kate Willman is a 24-year-old content creator from Charleston, South Carolina. She makes videos about hair and beauty for her fans online. Recently, people started saying she looks just like Erling Haaland — the famous Norwegian soccer player who has been lighting up the FIFA World Cup. That one comparison changed her life in a matter of days.

Haaland plays for Manchester City and is one of the top scorers at this year's World Cup, with seven goals. Only Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi have scored more. Haaland and Willman both have long blonde hair and similar facial features, and fans on the internet quickly took notice. People flooded Willman's comment sections asking if the soccer star was actually her brother.

The attention brought Willman a huge wave of new followers. She gained nearly 125,000 new followers across Instagram and TikTok. Her TikTok account alone now has more than 430,000 followers. She was surprised by all the excitement, but she took it in stride with a sense of humor.

In one Instagram video, Willman joked about the comparison. She said, 'The best doppelganger you could give me is a male soccer player? Really? Can't we just go back to when you guys were calling me Zara Larsson?' A doppelganger is a person who looks almost exactly like someone else.

Then something amazing happened. Haaland himself found one of Willman's older French braid tutorial videos and left a comment that simply said 'Hi' with a thumbs-up emoji. By Friday, that single comment had been liked nearly 2.5 million times. 'Every time I went back and checked the comments, it just doubled in likes,' Willman said. 'So, it was crazy.'

The buzz around Willman led to some exciting real-world opportunities. A company called Kalshi, which is a sports prediction platform, invited her to attend the World Cup quarter-final match between England and Norway in Miami. She and Kalshi also hosted a Haaland look-alike contest, where the winner received a pair of tickets to the game at Hard Rock Stadium. On top of that, she filmed a fun promotional video for Buffalo Wild Wings.

Willman grew up on Long Island, New York, and briefly played soccer when she was 11 years old. But she was much more interested in gymnastics and cheerleading. She later moved to South Carolina to study at the University of South Carolina. After she graduated, she worked as a server at a beachside bar called the Tiki Hut, where she started posting hairstyle videos during her shifts.

Those videos caught on quickly, and Willman kept making more content about hair and skincare. Her growing popularity even helped her sign with a talent management agency called Dulcedo. She said she never felt bothered by being compared to famous people. 'We're both blondes, fair-skinned. I think that's where a lot of it comes from,' she said. 'He's got awesome hair, so I don't mind.'

Willman jumped into the fun by making videos where she copied Haaland's own hairstyles, including Dutch braids, French braids, and his famous slicked-back bun. She admired how much he could do with his long hair. 'It's so fun that he has long hair because he can do so much with it,' she said. 'He does his perfect slick back that I know he doesn't even need any product for.'

Looking ahead, Willman hopes that all of this attention might lead to an actual meeting with Haaland. She imagines that a side-by-side photo or video with him would be both funny and unforgettable. 'If I was able to meet him, that would obviously be awesome,' she said. For now, she is simply enjoying the ride and having what she calls the most fun she has ever had on social media.