Erling Haaland does not know who Spider-Man is. Or rather — he doesn't care enough to reply.
Tom Holland revealed on The Tonight Show that he sent the Manchester City striker a direct message after spotting him at the Monaco Grand Prix in early June, asking if he wanted to hang out. Haaland left him completely on read. No reply. No excuse. Nothing.
"Not an excuse, not 'I'm busy tonight, I'm playing football,' nada," Holland told Jimmy Fallon, somehow still charmed by the whole thing. He called it "the type of humbling experience that is important for actors."
Context makes it funnier
The Monaco sighting apparently gave Holland the confidence to shoot his shot — he was watching Lewis Hamilton race when he clocked Haaland across a hospitality suite and decided to fire off a message. The logic is understandable. The outcome was not.
According to an X post Fallon quoted on air, Haaland had no idea who Holland was and assumed he was just a random person sliding into his DMs. The man doesn't watch movies. He plays football and, apparently, ignores celebrities.
To Holland's credit, he absorbed it well. "I never imagined I would talk about it on live television, but here we are."
Norway's World Cup exit adds a layer
Any slim chance of a belated dinner invite took a further hit on July 11, when England knocked Norway out of the World Cup 2-1 in Miami. Holland — a vocal England fan — acknowledged the timing was not ideal. "I don't think he would have dinner with me after the other day," he said, before adding: "Bless him."
Haaland, for his part, was characteristically understated after the defeat, saying he'd actually been supporting England — he claims he got an England shirt before a Norway one as a kid. Whether that goodwill extends to replying to Tom Holland's DMs is another matter entirely.
Haaland scored goals throughout Norway's campaign, but it wasn't enough to get past England. The striker returns to pre-season preparations at City without a World Cup run to show for it — and with at least one unanswered message in his inbox.
