Julia Grop, the Swedish sensation imitating Haaland at the World Cup | OneFootball

Julia Grop has emerged as a World Cup viral star by mimicking Erling Haaland’s distinctive stride, a craze she did not expect.

L'Équipe reports that Haaland has driven Norway into the quarter-finals with six goals and now faces England, where he plays his club football. Grop, a Swede in the Norwegian end, plans to study him closely.

Her sketches on his walk lifted her Instagram from 360,000 to almost 900,000. It started with comments about a supposed likeness to the Premier League’s top scorer. She then posed beside a giant advert of him, and 19 million views later her cousin urged a full parody.

She exaggerated the movement, posted the video, then went to bed. By morning it had tens of thousands of comments and 39 million views, now nearing 90 million, and she says the sudden attention feels surreal.

Grop has kept refining the clips. Though she usually watches football only during the World Cup, she has been studying interviews, compilations and celebrations to grasp the person behind the footballer.

Mindful of scrutiny, she avoids a polished look and says she is simply a content creator who hopes to meet him and film a joint take on the walk to try to break the internet.

Whether Haaland has seen the clips is unknown. She says she would be content even if he has not, and that even if people forget her within two weeks she would be happy to have made them smile during the World Cup.

Source: L'Équipe