Erling Haaland loves the Champions League anthem. Back when he was first making his name in Europe's top competition with Red Bull Salzburg, scoring a hat-trick in his first game against Genk and then netting against Liverpool at Anfield, he posted a video of him driving while listening to the iconic theme tune, composed by British musician Tony Britten.
While at Borussia Dortmund, where Haaland's love affair with the competition continued, he revealed that he woke up everyday to the anthem as it was the alarm on his phone. And at his presentation with Manchester City, he admitted he had not changed the ringtone.
Well, now he might have to. The Champions League has been rebooted, and so has its anthem. To celebrate the new format, which was presented to the world in a glitzy advert featuring Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gianluigi Buffon and Haaland's team-mates Rodri and Ruben Dias, Britten recorded a new, refined version of the anthem.
The new version, like the new format, riled plenty of traditionalists who are against anything new, but the song keeps all the elements of the original but is slicker. Haaland would certainly have no reason to dislike the ditty.
And the new format is also good news for the Norwegian, who has already made the competition his domain and won it while he was still 22. Now he has more games to fill his boots in the competition and catch Cristiano Ronaldo as the all-time top scorer.
