Erling Haaland, a striker for Manchester City, is accustomed to having his father’s injury-related insult him whenever he competes against Manchester United…
Football supporters are renowned for their unwavering allegiance and concerted efforts to secure victory for their team.
For decades, chants have been an integral element of football culture. Its brevity, acerbic nature, and forceful nature render it ideal for infamous enthusiasts, who tread delicately between masterful creativity and exceedingly offensive linguistic abilities.
Nevertheless, they are also notoriously vicious in their methods and motivations for abusing a counter-attacking player. When that player is Erling Braut Haaland, who is currently arguably the best striker in the world, it becomes critical to devise a strategy that is effective in order to subdue the Manchester City goal-machine and deter him from delivering his best performance.
United fans therefore begin repeatedly chanting “Keano, Keano” and “Haaland, How’s your father?” whenever Haaland steps onto the Old Trafford field to face the Red Devils in the Manchester derby or places the ball on the spot for a penalty kick.
Numerous football supporters are familiar with the racially charged chant, which concerns the unsettling past of Roy Keene, the former United captain and father of the Norwegian striker.
In this article, GOAL provides an explanation as to why the Manchester City striker is subjected to such taunts from United supporters, as well as the history behind the now-regular occurrence at Old Trafford whenever the Citizens visit the city.
Why do Man Utd fans sing ‘Haaland, how’s your dad’?
The taunt alludes to the startling derby challenge that former Red Devils captain Roy Keane issued to Alf-Inge Haaland in April 2001. The story of the former Premier League duo and Haaland Sr.’s long-standing rivalry with the United legend is well-known among football aficionados of the 1990s and 2000s.
Keane executed a reprehensible challenge on Alf-Inge with five minutes remaining in a Manchester derby, with the intention of causing harm to the player rather than securing the ball. Notwithstanding this, it was the subsequent controversy that immortalized this notorious moment in football annals as ‘The Tackle.’
In 1997, while Keane was representing Leeds United, the father of current Manchester City sensation Alf-Inge Haaland stood over his opponent and accused him of faking an injury. However, the truth was that Keane had ruptured his cruciate ligament.
Although his season was effectively ended by the injury, Keane will never forget that tragic day at Elland Road. In April 2001, he exacted vengeance at Old Trafford by maliciously knee-high challenging the opposing midfielder. Prior to that, he had accepted a role reversal from 1997 to stand above Alf-Inge.
Keane subsequently acknowledged in his autobiography that he deliberately intended to inflict harm upon the former Norwegian midfielder as retaliation for his role in the cruciate ligament injury he endured against Alf-Inge four years prior.
Did Roy Keane end Alf-Inge Haaland’s career?
The narrative surrounding Erling Haaland’s current leadership of a Manchester City colossus and his purported ultimate vengeance for his father’s suffering is intriguing; however, it would be an oversimplification to say that Keane was solely to blame for Alfie’s subsequent retirement.
“Did that tackle signal the end of my career?” Have I not played a complete game in my lifetime? “It appears to be an extraordinary coincidence, wouldn’t you agree?” According to an interview with The Daily Mail, Haaland Sr.
Following the challenge, Haaland Sr. was not substituted; four days later, he participated in a friendly against Norway and stood for half an hour before starting City’s 68th minute league match. Although the tackle may have sustained unintended injuries and did endure surgery that summer, Keane’s focus was on his left knee while the operation was conducted on his right.
Alfie appeared four times as a substitute for City in December and January of 2001-02. Following failed attempts at rehabilitation at the conclusion of the subsequent campaign, he made the decision to hang up his boots.
Erling Haaland’s record in the Manchester derby
As a result of his father’s previous involvement with City, Haaland was raised endorsing the club and developing an aversion to the opposing side. Unavoidably, he has adopted a fundamental aspect of Man City fandom: abhorrence for Manchester United.
The Norwegian forward disclosed at his City debut that he was most looking forward to facing the Red Devils and made no attempt to conceal his contempt for them.
In his inaugural Manchester derby in 2022, he expeditiously established his prominence by achieving a hat-trick in a lopsided 6-3 triumph for Manchester City over rivals United.
Haaland, who is only in his second season with the club, has not participated in a significant number of Manchester derbies; however, his father, Alfie, would undoubtedly be pleased with his record of five goals and three assists in just four games against the Red Devils.