Erling Haaland’s face is doing numbers on two continents this week.
One belongs to the striker terrorising World Cup defences.
The other belongs to a 24-year-old model from Moscow.
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Anastasia Kostromitina went viral after her mum Mariya posted a tongue-in-cheek Instagram reel of her recreating the Norwegian’s trademark poses and goal celebrations.
The clip landed within 24 hours of Haaland’s double against Brazil, and the timing did the rest.
Mariya’s reel pulled in more than four million views and 62,000 comments, while copycat clips spread the joke to around 30 million views across social media in a single day.
Viewers fixated on the blonde hair, the piercing eyes, the sharp features and that stare.
“Brother from another mother?” asked one.
“DNA test not required,” said another.
A third had questions. Specifically: “Questions for Haaland’s dad?”
The comparisons started four years ago
Anastasia, who has modelled for Clarins, Dyson, Uniqlo and Lamoda, says people first started comparing her to the Manchester City star around four years ago.
She did not take it well.
“If I’m honest, I went through all the stages of denial,” she says.
“At first I didn’t understand how I looked like him. Then I was a little offended.
But now I realise that being similar to such a cool athlete – even just physically – is actually not bad at all. So I decided to play on it.”
She has a cold-eyed read on her own comment section too.
“As soon as the haters appeared in the comments, I realised the video had properly hit the trends.
But there are way more kind comments. It’s nice, haters don’t bother me, they just boost the activity.”
Her agency profile lists blue-grey eyes and blonde hair. The internet has filled in the rest.
Awkward timing for England
The viral moment arrives days before England meet Norway in a World Cup quarter-final on 11 July.
Haaland turns up as the tournament’s joint-top scorer with seven goals, and Thomas Tuchel’s side will be hoping the celebrations Anastasia has been copying stay firmly in rehearsal.
Why It Matters
This is the creator economy’s oldest trade: proximity to a bigger story. Anastasia didn’t build this audience.
Haaland’s World Cup did, and her mum spotted the opening.
Lookalike content converts because recognition is instant, the joke needs no setup, and a global tournament supplies fresh relevance every match day.
Her attitude to hate comments, that they simply boost the activity, is textbook creator maths.
A famous face you happen to share is only an asset if you lean in. She leaned.
She joins a growing cast of accidental creators minted by this World Cup, from fan accounts to reaction pages, all riding a month of compressed attention.
Whether the resemblance stays a blessing depends rather a lot on 11 July.
If Haaland scores against England, her comment section will not be a calm place.
