He is in the running for the Golden Boot, the trophy awarded to the World Cup’s top goalscorer. But Norway’s Erling Haaland has already earned one prize: the most viral player of the competition.

The striker went into the tournament with legions of fans in Norway and in Manchester – or at least in the blue half of the British city.

And although he plays for Manchester City, Haaland is also beloved by Leeds United supporters; he was born in Leeds when his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, played for the team, and he grew up supporting the West Yorkshire club.

But, with Norway progressing to the quarter-finals, the rest of the world has now also been infected with Haaland mania – not so much for his goalscoring record, but for the content he creates off the pitch.

In the first week of July, searches for “Haaland” entered the UK’s overall top 10 platform searches on TikTok, increasing more than 300% week on week and making him the most searched-for World Cup player during that period.

Searches for “Haaland best moments” also increased by 1,300% week on week, and since the start of the tournament there have been more than 14,000 #Haaland and #ErlingHaaland posts combined, representing an almost 500% increase in posts month on month.

However, while he is soaring in popularity, with 1.4m posts about him in total, he still has some way to go to catch up with #Messi and #Ronaldo, who have 25m and 22.3m posts respectively.

Last Christmas, in a video posted on his YouTube channel, Haaland went undercover as Santa Claus in Manchester, handing out gifts to children, and his tongue-in-cheek Instagram stories have often gone viral, such as when he posted about “raw dogging” a flight with no food, water or entertainment.

And throughout the World Cup, Haaland content has taken off on Instagram and TikTok, while fans have also been flocking to the player’s own Snapchat stories, where he has 4.7 million subscribers.

The player himself seems to have been enjoying the hype, even commenting on some of the posts. He posted a meme of a dog winding up its car window – often used to indicate hiding – on a post shared by an Instagram user that said: “Am I losing it or does this green onion look like Haaland?”

On Instagram, Haaland’s following grew from 40 million to 60 million during the tournament, making him the fastest-growing major player. His Reels in particular have been viewed more than 683m times since the start of the World Cup.

He has entertained with posts including a mocked-up picture with the cartoon ogre Shrek, captioned “Selfie with my twin”, a picture of him going undercover as a tourist in New York in a baseball cap and sunglasses, and swapping his famous Viking helmet for a cowboy hat while out shopping in Texas.

Even Google has joined in the fun: searching Haaland’s name currently brings up an animation of rowers in Viking helmets drifting across the screen.

And videos have gone viral of Haaland demonstrating sportsmanship and respect for other players and stadium staff. One clip shows him folding and handing over a jersey to a kit man while other players throw them on the floor.

Haaland’s friendship with his former Borussia Dortmund teammate and England midfielder Jude Bellingham has also delighted the internet, with some even comparing the pair to the two rival hockey players from HBO’s Heated Rivalry, as Norway prepare to take on England on Saturday.

Perhaps aided by Haaland’s popularity, there are 1.3m posts about Bellingham on TikTok, dwarfing England captain Harry Kane’s 277,600.

One 18-year-old TikTok creator from the Netherlands made a video about Haaland and Bellingham that has been shared more than 100,000 times, but said she “didn’t know Haaland before this World Cup”.

“I’m honestly not that into football except for World Cups and Uefa Euros, so mostly just when my own country plays, because the whole country watches, so you kinda have to stay updated,” she said.

“I always get really invested in the World Cup every four years, but usually mostly just for my own country,” she added. “This year, it kinda took over my FYP [For You page], especially Haaland and his funny moments and his Snap stories.”

“I just like Erling Haaland’s vibe,” she said. “I think his Snapchat posts are funny, and I like the bromance between Haaland and Bellingham, so that’s mostly what has drawn me to making that video.”

The Russian model Anastasia Kostromitina has also found her own moment of viral fame, thanks to a video her mother posted of her daughter mimicking Haaland’s poses after people pointed out she had a likeness to the star.

Kostromitina shares the footballer’s long blond hair, piercing blue eyes and tall stature, and has said the comparisons between the pair are “not bad at all”.

“At first, when people compared me to him I was a little bit confused,” said Kostromitina. “But then I realised that being compared to such an amazing athlete is not offensive at all.”

“He seems really humble and, of course, he’s a great athlete,” she added.

Back in Manchester, City fans have said this is only a case of the world waking up to what they have been witnessing for years.

“He is a great asset for our club,” Dante Friend from the 1894 fan group said.

“He’s very active on social media, he follows the fan accounts, he’s in touch with some of the main fans behind the scenes, so we really feel he’s one of us.”

Kevin Parker, the general secretary of the Manchester City official supporters club, said: “He’s an unbelievable footballer, right up there with the best strikers, goalscorers in the world, but I think City fans for quite some time have seen Erling as just a different sort of footballer.

“I don’t mean in terms of his ability, I mean in terms of his personality.”

“He just seems a genuinely likable sort of guy,” he added, “and I think that now, because of how big the World Cup stage is, other people around the world are getting the benefit of seeing what we’ve seen for three seasons.

“From my point of view, as a City fan, I think it’s absolutely fantastic. I think he gives football such a positive vibe.

“Even in this World Cup, there have been some negative vibes, particularly about Fifa and some of the decisions they’ve made, but everything that Erling does, it’s just positive, positive.”

Howard Cohen, the chair of the Manchester City Disabled Supporters Association, said: “When he first came [to Manchester City], there was a public image projected, certainly in some of the media, of him being quite quiet and reserved.

“He’s really come out of his shell very quickly. He was clearly never that sort of quiet, reserved figure in reality, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously.”

He added: “I think that’s important for anybody in public life, but particularly for footballers, and that, I think, is what people love most with him, off the field at least, that he can have a laugh with everybody and enjoy himself.

“He’s certainly picking up plenty of support around the word, and providing entertainment for people and that’s what football should be about, after all.”