'From pitch to battlefield': Haaland becomes a video game character

Manchester City footballer Erling Haaland is to become a character in the popular mobile video game 'Clash of Clans', which is one of the world's most downloaded games, Finnish studio Supercell said on Tuesday.

The Norwegian striker, who is a big fan of the game, will be the Barbarian King in a football-themed game that will only be available during the month of May.

According to the creators of 'Clash of Clans', this is the first time they have added a character based on a real person to the popular game, which already has more than 2 billion downloads worldwide across all platforms.

Players will be able to choose between playing as the Haaland character to take on other clans or trying to defeat the village defended by the Norwegian striker.

For the launch campaign, Supercell released a video in which the real Haaland meets characters from the game, who transport him to the animated world of 'Clash of Clans' to take on a rival clan, transformed into the 'Barbarian King'.

As the Finnish company explained in a statement, the collaboration was made possible by the fact that Haaland is a long-time fan of the video game, in which he has built an impressive village that he has defended against rival clans.

"It's been hard to keep this a secret but I'm thrilled to finally be able to talk about this epic collaboration with 'Clash of Clans'. I've been a huge fan of the game for a long time and know everything about it, so to be featured as a character in the game is really cool," said Haaland.