On July 13, 2026, Erling Haaland returned to Norway with a Dolce & Gabbana Sicily tote in one hand and a taxidermied raccoon seemingly midway through its own airport bar crawl in the other. After that entrance, even coming home from a World Cup felt rather ordinary.
On July 13, 2026, Erling Haaland returned to Norway with a Dolce & Gabbana Sicily tote in one hand and a taxidermied raccoon seemingly midway through its own airport bar crawl in the other. After that entrance, even coming home from a World Cup felt rather ordinary.
July 13, 2026
Erling Haaland arrived home after Norway’s World Cup run ended in a 2–1 extra-time defeat to England in the quarterfinals. He did not return with the Golden Boot or the trophy, but he stepped off the plane carrying a combination capable of competing for an entirely different prize: the tournament’s most memorable luggage.
In one hand was a Dolce & Gabbana Sicily tote. In the other was a taxidermied raccoon posed around a bottle. The pairing seemed to collapse an Italian runway, a Texas souvenir shop and an airport comedy into a single photograph. Erling Haaland carried both with the calm expression of someone who saw no reason to distinguish between luxury leather goods and wildlife with questionable habits.
The bag alone would have made news. Constructed from ecru canvas with burgundy alligator accents, the Dolce & Gabbana Sicily tote had appeared in the house’s Spring 2027 menswear show in Milan only the previous month. Erling Haaland therefore brought a fresh runway accessory into public view before it had time to settle into the more controlled life of a boutique display.
Yet the raccoon made even a runway-new bag look conventional. Named “Whiskey Raccoon,” the $750 souvenir came from Wild Bill’s Western Store in Dallas, where Erling Haaland had also acquired cowboy boots, a hat and a T-shirt reading, “Y’all Can Kiss My Dallas.” He later joked online that the animal had followed him home.
His football supplied the authority, but his humour, social-media presence and taste for extravagant accessories prevented that authority from becoming too polished. Instead of carefully separating athlete, luxury customer and online personality, he allowed all three to appear at once.
His choice of bag also continued a wardrobe habit that had become nearly as recognizable as his goals. Erling Haaland is already associated with an extensive collection of Hermès Birkins, alongside handbags from Chanel and Louis Vuitton. He treats bags not as novelty props or cautious experiments in menswear, but as functional pieces worth collecting and carrying openly.
Norway may have left the tournament at the quarterfinal stage, but its star striker still produced one of the World Cup’s least predictable exits. Erling Haaland made the Dolce & Gabbana Sicily tote look like the sensible half of the outfit.
