The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on X on March 13, 2026. It read:
Soccer star Erling Haaland continues to make headlines. The latest images of Erling Haaland, who attracts attention not only for his football skills but also for his personal life, have swept social networks. These recent images of the footballer, who is said to be Muslim, have sparked considerable interest. #ErlingHaaland #American football #ardagüler #Muslim #Islam
This is what the post on X looked like at the time of writing:
Image source: @TruthMovemen post on X.
TO Google news search (filed here) found no evidence that Haaland had converted to Islam.
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Video analysis
Lead Stories played the video through Gemini (archived here), Google’s artificial intelligence assistant. He came to these conclusions:
According to the SynthID tool, this video does not contain a Google AI watermark. However, this does not rule out the possibility that it was created or modified using other AI tools or techniques.
Based on a visual analysis and available information, there are several signs that this video is likely a deep or a digitally manipulated clip:
Visual inconsistencies: In the first part of the video showing a conversion ceremony, the face of the person identified as Erling Haaland has several unnatural features. When moving or being hugged, facial features sometimes appear to “glitch” or move slightly independently of the head, which is a common feature of deepfake technology. The facial structure also doesn’t perfectly match Haaland’s real features (for example, the jawline and forehead area look slightly different).
Contextual evidence: There is no credible news or official statements from Erling Haaland or Manchester City confirming a religious conversion. While Haaland has occasionally used Islamic phrases such as “Inshallah” or “Alhamdulillah” on social media, often in interaction with Muslim teammates, there is no evidence that he participated in the specific ceremony shown in this video.
Video origins: The second clip of Haaland and Jack Grealish appears to be a real locker room video, but Islamic-themed music and emojis were added to fit the narrative of the first (probably fake) clip.
In summary, while the SynthID tool did not detect its specific watermark, visual and contextual evidence suggests that the video is likely the product of AI manipulation or a deepfake.
Lead Stories also noticed a confusing Manchester City badge on the hoodie worn in the video. The badge is distorted even though Haaland’s features and other close-up details are very sharp in the video:
Image sources: @TruthMovemen post about X and Manchester City FC.
A second tool, Hive’s Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection, concluded that the video was “likely to be AI-generated” with an aggregate score of 100 percent. The higher the score, the greater the AI content:
Image source: Hive Moderation.