Channing Tatum Wore a Blonde Wig to Be Erling Haaland in the Norway Crowd. The Real Haaland Stayed on the Bench.

Channing Tatum went to a World Cup game on Friday and decided the best way to support Norway was to become Erling Haaland's haircut.

At Norway against France in Foxborough, the stadium the tournament insists on calling "Boston Stadium," Tatum turned up in a long blonde wig pulled into Haaland's slicked-back ponytail and a Norway jersey. He's 46. He committed to the bit like a 25-year-old getting paid per goal.

What he actually did

E! News and the Irish News both caught the same scene: Tatum in the Norway section, posing for twinning selfies with the strangers next to him and joining their chant, fully in character as a man who is very much not the Norwegian national team's striker.

The wig does most of the work. Haaland wears his hair long and tied back, and Tatum's copy was close enough that the people around him kept double-taking. The Sun called him "unrecognisable," which is a little harsh on Channing Tatum, but the wig earned it.

The punchline writes itself

Haaland never got off the bench.

The real one started the match as a substitute and, per the match coverage, stayed there the full ninety. So the only Haaland the Norway end got a clear look at on Friday was the one a few rows back, taking selfies. France ignored all of it and won 4-1. Ousmane Dembele scored twice before the half hour, Thelo Aasgaard pulled one back for Norway, and France finished top of Group I.

Add it up: Norway lost, their biggest name never played, and the most-photographed person in a Norway shirt was an American actor in a wig.

He had permission

Tatum didn't invent this on the drive to Foxborough. He first wore the Haaland look on June 5 for a joint Nike campaign with the striker, and Haaland saw it and signed off. In a video at the time, Haaland looked at the transformation and said, "Handsome man."

So the bench-bound Haaland already blessed his double weeks ago. Showing up to an actual game still wearing the face is just Tatum getting his money's worth out of one wig.