Everyone Thinks Erling Haaland’s Viral Raccoon Is Holding Whiskey. It’s Not.

Norway’s Erling Haaland gets off the plane after his national soccer team landed at Oslo Airport, in Gardermoen, Norway, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Photo: Jan Langhaug/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Erling Haaland is no stranger to a viral moment. The Norwegian striker — variously referred to as The Terminator and the Internet’s babygirl — has become the definitive meme phenomenon at this year’s World Cup, generating a constant stream of hashtags, headlines and poorly rendered AI slop for his antics both on and off the field. He “raw dogs” seven-hour flights without a phone, water, food or sleep; goes undercover as Santa Claus in the streets of Manchester; and owns seemingly dozens of custom Hermès bags, each of which costs as much as $50,000 apiece.

Returning to Norway after his team’s 2-1 defeat by England, Haaland added yet another viral fashion statement to the pile.

Haaland was pictured walking off a plane with one of his signature bags (Dolce & Gabbana, of course) in one hand and a taxidermy raccoon clutching a liquor bottle in the other. In an X post that’s since garnered over 24.6 million views and 800,000 likes, Haaland simply wrote: “It followed me home” alongside a raccoon emoji and a laughing emoji.

It didn’t take long before Internet sleuths got to work. Outlets like GQ and Men’s Journal traced the furry oddity back to Wild Bill’s Western Store in Dallas, Texas, a local outlet that specializes mainly in cowboy hats. Haaland appears to have visited the store in early July, purchasing multiple hats, exotic boots, a longhorn belt buckle and a T-shirt that read “Y’all Can Kiss My Dallas,” an image of which is featured front and center on the store’s website.

(Photo: Wild Bill’s)

The taxidermy? A $75o Whiskey Raccoon that sold out as soon as Haaland’s image hit the web. If you were hoping to add one to your collection, fret not. Wild Bill’s is still offering a $1,700 raccoon duo playing poker, as well as not one but three different taxidermy squirrels. The first drinks Budweiser, the second is a sheriff and the third is a stripper.

The so-called Whiskey Raccoon, however, has garnered the lion’s share of attention online, adding to the already viral mystique of all things Erling Haaland. Social media users have poured in memes reimagining the moment with everything from armadillos to superheroes, and Wild Bill’s, reportedly inundated with thousands of new orders, has opened international shipping for the first time.

The only problem is, the raccoon isn’t actually holding a bottle of whiskey.

Yes, we know that’s what the product description says, but if you examine the label, you’ll find that the empty bottle is neither whiskey nor American. Believe it or not, it’s a bottle of G&J Greenall’s Wild Berry Gin, a raspberry- and blackberry-infused spirit distilled in Great Britain. If the bottle weren’t empty, it would twinkle bright pink in the sunlight.

The gin is widely available online for around $20. Perhaps the taxidermist simply had one lying around, or more likely still, that they went searching for the cheapest possible brand that’d fit in a raccoon’s tiny hands.

As quintessentially Texas as the raccoon may be, it has just as much genealogy in the United Kingdom — ironic, considering that Haaland plays for Manchester City FC. An intentional nod, perhaps?