Manchester City forward Erling Haaland is suing a Norwegian airline for using a plane with his signature hairstyle in an advert.

Haaland, who cut his hair at the start of the season, became synonymous with his ponytail hair that he donned while scoring plenty of goals for both club and country.

Airline Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA used an image during the World Cup of a plane with Haaland's hair edited onto it, and the forward has failed to see the funny side of things.

The caption read: 'We've never felt more Norwegian.' 

The post has since been deleted from the company's social media channels. 

Haaland is now taking the company to court with allegations of a violation of the Marketing Act, and, on October 9, a meeting between the judge and lawyers before the main hearing will take place, according to Norwegian publication VG.

Company spokesperson Catharina Solli said: 'We struggle to understand why we have been taken to court. Just like almost everyone else in Norway, we encouraged the national team during the summer.

'We did this by publishing a few things spontaneously, inspired by social media trends.

'It is unfortunate that this encouragement has been greeted by a lawsuit. But we hope to have a reasonable dialogue, in order that we can continue in the future to support our sporting heroes together.'

Haaland's lawyer Thomas Hagen, meanwhile, said: 'This case is about the illegal use by Norwegian of Haaland's distinguishing features to sell air tickets during the World Cup finals.'

Haaland scored seven goals as Norway made it to the quarter-finals in their first World Cup this century before losing to England.