{"id":2223806,"date":"2026-10-27T13:40:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T10:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2223806"},"modified":"2026-10-27T13:40:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T10:40:55","slug":"message-from-manchester-citys-erling-haaland-gets-two-landscapers-the-day-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2223806","title":{"rendered":"Message from Manchester City’s Erling Haaland gets two landscapers the day off"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/13c6\/live\/161d7ae0-d20b-11f1-b3b6-c1e79e957e40.jpg”]<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"SuppliedSupplied<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Shane Hassall (left) challenged Wade Taylor (right) to give him a day off if a social media post attracted 100,000 likes and a comment from Erling Haaland<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

A go-karting trip is on the cards for staff at a landscaping business after footballer Erling Haaland responded to their online plea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Staffordshire landscaper Shane Hassall made a video asking colleague Wade Taylor for a day off to go karting. He was told he could, if his video was viewed more than 100,000 times and got a comment from the Norwegian international player.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

To their surprise their social media video got more than 16 million views in a couple of days but the pair had to wait to see if the Manchester City striker would respond.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Last week, a response came from Haaland, who commented on Thursday evening. His first message simply said: “Enjoy”, with a second following shortly afterwards: “Your evening just became a bit better.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

“We’re just humble landscapers and we just decided to have a laugh,” Taylor told BBC Radio Stoke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

The video was posted on Tuesday and, after attracting hundreds of thousands of likes, got the attention of Haaland two days later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Taylor said he had a feeling the challenge would somehow work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

“To be honest with you, I don’t know. I had no doubt that it was going to happen,” he told BBC Radio Stoke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

“Once he’d made that commitment and we’d posted it, I just had this weird feeling that it was going to happen. We got 100,000 likes within the first four hours, which was crazy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

“People were commenting saying, ‘We need this’. The community was building pretty quickly and the phone was buzzing.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Hassall said: “Because we’re always pranking each other, I thought he was winding me up,” he laughed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

The viral success led to TeamSport in Burslem offering the team a free go-karting session, allowing them to complete the challenge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Despite the millions of views, Taylor said little had changed about their day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

He said: “We’ve arrived here today in a van. It’s no joke that we’re just working day in and day out. After this interview we’re going to go and install a fence.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\"SuppliedSupplied<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland replied twice to the viral challenge posted by Maple Landscapes<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

The company, Maple Landscapes, works across Staffordshire and Cheshire, and last year made a conscious decision to focus more heavily on social media as a marketing tool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Since then, a series of prank-style videos have helped build a growing audience online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Now, after their unexpected viral success, Taylor and Hassall are already plotting their next challenge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

The pair told the BBC they hope to raise money for BBC Children in Need by securing 500,000 likes on a future video and a comment from England captain Harry Kane.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

If they succeed, they have pledged to walk from Stoke-on-Trent to Salford Quays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

“We want to give something back,” they said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

“What an opportunity to be on here and if we can do something for someone else, I think that’ll be amazing.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on <\/i>BBC Sounds<\/i>, <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, <\/i>X<\/i> and <\/i>Instagram<\/i>. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cwz0vggknmyko”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/13c6\/live\/161d7ae0-d20b-11f1-b3b6-c1e79e957e40.jpg”] Supplied Shane Hassall (left) challenged Wade Taylor (right) to give him a day off if a social media post attracted 100,000 likes and a comment from Erling Haaland A go-karting trip is on the cards for staff at a landscaping business after footballer Erling Haaland responded to their online plea. Staffordshire landscaper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2223806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2223806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2223806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2223806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2223806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}