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MIAMI — Norway is on a historic run at the World Cup.
Back at the tournament for the first time in 28 years, the Scandinavian country will face England in its first ever World Cup quarterfinal Saturday in Miami. Fans have traveled to the U.S. in droves, bringing their iconic Viking row chant with them.
The team is led by a modern-day Viking in Erling Haaland. The 6-foot-4 Manchester City striker has scored seven of Norway’s 12 goals at the tournament this summer, only one behind Golden Boot leaders Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi. He’s also become a sensation with American fans charmed by his blunt social media presence and striking profile on the field.
Haaland was born in Leeds, England, in 2000 to elite Norwegian heptathlete Gry Marita Braut while his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, played for Leeds United in the Premier League. When Haaland was three, the family moved back to his parents’ roughly 13,000-person hometown of Bryne in the southwest Norway municipality of Time. The farming community located about six miles inland from the coast has, locals say, a culture of toughness and hard work, and wind, rain, and cows are plentiful.
The future superstar came up through the youth system at his hometown club Bryne Fotballklubb before he moved to another Norwegian club, Molde, in 2017 at age 16.
Alf Ingve Berntsen, Haaland’s coach of eight years in Bryne, tells Front Office Sports the former Premier League father let his son develop on his own and never interfered at the youth level. (Norway is highly regarded for its youth sports system that prioritizes children coming up in local clubs and playing multiple sports, with little emphasis on results.) When Haaland was a teenager and Berntsen temporarily managed Bryne’s first team, he made sure to lean on the future star.
“Let the home audience see this guy because soon we’re going to lose him,” Berntsen says he thought. “Erling was good tactically, technically, and mentally, and we knew that even if this boy is skinny now, wait some years, because his family and his genes, he will explode in power and strength.”
At 11 pm local time Saturday night—just minutes after sunset—Bryne Fotballklubb will host a watch party at its stadium for around 3,000 of its fans to watch that same player on the world’s biggest stage.
“We are so extremely proud of him,” Andreas Vollsund tells FOS. Vollsund is both the mayor of Time and was Haaland’s schoolteacher.
‘The biggest thing that’s happened in Norway’
Haaland’s goofy personality has taken center stage at the World Cup as he’s been introduced to a whole new crop of fans—including an additional 20 million Instagram followers—who are loving his embrace of the country western style, high-calorie diet that includes raw milk, and silly and robust social media presence.
“He’s quite similar now than when he was 12 years old,” Berntsen says. “All the surroundings, all the arenas, all that has changed now, but his personality is the same. He’s a really lovable guy.”
Another thing that’s the same: Haaland is still close with his boyhood friends from Bryne. His longtime partner and mother of his son, Isabel Haugseng Johansen, is also from the town and played for Bryne growing up.
The prolific striker lives and plays in Manchester, England, but maintains close ties with his hometown. In 2022, Haaland told ESPN he wants to have a small farm in Bryne when he retires from soccer, and “for sure” own cows. Last year, when Bryne FK made a series of first team cuts, Haaland posted, “there’s chaos at my hometown club and it made me angry. I can’t sleep because of it.” In December, Haaland and his father bought the only surviving copy of a 16th-century print of a 13th-century book about Vikings for about $130,000, then donated it to Bryne’s public library.
“I’ve never been much of a reader,” Haaland quipped. (Though he also said he wants people to be able to “read about those who came from where I come from.”)
Haaland’s continued rise during the World Cup is putting a spotlight on tiny Bryne, which has multiple murals of the player and excitedly welcomes soccer tourists. Mayor Vollsund tells FOS he has 10 press interviews on Friday, and the coach, Bernsten, says he’s talked to journalists from around the world this week.
The BBC recently paid a visit to a watch party at Bekkis, a sports bar with an outdoor tent in the center of the city that can hold hundreds of people for matches.
General manager Ørjan Kønig tells FOS the row chant happens several times per Norway match in his bar. He says his drumsticks broke and he had to replace them, a lucky break because the local shopkeeper was almost out due to demand for drums.
“Especially after the match, I think half of Norway is actually rowing, doing a little bit of exercise in their living rooms,” Kønig says.
On Saturday evening, Haaland and company will take on the Three Lions, with many familiar faces for both players and Premier League-obsessed Norwegian soccer fans. Haaland will face four Manchester City teammates—all defenders—while Norway’s Martin Ødegaard also squares off against four Arsenal teammates.
Against the backdrop of extreme temperatures and possible thunderstorms in South Florida, Norway will try to extend its magical World Cup run for a potential date with Messi and Argentina in the semifinal.
Bryne will be watching.
“I think this is the biggest thing that’s happened in Norway in many, many years,” Vollsund says.
