The Premier League titles are there. The Champions League medal is there. The individual awards from Austria, Germany and England are stacked up. Yet, for years, Erling Haaland carried a nagging feeling that something enormous was missing from his career. This November in Milan, that itch was finally scratched — and the whole of Norway exhaled with him.
Haaland’s World Cup Qualifying Campaign Was Simply Unstoppable
A stunning 4-1 victory over Italy at the San Siro confirmed Norway’s place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup — the nation’s first appearance at the tournament in 28 years. The Manchester City striker dragged them there almost single-handedly, plundering 16 goals in UEFA qualifying across just eight games — eight more than any other player in the section. Two of those came in two minutes during that decisive final fixture in Milan. Vintage Haaland.
Speaking exclusively to ESPN ahead of the tournament, Haaland admitted his glittering career would have felt hollow without this. “It felt missing in 2022 in Qatar and also at the Euros in 2024,” he said. “So now it finally happened, and it was about time. Finally.” He had endured qualification failures for Euro 2020, the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024 — each one piling more weight onto those broad shoulders.
A Generation of Norwegian Fans Finally Gets Its Moment
Haaland grew up in Bryne, in the south of Norway, and never once watched his own country at a World Cup. His tournament memories belong to other nations — the 2010 opener between South Africa and Mexico, James Rodríguez tearing it up for Colombia in 2014. That changes this summer. Norway’s squad, which also features Arsenal midfielder Martin Ødegaard and Atlético Madrid striker Alexander Sørloth, has handed an entire generation of Norwegian supporters something priceless.
“I never experienced Norway being at a World Cup in my lifetime,” Haaland said. “All the young Norwegian kids can now experience how it feels to have their country there. Hopefully we can create something special together with the whole nation.”
There is real family symmetry to this too. Haaland was born in Leeds in 2000 while his father, Alfie Haaland, was a professional footballer — and Alfie was part of the Norway squad at the last World Cup held in North America, in 1994. Norway faced Italy and the Republic of Ireland in New Jersey back then, losing 1-0 to the Italians and drawing 0-0 with the Irish. Now, Erling heads back to East Rutherford — to MetLife Stadium this time rather than Giants Stadium — for Norway’s Group I clash with Senegal.
Furthermore, the group contains a showpiece tie that the football world is already circling. On 26 June at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Haaland goes head-to-head with Kylian Mbappé at international level for the very first time. The pair have clashed at club level during Manchester City’s Champions League battles with Real Madrid, but this is a different stage entirely. Haaland arrives carrying 55 international goals from just 50 caps — a rate that is genuinely otherworldly.
Reaching the last 16 would match Norway’s best-ever World Cup finish, last achieved in 1998 when the current manager, Stale Solbakken, was still a player. Before departing for their US training base in Greensboro, North Carolina, the squad posed for a send-off photograph dressed in traditional Viking clothing on the banks of a Norwegian fjord — titled, brilliantly, “The Vikings Are Coming.” In March, Haaland paid 1.3 million Norwegian krones (approximately £100,000) for a rare 1594 printed copy of a 13th-century Viking text by historian Snorri Sturluson, donating it to a library in Bryne for the public to see. “I’m proud to be Norwegian,” he said simply. “There’s a lot of history in this country.”
As for targets this summer? He is refreshingly relaxed. “My main goal was to qualify,” he said. “Honestly, now I’ll take everything as a bonus.” After a childhood spent watching every World Cup without Norway in it, just being there is already the win.