The 2026 World Cup is closer than ever and some participants are slowly but surely starting to leave, heading to the United States, Canada or Mexico. Before flying over the Atlantic, Norway took a break. Erling Haaland and his teammates dressed in their Viking finery for the group photo. An initiative which caused controversy.
This news was covered by numerous media outlets around the world. On the Dailymail side, the comments of the journalist from the local daily Morgenbladet, Markus Slettholm, were relayed. The latter judged the photos “chauvinistic and exclusionary” in his editorial.
The same journalist hit even harder with NRK by asserting that this “recalls what worried neo-Nazis ten years ago”. According to him, the staging of the Norwegian national team is “a caricatured vision of Norwegian culture” with “something reactionary about looking back a thousand years”.
The controversy swept away by the Norway coach
In the same vein, the column by religion specialist Jan Haug Skjoldli, published on the subject in the local media Kassekampen, also deplored a “hyper-masculine idealization” from the outfits worn by the players. In any case, the Norwegian Football Federation, which initiated this photo shoot, took full responsibility for it.
As for Stale Solbakken, national coach of Norway, he brushed aside the subject at a press conference. “There are things much more important and complex than that. I don’t have time to waste commenting on this. » Norway is part of France’s group at the 2026 World Cup. The two nations will face each other on June 26 (9 p.m.) in their third group match.
