Winning trophies and top-scorer awards might be routine to Erling Haaland, but this week the striker stands on the brink of what could be a once-in-lifetime opportunity: to qualify for the World Cup with Norway. Since Haaland was born in 2000, Norway have never competed on the world's biggest stage. Their six attempts have all fallen flat, only reaching the play-offs on one occasion.
Automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, however, is in their own hands. And at the feet of Haaland. The Manchester City striker is the top scorer in UEFA qualifying on 12 goals from six games, five more than closest rival Memphis Depay.
In Norway's most recent qualifier against Israel, Haaland struck a hat-trick in a 5-0 drubbing. In the previous game, he scored five and set up two more as Norway walloped Moldova 11-1. The Scandinavians have won all six of their games to take a three-point lead over Italy ahead of their final two games, Thursday's home fixture against Estonia and Sunday's showdown with the Azzurri at San Siro.
But most crucially, and in large part thanks to Haaland's insatiable hunger for scoring, they hold a 16-goal lead in goal difference, the tie-breaker in the event they finish on the same amount of points as Italy. Victory against Estonia, who have lost five of their seven qualifiers, will therefore all-but guarantee them a spot at the World Cup.
Haaland and Norway are taking nothing for granted, but they are on the cusp of what the striker, who has won almost every major trophy with City, has described as the biggest objective of his career.
Getty Family ties
Haaland has a very close relationship with his former footballer father, Alfie, but also a healthy rivalry with him. "He never pushed me to anything, but he early knew that I wanted to become good at football," Haaland told magazine. "I said a long time ago 'Hopefully I'll become better than you'. I told him many times. That's been something that has been a motivation for me ever since I was young, to live from football and become better than him."
It is fair to say that Erling has already had a far more impressive career than Alfie, who won zero major honours in his 20-year stint in professional football. Erling, by contrast, has won nine trophies, including the Champions League and Premier League, two Golden Boots and been named Player of the Season in both England and Germany. But Alfie can boast of one thing his son is yet to achieve: he has played in a World Cup.
Alfie was part of the Norway side that qualified for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., and so there is an added significance to Erling's bid to reach next summer's tournament and become the second member of his family to not only play in the world's most prestigious competition, but to do so in the same country as his father.
AdvertisementGetty 'Biggest party ever'
Norway last reached the World Cup in 1998 (Alfie didn't make the squad), and while in the U.S. they agonisingly missed out on the knockout stage by one goal after all four teams in their group finished on four points, Norway had an epic journey in France, reaching the last 16 by beating none other than world champions Brazil.
Granted, Brazil had already qualified as Group A winners, but they still fielded an all-star side including Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo and the best player in the world at the time, Ronaldo. Norway went behind in the 79th minute but staged an incredible turnaround in the space of five minutes to snatch a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Tore Andre Flo and an 89th-minute penalty from Kjetil Rekdal.
Norway were beaten 1-0 by Italy in the last 16, but no one alive then will forget the achievement of beating Brazil and making it to the knockout stage. Haaland is not looking that far ahead, but he knows that just making it to the finals will be a historic achievement. "If we would qualify for the World Cup, it would be like another big nation winning it," he told . "It would be the biggest party ever. Scenes in Oslo would be incredible."
Getty 'Sick and tired'
Norway had something approaching the biggest party ever when they beat Italy 3-0 in June. Rain had hammered down relentlessly throughout the game, but fans remained inside the Ullevaal Stadion long after full-time, serenading their players while wearing their ponchos.
"People didn't want to go home," said coach Stale Solbakken. "The rain was pouring, but they were there long before the game and long after the game."
Solbakken was part of the squad at the 1998 World Cup, giving the current crop of players, the vast majority of whom were not born then, a link with the past, although it is one that Solbakken wants to break: "We are sick and tired of talking about that now, so we need to get to another tournament. It’s 25 years since we've been in a major tournament, so it's about time."
Solbakken's experience at the World Cup is not even his most significant achievement. While training with FC Copenhagen in 2000, the 57-time Norway international collapsed from a heart attack as his heart stopped beating for almost seven minutes and he went into a coma for 30 hours. "He was clinically dead," said the club doctor who revived him. "It is a miracle that he is still alive."
AFP'Biggest match-winner'
Solbakken was forced to retire at the age of 30, entering coaching in 2002. He won eight league titles with Copenhagen in two spells before becoming Norway coach in 2020. He is blessed with an incredible generation of players headlined by Haaland and Martin Odegaard (who is out injured at the moment), and backed-up by Haaland's City team-mate Oscar Bobb, Atletico Madrid striker Alexander Sorloth, RB Leipzig winger Antonio Nusa, Fulham midfielder Sander Berge and Borussia Dortmund full-back Julian Ryerson.
"Offensively, we have players with some X-factor now. We feel we can always score a goal," Solbakken added. "As a team, we have become much more solid defensively as well. We have a better mix. The feeling (in the squad) has always been good, but there’s an extra edge to it now that we have done so well."
No one has quite the X-factor of Haaland, and yet Solbakken insists the striker is "easy to coach". "He is very down-to-earth in terms that he wants to do his work defensively as well," he added. "He thinks about the team before he thinks about himself. You can see that when other players score, he's as happy as he is when he scores himself. He's aware he's a leader and he's taking care of his team-mates in a very good way. The other players know that Erling is our biggest match-winner and that we have to make sure that we put him in the right areas so he can score goals and be dangerous."