Norway celebrates the Norwegian national football team

After a reception inside the Palace with King Harald, Crown Prince Haakon, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus, the national team came out onto the Palace Square. There they were honored by 150,000 people before both the national team and the audience rowed to the beat of the drum from Crown Prince Haakon.

The national team then boarded an open double-decker bus to receive the people's tribute through crowd-packed streets.

Won 12 of 14 matches

The Norwegian team won all eight qualifying matches. It was the first time in 28 years that Norway qualified for the football World Cup, and the people were already celebrating before the first kick-off in the tournament in the U.S. Since then the mood has risen ahead of each match, to a level where it could hardly have grown any bigger even if they had won the entire World Cup.

Norway won 2 of 3 matches in the group stage before winning the round of 32 against Ivory Coast and the round of 16 against Brazil. The team lost the group stage match against France and the quarterfinal against England. Goal scorers were Erling Braut Haaland (7 goals), Andreas Schjelderup, Antonio Nusa, Thelo Aasgaard, Marcus Holmgren Pedersen and Leo Skiri Ostigård each scoring one goal. The captain of the national team was Martin Odegaard, and the head coach was Staale Solbakken.

Five weeks of a national public celebration

The matches were played late at night Norwegian time, but that could not dampen the turnout in the land of the midnight sun.

In winter, Norwegians are drawn to forests, mountains and ski trails. In summer, parks, beaches, docks and boats fill up with sun-hungry Norwegians. The public celebration has brought new multitudes of Norwegians out of the living room, cabin and garden and into the public space.

The football national team gave Norway an almost five-week-long national public celebration. The nation has not seen the like of such a celebration; the closest is the Olympics at Lillehammer in 1994. Despite Norway being known internationally as a skiing nation, football is the country's clearly largest sport and has four times as many active members as the skiing sport.

Norwegian sporting joy is built on a principle that teams are not made competitive before children become teenagers. This for two reasons; Norwegian team sport has cultural and social aspects that are to be safeguarded in society, and talents may be lost if they are not given time to develop. Meaning participation itself is both promoted and celebrated.

Won the world's attention

Through the Viking reference and Ro Ro as the chant, Norway has gained attention from a whole world. Norwegians' enormous sporting joy and national unity have moved people in a polarized time. The attention it has received has surprised Norwegians and reminded the population that the sense of unity in Norway is quite unique.

Now Norway waits in anticipation for the European football championship in two years; it will be another gigantic public celebration.

Thank you to each of the national football team's 26 players, coaches and support staff!