Norway returns to World Cup with Haaland leading debut against Iraq

Erling Haaland arrived at the World Cup with Norway carrying more than a 28-year absence. Against Iraq, the striker finally stepped onto football’s biggest stage, while Martin Odegaard and Stale Solbakken carried the weight of a country that wants this team to be remembered for results, not just promise.

Norway’s return ended a long exile. The national team had last played at France 1998, and this tournament marked only its fourth World Cup, after 1938, 1994 and 1998. That history gives the debut a sharp edge: Norway is not chasing novelty alone, but trying to reclaim a place in the sport’s elite after nearly three decades away.

Haaland was the force that made the comeback possible. FIFA said the Manchester City forward scored 16 goals in eight qualifying matches, a relentless run that carried Norway through a perfect route to the finals. The decisive breakthrough came with a 4-1 victory over Italy in November 2025, a result that sealed Norway’s place and confirmed that the country’s most talented generation had finally turned expectation into qualification.

Solbakken has leaned into that confidence. He said Haaland is the world’s best goalscorer and described the team as arriving at the tournament high on belief. For Norway, that confidence is now the test. The public hype around Haaland and Odegaard has been impossible to ignore, but a World Cup debut is the moment when reputation meets pressure, and when a golden generation either earns credibility or keeps carrying it as an empty label.

History offers Norway both pride and a challenge. Its best World Cup run came in 1998, when it reached the round of 16 and stunned Brazil 2-1 in the group stage, one of the country’s defining sporting memories. Solbakken has said the aim is to help Norway create new memories for supporters, and that is the real measure now: whether Haaland’s first World Cup, and Norway’s long-awaited return, can change how the country is seen on the global stage.