FILE – A Norway fan cheers during a Group I, World Cup qualifier soccer match between Moldova and Norway on the Zimbru stadium in Chisinau, Moldova, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja, File)
FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts — First it was their fans performing a synchronized “Viking row” within the stands at matches.
Then it was their players donning authentic Viking attire, complete with weapons, shields and long boats, to the backdrop of a fjord for a moody, dramatic photo shoot.
“A dream 28 years within the making… let’s do that!” Norway star Erling Haaland wrote on the X platform Monday, reposting the photo of the team together with one among his father, Alfie Haaland, competing for the national team within the 1994 World Cup.
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Norway is leaning into the country’s centuries-old history as its star-studded men’s team, containing Haaland and Martin Odegaard, heads right into a first World Cup in 28 years.
It has created plenty of pleasure and debate.
“It was an ask or an issue from the (photographers),” Norway manager Stale Solbakken said Monday prematurely of his team’s World Cup opener against Iraq. “The players wanted me to do it. They were positive. The federation was positive. And I used to be average positive. After which we did it.”
It might be the brand new “thunder clap”
The Norway fan routine sees lines of supporters, wearing Viking helmets and the team’s red-and-blue jerseys, rowing in unison, forward and backward, to the regular beat of a drum.
Expect it to catch the attention on the World Cup in Norway’s group games at Foxborough, Massachusetts (against Iraq and France) and in Latest Jersey (against Senegal).
It could potentially have an analogous impact to the “thunder clap” performed by Iceland’s fans on the European Championship in 2016 that resonated around the globe and has since been utilized by many other sports teams.
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One critic says the photo is “chauvinistic”
The Norwegian soccer federation commissioned British photographer David Yarrow to take the Viking snap, and he said in an interview with The Athletic he knew “it’d get some criticism.”
Yarrow was right.
In addition to sparking wonder for its breathtaking backdrop and creativity, it is also regarded by some as controversial for reminiscent of a time — within the 800s and 900s — when Norwegian Vikings conducted raids featuring looting and pillaging.
One commentator, Markus Slettholm from every day paper Morgenbladet, said the photo was chauvinistic and “a bit paying homage to what neo-Nazis were concerned with 10 years ago.”
Solbakken doesn’t see the fuss.
“There are numerous larger and harder topics,” he said before the World Cup. “I can’t afford to waste time on that.”
Yarrow previously worked with Haaland in a solo photo shoot.
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The BBC reported that sales of the Viking-themed team photo will raise funds for Norwegian charities.