Erling Haaland flew home from the United States carrying a stuffed taxidermy raccoon he bought in Texas. That detail alone tells you what kind of day Norway's World Cup homecoming was.
The squad returned to Oslo after a run to the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals — the deepest Norway has gone in the tournament in a generation — and the city responded accordingly. An estimated 100,000 supporters filled Palace Square. King Harald V personally welcomed the players inside the Royal Palace, an invitation he'd extended via video message the moment Norway's campaign ended. Crown Prince Haakon picked up a drum and led the crowd in a Viking row. Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus sat on the floor with the players rather than keeping a polite royal distance.
It was, by any measure, a proper celebration.
The royals who were — and weren't — there
Queen Sonja missed it. She was aboard the royal yacht Norge, sailing in Jarfjorden — a remote fjord in northern Norway, close to the Russian border — on what the Norwegian Royal House described only as a "private mission." No further details were offered, and the palace isn't obliged to give any. The Queen is an avid hiker and has visited the Kirkenes region regularly over the years, so the destination itself isn't a surprise. The timing just stood out.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit was also absent, though that absence needs no explanation. She was discharged from hospital earlier the same day after a lung transplant and is under strict medical precautions. Showing up to a 100,000-person outdoor celebration wasn't an option.
King Harald's gesture carried real weight regardless. He didn't wait for the FA or the federation to organize a formal reception — he went directly to the players on camera and told them he wanted them at the palace. For a squad that had just been knocked out of a World Cup, that kind of personal acknowledgment from a head of state lands differently than a press release.
Haaland left early — and it wasn't what it looked like
Haaland and Sander Berge slipped away after the palace reception and missed the open-top bus parade through central Oslo. Coach Ståle Solbakken explained why: flight delays from the US had compressed their schedule to the point where they had almost no window before needing to catch another connection. Logistical necessity, not a snub.
The parade itself had its own chaos. Crowds packed the streets so tightly the bus had to reverse at one point. Low-hanging cables on the route forced players on the upper deck to duck mid-procession. Captain Martin Ødegaard admitted the scale of the turnout stunned him.
For a country that hasn't reached a World Cup quarter-final in decades, the reaction made sense. The quarter-final exit still stings — and Norway's odds of going further next time will depend heavily on whether this squad can maintain its level — but the reception they received suggested the country isn't measuring this team against its shortcomings. At least not yet.
Haaland, for his part, arrived home with a raccoon. The rest sorted itself out from there.
