"The Vikings are Coming" — and honestly, photographer David Yarrow wasn't wrong. Norway's viral team photoshoot, featuring the entire squad in Viking garb on a beach in front of three longships, has done more for their World Cup presence in 48 hours than most nations manage in a full tournament.
This is Norway's first World Cup since 1998. Twenty-eight years is a long time to be absent from football's biggest stage, and they've announced their return in the most on-brand way imaginable.
Haaland as a warrior was the easy part
Yarrow, the Scottish photographer who previously dressed Team Europe in prohibition-era suits ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup, shot the series in collaboration with coach Ståle Solbakken and captain Martin Ødegaard. The idea grew from a 2023 shoot where Yarrow had already photographed Erling Haaland in Viking dress at an Oslo fjord.
Getting Haaland to look like a warrior, Yarrow noted, was "one of the easier tasks of my career." Fair enough.
Yarrow called this Norway squad "the best that Norway has ever produced" — and the group stage draw gives them a genuine chance to prove it. They open against Iraq on June 16 in Foxborough, Massachusetts, before facing France and Senegal in Group I. Iraq is the one genuinely winnable opener; back-to-back clashes with France and Senegal will define whether Norway reach the knockouts or exit quietly after a memorable entrance.
Style is one thing. The football still has to follow.
The photoshoot is a masterstroke of identity and timing. It's also completely meaningless if Norway don't perform. But there's something to be said for a squad that arrives at a tournament this loose, this comfortable in their own skin. Teams that look tense in the lobby usually play that way too.
With Haaland leading the line and Ødegaard pulling strings in midfield, Norway aren't just here to make up the numbers. Their World Cup odds deserve a second look now that the draw is set — a win against Iraq in game one could set the tone for everything that follows.
Yarrow's parting words: "The players look like they are popping out from the pages of Norse mythology." On June 16, the mythology needs to hold up for 90 minutes against actual opposition.
