"I don't think anyone had imagined this," said Martin Odegaard, staring out at a sea of people that stretched from the Royal Palace all the way down Karl Johans gate. Norway went out in the World Cup quarter-finals. Oslo responded by throwing one of the biggest street parties the country has ever seen.
More than 100,000 fans turned out on Monday to welcome the squad home after Saturday's 2-1 extra-time defeat to England — a result that ended Norway's most successful World Cup campaign in generations. The loss hurt. The celebration suggested the country didn't much care.
A homecoming that got chaotic fast
The squad landed to a water cannon salute, met King Harald for a private audience, then stepped out onto the palace steps where Crown Prince Haakon led tens of thousands of fans in a Viking row from behind a drum kit. That's not something you see at many football receptions.
Then came the open-top bus parade — and things got gloriously messy. Crowds brought the bus to a standstill through central Oslo, forcing it into reverse at one point while police tried to clear a path. Players stood on the top deck, beers in hand, waving through it all. The 1.3km route took hours. Tens of thousands were still waiting at City Hall Square when they finally arrived.
There was also the small matter of the bus being stopped by low-hanging overhead cables mid-parade, forcing the players to duck and sit before proceeding. A fitting metaphor for a tournament run that kept running into obstruction — including, according to coach Stale Solbakken, a camera wire above the pitch just before Jude Bellingham's equaliser in the quarter-final. FIFA has denied the ball made contact. The debate isn't going away.
The Haaland footnote
Erling Haaland left the celebrations early to catch a flight — the squad's return from the US had been delayed four hours — meaning he missed the Viking row and the bus parade entirely. Whether you read that as pragmatism or optics is up to you. Either way, his club season starts soon, and Norway's World Cup one just ended.
For a nation that hadn't reached a World Cup since 1998, reaching the quarter-finals is a seismic shift in the competitive landscape. Norway's odds as dark horses for the next cycle just got a lot more interesting. This squad is young, Odegaard is entering his prime, and the infrastructure of belief is now clearly there.
"The support we have received in the USA and here at home in Norway has been beyond all expectations," Odegaard said. Given that 100,000 people showed up to celebrate a quarter-final exit, that might be the understatement of the tournament.
