The Norway national football team ( no, Norges herrelandslag i fotball, or informally ''Landslaget'') represents Norway in men's international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and is controlled by the Norwegian Football Federation, the governing body for

football in Norway Football is the most popular sport in Norway in terms of active membership (by television viewership football comes third, behind winter sports biathlon and cross-country skiing). The Football Association of Norway was founded in 1902 and the fir ...

. Norway's home ground is Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo and their head coach is Ståle Solbakken. Norway has participated three times in the FIFA World Cup (

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

), and once in the UEFA European Championship (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

). Norway is the only national team that remains unbeaten in all matches against Brazil. In four matches, Norway has a play record against Brazil of 2 wins and 2 draws, in three friendly matches (in 1988, 1997 and 2006) and a 1998 World Cup group stage match.

History

Norway's performances in international football have usually been weaker than those of their Scandinavian neighbours

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and Denmark, but they did have a golden age in the late 1930s. An Olympic team achieved third place in the

1936 Olympics 1936 Olympics may refer to: *The 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany *The 1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI ...

, after beating the host Germany earlier in the tournament. Norway also qualified for the

1938 FIFA World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and was held in France from 4 June until 19 June 1938. Italy defended its title in the final, beat ...

, where they lost 2–1 after extra time against eventual champions Italy. This was Norway's last World Cup finals appearance in 56 years. In the post-war years, up to and including the 1980s, Norway was usually considered one of the weaker teams in Europe. They never qualified for a World Cup or European Championship in this period, and usually finished near the bottom of their qualifying group. Nevertheless, Norway had a reputation for producing the occasional shock result, such as the 3–0 win against Yugoslavia in 1965, the 1–0 away win against France in 1968, and the 2–1 victory against England in 1981 that prompted radio commentator

Bjørge Lillelien Bjørge Lillelien (29 March 1927 – 26 October 1987) was a Norwegian sports journalist and commentator for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. He was considered to be a popular and engaging personality who commentated on many sports, part ...

's famous "Your boys took a hell of a beating" rant. Norway had their most successful period from 1990 to 1998 under the legendary coach

Egil "Drillo" Olsen Egil Roger Olsen (born 22 April 1942), nicknamed Drillo, is a Norwegian football manager and former footballer. He is best known as a highly successful manager of the Norway national football team. He has since been manager of the Iraq national ...

. At its height in the mid-90s the team was

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

No. 2. Olsen started his training career with Norway with a 6–1 home victory against Cameroon on 31 October 1990 and ended it on 27 June 1998 after a 0–1 defeat against Italy in the second stage of the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. In qualifying for the 1994 World Cup, Norway topped their group, finishing above both the European Championship winning and three-time World Cup finalists the Netherlands, and also above former World Cup winners England, beating both teams in the process. In the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...

in the United States, Norway was knocked out at the group stage after a win against Mexico, a defeat against Italy and a draw against the Republic of Ireland. Norway failed to qualify for second round qualification on goals scored as all 4 teams in the group finished with 4 points and identical goal difference. In the

in France, Norway was once again eliminated by Italy in the first round of the knock out stage after finishing second in their group, having drawn against Morocco and Scotland and won 2–1 against Brazil. Former under-21 coach

Nils Johan Semb Nils Johan Semb (born 24 February 1959) was the coach of the Norway national football team from 1998 to 2003, presiding over 68 matches. He led the team to its first European Football Championship in 2000. Though successful, at least in the begi ...

replaced Olsen after the planned retirement of the latter. Under Semb's guidance, Norway qualified for Euro 2000, which remains their last finals appearance to date. Semb resigned at the end of an unsuccessful qualifying campaign in 2003, and was replaced by Åge Hareide. Under Hareide, Norway came close to reaching both the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

and Euro 2008, but ultimately fell short on both occasions. Then, in 2008, it all fell apart as Norway failed to win a single game the entire calendar year. Hareide resigned at the end of 2008. His replacement, initially on a temporary basis, was the returning Egil Olsen, who began his second spell in charge with an away win against Germany, and subsequently signed a three-year contract. Olsen resigned in September 2013 after Norway lost at home to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and had limited chances to qualify for the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

with one game to spare. He was replaced with

Per-Mathias Høgmo Per-Mathias Høgmo (born 1 December 1959) is a football manager from Norway and former player. He is the former manager of the Norway national football team. He has previously been head coach of Norway women's national football team and the Tippel ...

. Olsen later claimed he was sacked.

Team image

Crest

Norway used the

national flag A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but usually can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours ...

on a white circle as their badge from the 1920s onwards. In May 2008 the NFF unveiled a new crest, a Viking-style Dragon wrapped around the NFF logo. After massive public pressure the crest was dropped. Between the 1980s and the 1990s, Norway used the NFF logo in the opposite breast of the shirt together with the national flag on a white circle. On 12 December 2014, a new crest was presented. The crest primarily features the national flag, in addition, there are two lions taken from the Coat of arms of Norway on the top. The lions are facing each other while holding a blue miniature of the NFF logo, and between the lions and above the NFF logo, it says "NORGE" (Norway) in blue letters.

Kit suppliers

Between 1996 and 2014, Norway's kits were supplied by Umbro. They took over from

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

who supplied Norway's kit between 1992 and 1996. On 10 September 2014, the NFF and Nike announced a new partnership that made the sportswear provider the official Norwegian team kit supplier from 1 January 2015. The new partnership will run until at least 2021.

Results and fixtures

2022

2023

Managers

The following is a list of all managers of the national team. Prior to 1953, the team was selected by a selection committee, which also continued to select the team until 1969. Kopengagen- (2)

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for friendly matches against Ireland and Finland on 17 and 20 November 2022, respectively. ''Caps and goals correct as of 20 November 2022, after the match against Finland.

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for the Norway squad within the last 12 months. ^INJ Withdrew due to injury
^PRE Preliminary squad / standby
^RET Retired from the national team
^SUS Serving suspension
^QUA Placed in mandatory quarantine
^WD Withdrew due to non-injury issue.
^EX Player expelled from the squad due to non-injury issue.

Player records

:''Players in bold are still active with Norway.''

Top appearances

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

UEFA European Championship

UEFA Nations League

Olympic Games

All-time team record

The following table shows Norway's all-time international record, correct as of 27 September 2022.

Honours

Official

* Olympic Games ** Bronze medal:

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

Notes

References

External links

Official website of The Norwegian Football Association (NFF)Norway FIFA profile
* ttp://www.home.no/greenriver/landslaget.html Complete list of Norwegian international players {{DEFAULTSORT:Norway National Football Team European national association football teams 1908 establishments in Norway Association football clubs established in 1908