Artificial Pitches, Coaching Revolution, and Gambling Revenue: How Norway Forged Its World-Captivating Football Stars

With their World Cup performance, Norway appears to be a nation moving in the same direction, begins the BBC's report on the incredibly likable Scandinavian team that became a true hit on social media.

Norway – a country with a population almost the size of Scotland's – has emerged as a footballing force at the World Cup, and not just because of Erling Haaland. The Manchester City striker, who already has seven goals in the tournament, is the face of the team alongside Martin Ødegaard, captain of both Arsenal and the national squad.

However, they are not the only successful products of the Norwegian youth development system. Of their 26-man squad for the World Cup, 17 play in Europe's top four leagues – the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, and Serie A.

The majority of them have come through Norway's national football training system, known as the National Team School (NOU), established in 2013. The comparison with Scotland does not favor the latter. While the two countries are similar in size, the footballing gap is widening.

Both nations were absent from World Cup finals for 28 years after the 1998 World Cup in France. But while Steve Clarke's team failed to advance past the group stage in 2026, Norway will face England on Saturday in the quarter-finals, having eliminated Ivory Coast and Brazil in the knockout phase.

Håkon Grotland, head of player development at the Norwegian Football Federation, stated that we are now witnessing the result of over two decades of planning to transform Norway from a country synonymous with winter sports into a footballing nation.

"When I started working at the football federation in 2010, my dream was for Norway to compete in a World Cup, because for too many years we were talking about 1998," he told the BBC.

Grotland attributes Norway's success to two main factors – investment in artificial pitches between 2000-2010 and a coaching revolution sparked by the creation of the NOU. Since 2000, Norway has invested in a huge number of artificial pitches. Between 2016 and 2025, 539 were built, and another 586 were renovated. For a country that experiences harsh winters, this has had a massive impact. "Football in Norway transformed from a summer sport to a year-round sport," Grotland explained. "In my time, we had to play on terrible pitches in winter, on ice and such."

In the 1990s, Norway was synonymous with an effective but "workmanlike" style of defensive football. Playing on predictable surfaces led to a more technical style – epitomized by their captain, 27-year-old Martin Ødegaard.

"It's partly due to the artificial pitches, but also to influences," Grotland added. "Everyone wanted something a little different. But now it's gone too far, because we're not producing enough defenders."

Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, thanks to its significant oil reserves, the largest in Europe after Russia. Its economic strength, measured per capita, is almost double that of the United Kingdom and greater than that of the United States.

A unique factor in how Norway funds domestic sport is how the country utilizes gambling revenues. Betting is strictly regulated, and the main state operator, "Norsk Tipping," donates 64% of its profits to sports, with the majority of funds going to facilities across the country. In 2026, "Norsk Tipping" generated over 2 billion Norwegian kroner (£152.7 million) for sports facilities.

Alongside the development of artificial pitches, Grotland highlighted a "revolution" between 2010-2020, "when Norwegian football, leading clubs, federations, and regions began to invest heavily in player development." After failing to qualify for Euro 2012, the Norwegian Football Federation established "Landslagsskolen," known as NOU, in 2013.

Of the 15 players who participated in Norway's 2-1 victory over Brazil, 14 had represented the national team at youth level, and 11 of them had been part of the NOU system from the U15 or U16 teams. Grotland clarifies that the NOU is not an academy, nor a centralized school like the famous Clairefontaine in France, but a "national development structure connecting grassroots clubs, regions, leading clubs, and the federation."

"It's not like in other countries where leading clubs work on talent development, and grassroots clubs just have fun. In Norway, everyone is in this together," he says.

The importance of this system was recognized by the national team before the World Cup, when the squad posed for a team photo wearing the kits of their first clubs. In England, many promising talents are scouted by Premier League academies at eight years old, but in Norway, children remain with their grassroots clubs until the age of 12.

"An important part of our philosophy is that we don't try to close doors too early," Grotland says. He uses Erling Haaland, now 25, as an example of why this philosophy works, adding: "He was part of the national talent camps in the National Football School (NFS) structure from the age of 14, but at that time, no one thought he would become the best player in that age group."

The only player Grotland was sure about from an early age was Ødegaard, admitting that the entire NFS philosophy was inspired by his meeting with him when he was 11 years old. After being sought after by leading European clubs, the talented midfielder signed with Real Madrid at 16 for 4 million euros (£3.4 million).

"In Norway, a talented player is one who loves the game the most – a player who is responsible for their own development and takes responsibility for the team's development. We don't measure ball control, speed, and such things. We start with the question: 'Does this player love the game?' This was inspired by Ødegaard – I've never seen anyone like him as a child," Grotland adds.

The most important lessons the NFS instills, according to the head of player development, are "security, confidence, and cohesion." "This is the result we see at the World Cup. No player is bigger than the team."

For him, the Norwegian spirit is embodied by the Viking rowing that captivated Times Square and stadiums during this summer's World Cup – a clear example of a nation moving in one direction. "Rowing is about cohesion," he added.

The question remains, however, whether the National Football School can enrich Norway's domestic league. Only four of Ståle Solbakken's squad play in their home country, with three of them representing Bodø/Glimt, whose fairytale run to the Champions League last season might hint at a brighter future.

"One of our main goals in Norwegian football is to produce and sell players to the major leagues. At the same time, over the past few years, our own league has developed. The two things work together," Grotland said.

Norway coach Solbakken told the BBC: "We have players who are around 30 or older, we have players who are around 18 and 20, and then players in the middle who are in their prime. I don't know if it's a generation, but it's the result of hard work from the clubs and hard work from the federation."