Erling Haaland — Norway World Cup 2026 Squad

Erling Haaland gives Norway the simplest high-end plan in the tournament: get the ball into dangerous areas and trust that the best finisher on the pitch will do the rest. He is 25, he has 37 caps and 31 goals, and this is his first World Cup after years in which his club fame far outgrew Norway's tournament reach. That gap is exactly what makes his 2026 story so sharp. Everyone knows the name already. Now they get to see what it looks like when Norway build a whole month around him. He can bully centre-backs, attack crosses, score first time off cut-backs, and make one early pass over the top feel like a genuine chance instead of a hopeful release. Norway do not need him to touch the ball 60 times. They need him to turn three or four big moments into a scoreline. The challenge for him is not mystery. It is patience, because World Cup matches often ask elite forwards to wait a long time for the one opening that really counts. If he does that, the group stage changes quickly and Norway stop looking like a novelty in the bracket. They start looking like the team nobody wants in a knockout tie.