Norway is returning to the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 28 years — and they announced it in the most dramatic way possible. A cinematic photoshoot by British photographer David Yarrow dressed the entire squad as Norse warriors, complete with chainmail, swords, and a digitally composited longship backdrop. The images went viral within hours. But inside Norway, the reaction has been far more complicated.
The Making of a Viral Campaign
The concept was deliberate from the start. Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, framed it as an act of reclamation: “We recognized early on that the Viking narrative would follow us regardless. That’s why we chose to take ownership of it and fill it with what truly defines us. It’s not about aesthetics alone, but about values: togetherness, team spirit, and standing united.”
Yarrow — known for a viral 2023 Ryder Cup photo where the European golf team posed as 1920s mobsters — shot the squad on a private beach near Oslo, then digitally composited landscape elements and traditional longships photographed later that same day at Viking Valley in Gudvangen. The result looks less like a team photo and more like a film still from a Netflix fantasy series.
The campaign’s biggest name, Erling Haaland, posted his solo portrait on Instagram with a two-word warning: “Norway is coming.” It played perfectly into the narrative of a historic voyage across the Atlantic — the 2026 World Cup is being hosted in North America, and Norway’s first group-stage match is against Iraq in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Even captain Martin Ødegaard made it into the frame, despite missing the original shoot to play in the Champions League final — his image was digitally inserted into the lineup after he flew into Oslo a few days later, with a space in the composition purposefully left open for him. Much like what the Ryder Cup’s viral team photo moment proved, the right image at the right time rewrites how a team is perceived before they ever set foot on the field.
Why Half of Norway Is Not Impressed
The global reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. The domestic conversation, not so much.
The core criticism runs in three directions. First, tone: columnist Janne Stigen Drangsholt wrote in Aftenposten that the shoot generates a “toxic guttastemning” — a toxic, locker-room atmosphere — that doesn’t reflect what modern Norway actually stands for. The argument isn’t that swords are inherently bad; it’s that a country globally known for peace mediation and progressive governance chose to market itself to the world as a gang of heavily armed men, and that feels like a mismatch.
Second, and more seriously: culture researcher Jane Haug Skjoldli told Klassekampen that pairing a hyper-masculine idealization of a national group with ancient Norse imagery sits uncomfortably close to symbolic language that far-right and neo-Nazi groups have deliberately co-opted for decades. The Viking aesthetic isn’t politically neutral anymore — far-right extremists have been mining Norse runes and warrior imagery for years — and critics argue Norway’s national team should have known better before diving headfirst into exactly that visual language.
Third: it’s just a cliché. Commentator Hans Petter Sjøli of VG called the shoot “too loud and Disney-like,” arguing it’s time to “get the Viking out of football.” His point is cultural: Norwegians tend to value being understated and grounded, and this campaign feels engineered for Instagram clout rather than anything authentically Norwegian.
On the other side, Member of Parliament Mímir Kristjánsson pushed back, arguing the World Cup is exactly the moment to bring your own history to the global stage — and Norway’s history is Viking history whether critics like it or not. Yarrow and the team were aware the shoot would be provocative. That was partly the point. Whatever side you land on, the campaign achieved the one thing a marketing push absolutely has to: nobody is sleeping on Norway heading into the 2026 World Cup.
- Norway’s road to the 2026 World Cup
