"It's like a fairytale that is coming true." Gøran Sørloth said that to CNN, watching his son Alexander lead Norway's attack alongside Erling Haaland — whose father Alf-Inge lined up beside Sørloth at the 1994 World Cup in the same country, on the same stage, three decades ago.
On Tuesday in Boston, Norway fielded three players whose dads were teammates on the 1994 squad: Alexander Sørloth, Erling Haaland, and Kristian Thorstvedt. Add Patrick Berg — son of Norwegian international Ørjan Berg — and you've got four players with direct family ties to an earlier generation of the national team. Nothing like this has happened at a World Cup before.
Tears, anxiety, and sliding door moments
Former goalkeeper Erik Thorstvedt, Sørloth's roommate from '94, admitted he had tears running down his cheeks before Kristian even touched the ball. But it wasn't pure joy — it was the specific dread only an ex-pro parent knows.
"As a father and ex-goalkeeper, you are aware of the downsides if you make a penalty two minutes from the end or score an own goal," he said. Anyone who's watched football at the highest level understands that anxiety. The pride and the fear arrive together.
Thorstvedt almost didn't get to feel any of it. Kristian generated zero interest from Norwegian clubs as a young player and was set to study at university in New Hampshire. His father made one last phone call to the coach of Viking Stavanger. One week's trial. One contract. "The margins are so small," Thorstvedt said. "These sliding door moments define our lives."
Alexander Sørloth's path was similarly winding — he played handball and represented Norway as a speed skater at 12. The football career wasn't inevitable for any of them.
What this Norway side could actually do
The sentimental story is real, but so is the football. Norway's 1994 group stage exit was one of the cruelest in tournament history — they beat Mexico, drew with Ireland, lost to Italy, and finished with the same four points and goal difference as every other team in the group. They went out on goals scored. One goal conceded, one goal scored. Italy reached the final.
They didn't return to a World Cup after France '98 until now. That's a 28-year gap, and Erling Haaland is the primary reason it's over. Thorstvedt's numbers say it plainly: Haaland has scored more than a goal per game for Norway. At Manchester City that's elite. For a national team that's spent three decades outside the tournament, it's a different category of achievement entirely.
Norway as a dark horse isn't absurd. Their odds will reflect that Haaland is essentially ungameable for opposing defenses, and a settled squad with genuine tournament experience — borrowed partly from the Premier League and European football — makes them more dangerous than their seeding suggests.
Sørloth Sr. isn't getting carried away. "One match at a time," he said. He's been there. He knows how quickly fairytales end.
