👀 Is it in the family? Only the Haalands have this cheat code | OneFootball

The euphoria was immense and even greater for the Norwegian national team when they directly qualified for the 2026 World Cup with a 4-1 victory over Italy. The standout player: once again, City superstar Erling Haaland, who impressively shows in every national team game that he knows exactly where the goal is.

Against Italy alone, he scored twice – he clearly leads the top scorer list of the European World Cup qualification with 16 (!) goals and has scored in every single qualification match. Just for comparison: Currently, in second place is Austrian Marko Arnautović with eight goals scored. 

It is clear: Haaland has made a huge contribution to Norway qualifying for a World Cup for the first time in 28 years with eight wins from eight qualifying matches.

And one might now come to the idea that there is a kind of cheat code in the Haaland family that helps lead the Norwegian national team to the biggest tournament in world football. Because who was part of the team in 1998 that perfectly made the qualification for the last World Cup with Norwegian participation? Correct: Alf-Inge Haaland – Erling's father!

In 1994, he made his debut for Norway's senior national team, was part of the 1994 World Cup, and was on a good path again in '98. In the qualification, he was still an indispensable support for his team – an injury ultimately prevented his participation. Nevertheless, how to lead Norway to a World Cup has likely been a topic in the Haaland household for quite some time.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 ALBERTO PIZZOLI - AFP or licensors