Norway national football team

History

Norway's performances in international football have usually been weaker than those of their Scandinavian neighbours Sweden and Denmark, but they did have a golden age in the late 1930s. An Olympic team achieved third place in the 1936 Olympics, after beating the hosts Germany earlier in the tournament. Norway also qualified for the 1938 FIFA World Cup, where they lost 2–1 after extra time against eventual champions Italy. This turned out to be Norway's last World Cup finals appearance in 56 years.

In the post-war years, up to and including the 1980s, Norway was usually considered as one of the weaker nations in Europe. They never qualified for a World Cup or European Championship in this period, and usually finished near the bottom of their qualifying group. Nevertheless, Norway had a reputation for producing the occasional shock result, such as the 3–0 win against Yugoslavia in 1965, the 1–0 away win against France in 1968, and the 2–1 victory against England in 1981 that prompted radio commentator Bjørge Lillelien's famous "Your boys took a hell of a beating" rant.

Norway had their most successful period from 1990 to 1998 under the legendary coach Egil "Drillo" Olsen. At its height in the mid-90s the team was even ranked second on the FIFA World Rankings. Olsen started his training career with Norway with a 6–1 home victory against Cameroon on 31 October 1990 and ended it on 27 June 1998 after a 0–1 defeat against Italy in the second stage of the 1998 World Cup.

In the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Norway was knocked out at the group stage after a win against Mexico, a defeat against Italy and a draw against the Republic of Ireland. In the 1998 World Cup in France, Norway was eliminated by Italy in the first round of the knock out stage after finishing second in their group, having drawn against Morocco and Scotland and won 2–1 against Brazil.

Former under-21 coach Nils Johan Semb replaced Olsen after the planned retirement of the latter. Under Semb's guidance, Norway qualified for Euro 2000, which remains their last finals appearance to date. Semb resigned at the end of an unsuccessful qualifying campaign in 2003, and was replaced by Åge Hareide. Under Hareide, Norway came close to reaching both the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008, but ultimately fell short on both occasions. Then, in 2008, it all fell apart as Norway failed to win a single game the entire calendar year. Hareide resigned at the end of 2008. His replacement, initially on a temporary basis, was the returning Egil Olsen, who began his second spell in charge with an away win against Germany, and subsequently signed a three-year contract. Olsen resigned in September 2013 after Norway lost at home to Switzerland and failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. He was replaced with Per-Mathias Høgmo.

Norway's best single result is arguably the 2–1 win against Brazil on 23 June 1998 in the World Cup group stage (a match before Brazil had clinched first-place in the group). Norway is in fact the only team in the world that has played against Brazil and never lost. In its four matches all-time against Brazil, Norway have won twice, and drawn on the other two occasions.

Crest

Norway used the national flag on a white circle as their badge from the 1920s onwards. In May 2008 the NFF unveiled a new crest, a Viking-style Dragon wrapped around the NFF logo. After massive public pressure the crest was dropped. Between the 1980s and the 1990s, Norway used the NFF logo in the opposite breast of the shirt together with the national flag on a white circle. On 12 December 2014, a new crest was presented. The crest primarily features the national flag, in addition, there are two lions taken from the Coat of arms of Norway on the top. The lions are facing each other while holding a blue miniature of the NFF logo, and between the lions and above the NFF logo, it says "NORGE" (Norway) in blue letters.

Current squad

The following squad was called up for the 2018 World Cup qualifier matches against Northern Ireland on 26 March 2017 .

Caps and goals correct as of 11 November 2016, after the World Cup qualifier against Czech Republic.

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for the Norway squad within the last 12 months.

Top appearances

Last updated: 9 September 2014
Source: RSSSF.no

Top goalscorers

Last updated: 9 September 2014
Source: RSSSF.no

Managers

The following is a list of all managers of the national team. Prior to 1953, the team was selected by a selection committee, which also continued to select the team until 1969. The table lists the manager, his nationality, the period he was manager, games played (P), games won (W), games drawn (D), games lost (L), goals for (F) and goals against (A). It also lists any finals reached and how far the team progressed. The list is up to date as of 1 February 2017.

All-time team record

The following table shows Norway's all-time international record, correct as of 5 June 2016.

Kit suppliers

Since 1996, Norway's kit has been supplied by Umbro. They took over from Adidas who supplied Norway's kit between 1992 and 1996.

Norway and Nike have announced a new partnership that will see the sportswear provider become the official Norwegian team kit supplier from 1 January 2015. The new partnership will run until at least until 2021.