Norway—a country with a population almost the same size as Scotland—has become a football powerhouse at the World Cup, and the success extends well beyond Erling Haaland.

The Manchester City striker, who has seven goals in the tournament, serves as the team’s poster boy alongside captain Martin Odegaard, who leads both Arsenal and the national squad.

However, they are not the only successful products of the Norwegian youth system. Of their 26-man World Cup squad, 17 players compete in Europe’s top four leagues: the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, and Serie A.

Most of these players received mentorship through Norway’s national youth football training system, the National Team School (NTS), established in 2013.

The comparison with Scotland is not favourable to the latter. While both nations share similar population sizes, a growing gulf exists in football terms.

Both countries spent 28 years away from the World Cup following the 1998 finals in France. However, while Steve Clarke’s men failed to progress past the group stage in 2026, Norway will face England on Saturday in a quarter-final, having beaten the Ivory Coast and Brazil in the knockout phase.

Hakon Grottland, head of player development at the Norwegian Football Federation, said we are now witnessing the result of more than two decades of planning to transform Norway—a country synonymous with winter sports—into a football nation.

“When I started with the football federation in 2010, it was my dream that Norway could compete at the World Cup because we had too many years of talking about 1998,” he told BBC Sport.

Grottland attributed Norway’s success to two main factors: investment in artificial pitches between 2000 and 2010 and a coaching revolution ignited by the establishment of the NTS.

Gambling proceeds help provide sports facilities

Since 2000, Norway has invested in a massive number of artificial pitches. Between 2016 and 2025, 539 were built, with a further 586 being renovated.

For a country that experiences harsh winters, this investment had a major impact.

“Football in Norway went from a summer sport to a year-round sport,” Grottland explained. “Back in my day, we had to play on horrible pitches in the winter, on ice and things like that.”

During the 1990s, Norway played an effective but workmanlike style of defensive football. Playing on predictable surfaces has led to a more technical style of play, epitomized by their 27-year-old skipper, Odegaard.

“It’s partly about artificial pitches, but it’s also about influences,” Grottland added.

“Everyone wanted something a little bit different. But now, this has gone too far because we don’t create enough defenders.”

Norway remains one of the world’s richest countries thanks to significant oil reserves, the largest in Europe after Russia.

The strength of its economy, measured per capita, is almost twice that of the UK and bigger than that of the US.

However, a unique factor in how Norway funds domestic sport involves revenue from gambling. Betting is strictly regulated, and the main state-owned operator, Norsk Tipping, donates 64% of its proceeds to sporting purposes, with the majority of funds supporting facilities across the country.

In 2026, Norsk Tipping generated more than 2 billion Norwegian kroner (£152.7m) for sports facilities.

‘I’ve never seen anyone like Odegaard as a child’

Alongside the development of artificial pitches, Grottland cited a “revolution” between 2010 and 2020, “where Norwegian football, the top clubs, the federations and the districts started to invest heavily in player development.”

After failing to qualify for Euro 2012, the Norwegian Football Federation established Landslagsskolen, known as the NTS, in 2013.

Of the 15 players who participated in Norway’s 2-1 victory over Brazil, 14 had represented the national team at the youth level, and 11 of those were part of the NTS pathway from the under-15 or under-16 age groups.

Grottland clarified that the NTS is not an academy or a centralized school like France’s Clairefontaine, but rather “a national development structure connecting grassroots clubs, districts, top clubs and the federation.”

“It’s not like in other countries where the top clubs work on talent development and the grassroots clubs just have fun,” he added.

“In Norway, everyone’s in it together.”

The national team acknowledged the importance of that grassroots system before the World Cup, when the squad posed for a team photograph wearing kits from their first clubs.

While many promising talents in England are selected by Premier League academies at age eight, children in Norway stay with their grassroots clubs until age 12.

“One important part of the philosophy is that we are not trying to close doors too early,” Grottland said.

He used 25-year-old Haaland as an example of why this philosophy works: “He was part of national talent camps within the NTS structure from the age of 14, but at that time nobody thought he would become the best player in that age group.”

The one player Grottland was sure about from a young age was Odegaard, admitting that the entire philosophy of the NTS was inspired by encountering him at age 11.

Coveted by Europe’s leading clubs, the midfield prodigy signed for Real Madrid at age 16 for 4 million euros (£3.4m).

“In Norway, a talented player is one who loves the game the most—a player who takes ownership of his own development and takes ownership of the team’s development,” Grottland added.

“We don’t measure ball handling, speed, or things like that. We start with: ‘does the player love this game?'”

“That was inspired by Odegaard—I’ve never seen anyone like him as a child.”

No player is bigger than the team

The most important lessons the NTS instills, Grottland said, are “safety, security and togetherness.”

“This is what we’re seeing as a result at the World Cup. No one player is bigger than the team.”

For him, the Norwegian spirit is epitomized by the Viking row that has taken over Times Square and stadiums during this summer’s World Cup—a clear example of a nation pulling in the same direction.

“The rowing, it’s about togetherness,” he added.

The question remains whether the NTS can further enrich Norway’s domestic league.

Only four of Stale Solbakken’s squad play on home shores, with three of them representing Bodo/Glimt, whose fairytale Champions League run to the last 16 last season may hint at a better future.

“One of our main goals in Norwegian football is to produce and sell players to the big leagues,” Grottland said.

“At the same time, our own league has developed over the last couple of years. The two things work together.”

Norway manager Solbakken told BBC Sport: “We have players who are around 30 or older, we have players who are around 18 and 20, and then players who are in the middle who are peaking.”

“I don’t know if it’s a generation, but it’s hard work from the clubs and hard work from the federation.”