{"id":282788,"date":"2026-06-30T21:04:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/282788\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T21:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:04:54","slug":"sporting-club-gjoa-turns-brooklyn-clubhouse-into-norways-world-cup-home-away-from-home-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/282788\/","title":{"rendered":"Sporting Club Gj\u00f8a turns Brooklyn clubhouse into Norway\u2019s World Cup home away from home \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 150 members of Sporting Club Gj\u00f8a in Sunset Park gathered at their clubhouse at 850 62nd St. on June 26 to watch Norway\u2019s final FIFA World Cup group-stage match against France. Although Norway fell to France 4-1, the Vikings advanced to the knockout stage, where they defeated C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire 2-1 on Tuesday to earn a spot in the Round of 16 against Brazil.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the June 26 game, Jimmy Svendsen, Gj\u00f8a\u2019s youth athletic director, told Brooklyn Paper that the club was founded by Norwegian immigrants in 1911, making it one of the oldest community soccer clubs in the country. Its youth soccer program, launched in 1918, offers camps, clinics and travel soccer. This year, about 400 young people are participating in clinics and another 400 in travel soccer, while the club\u2019s adult Sunday soccer games are more recreational.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been having youth programs since 1920, so that\u2019s something we\u2019ve been doing in Brooklyn forever,\u201d he said.
\n\"\"Sporting Club Gj\u00f8a was founded in 1911.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann\n<\/p>\n

Svendsen said he was excited that both Norway and the United States had been playing well. While he would love to see the U.S. and Norway face each other in the July 19 final, he wasn\u2019t sure it would happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Argentina looks good, and I believe Spain \u2014 though they\u2019re not looking great now \u2014 will pick it up,\u201d Svendsen predicted.\n<\/p>\n

However, the avid soccer fan wasn\u2019t as confident about four-time World Cup champion Germany.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a big loss yesterday. I thought they were gonna do a little better, but I wouldn\u2019t rule them out at this point,\u201d Svendsen said. (Germany\u2019s World Cup run ended two days later with a stunning Round of 32 exit.)<\/p>\n

Win or lose, he described the FIFA World Cup as the \u201cultimate\u201d sporting event because it brings people together.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at the Norway-Senegal game, and you have Senegalese fans and Norway fans all coming together and just being friendly and nice and calm. It\u2019s a nice thing to see in today\u2019s world,\u201d Svendsen told Brooklyn Paper.<\/p>\n

\"\"Members of Sporting Club Gj\u00f8a cheered on Norway against France in the final FIFA World Cup group-stage match.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Members of Sporting Club Gj\u00f8a cheered on Norway against France in the final FIFA World Cup group-stage match.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Karine R\u00f8d Haraldsson, USA director of the Norwegian Seafood Council, told Brooklyn Paper that the council is the official sponsor of the Norwegian men\u2019s national soccer team and its star striker, Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n

The council teamed up with Norwegian cheese brand Jarlsberg to host a community soccer camp through TINE Football School in partnership with Gj\u00f8a Youth Soccer. TINE is a leading Norwegian food company owned by more than 7,000 dairy farmers across Norway.<\/p>\n

Haraldsson said she loves the World Cup because people from around the world come together to celebrate the sport, which, she pointed out, also requires proper nutrition, including seafood, to perform at the highest level.<\/p>\n

While she predicted Norway might lose to France, she was confident the team could advance through the knockout stage. Regardless of which teams reached the final, she hoped the players\u2019 diet included seafood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are eating a lot of seafood \u2014 they should do that \u2014 they\u2019ll get stronger,\u201d Haraldsson recommended.\n<\/p>\n

Svein-Egil J\u00f8rgensen, a special adviser for political affairs at TINE, said the World Cup is an important event. In addition to sponsoring the Norwegian Football Federation for more than 30 years, TINE has hosted football camps every summer for the past 28 years, serving more than 1.8 million Norwegian children.<\/p>\n

Some current national team players attended TINE\u2019s youth soccer camps. However, J\u00f8rgensen said the camps are not about developing elite athletes but about building community, having fun and teaching healthy eating habits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is that we try to keep as many kids as possible as active as possible for as long as possible, and then some of them will become top athletes. But the general idea is that, of course, as a small country, we cannot lose anyone in small talent pool, but also it\u2019s a good thing for the public health,\u201d J\u00f8rgensen said. \u201cSo, if they get good values, they stay active, they made friends, these are all positive effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was dreaming of seeing Norway reach the final.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if not, I guess it\u2019s going to be one of the regulars, like France or Portugal or Spain, you know, the big countries. But it\u2019s always fun to see in the World Cup, there\u2019s always some countries that surprise us,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\"\"Norwegian youth soccer coaches and players Julie and William watch the game.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Jean Bourbon rooted for France while his son Leo hoped Norway would win.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

At halftime, France led Norway 3-1. TINE Football School youth coaches William and Julie, who spent a week in Brooklyn coaching Gj\u00f8a\u2019s youth soccer players, said they weren\u2019t surprised by Norway\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not surprised, really, because it\u2019s the B team of Norway. We might get a tie, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re gonna win,\u201d William said, adding that if the coach brought in Haaland for the second half, the team could still win. \u201cI still think that Norway is going to the final; I stand by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Gj\u00f8a youth soccer player Leo Bourbon watched the match with his father, France native Jean Bourbon, who was cheering for \u201cLes Bleus\u201d while Leo rooted for Norway.\n<\/p>\n

Jean Bourbon\u2019s wife is Norwegian, and when they learned about Gj\u00f8a\u2019s youth soccer club, it was almost like a dream come true, he told Brooklyn Paper.\n<\/p>\n

\u201c[At the time], there was no French soccer club \u2014 now there is. But it wasn\u2019t just the Norwegian fact, it was the fact that the club is great at what they do, and the way they teach, and their approach to philosophy of soccer including everyone, and just letting the kids on the pitch basically decide how they play,\u201d Jean Bourbon said, noting that the coaches use positive reinforcement instead of yelling at players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 150 members of Sporting Club Gj\u00f8a in Sunset Park gathered at their clubhouse at 850 62nd St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,34049,108416,108417,108418,9,24,12,370,75537,108419,63,108420,108421,108422,108423],"class_list":["post-282788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-gju00f8au2019s-youth-soccer","tag-jimmy-svendsen","tag-karine-ru00f8d-haraldsson","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-norway","tag-norwegian","tag-nyc","tag-soccer-club","tag-sporting-club-gju00f8a","tag-svein-egil-ju00f8rgensen","tag-tine-football-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}