{"id":287846,"date":"2026-07-06T10:06:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/287846\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:06:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:06:34","slug":"karl-ove-knausgaard-cant-enjoy-when-norway-is-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/287846\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl Ove Knausgaard \u2018Can\u2019t Enjoy When Norway Is Playing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n Haaland and Knausgaard.
\n Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images\n <\/p>\n

Norway is not a traditional soccer power, but its arrival at the World Cup\u2019s Round of 16 <\/a>feels entirely expected. That is largely because of the team\u2019s towering center forward Erling Haaland, a blunt-faced, flowing-maned phenom who you can easily imagine reaving enemy villages alongside his Norse ancestors back in the Dark Ages. Haaland transforms games with his centripetal force, the ball invariably finding its way to his giant feet or slab forehead before being caromed emphatically into the back of the net. He has scored five goals this tournament, just behind the Golden Boot leaders Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Lionel Messi. At 25 years old, he is already far and away the best player Norway has ever produced.<\/p>\n

Haaland has also charmed North American audiences with his surprisingly sunny demeanor, posting videos of himself relishing a pastrami sandwich<\/a> in New York and predicting<\/a>, correctly, that Norway would lose to France in the group stage. (\u201cThey\u2019re probably going to win the whole tournament,\u201d he added, which at this point feels like another good prediction.) The Norwegian team has borrowed its talisman\u2019s aura of joyful belligerence, posing as Vikings in a photo shoot<\/a>, wearing horned Viking hats, and performing a \u201cViking row<\/a>\u201d after victories in which the players pretend to pull the oars of a ship to the quickening beat of a galley drum.<\/p>\n

To get a sense of what this team means to Norway, a country now better known for free day care than bloody steel and animal skins, I spoke over video with its preeminent novelist, Karl Ove Knausgaard<\/a>, who between tokes of his vape at his home in London exuded the enthusiasm of a longtime soccer aficionado. In addition to the autofictional opus My Struggle, which contains numerous scenes of young Knausgaard watching and valiantly trying to play football, he is the author of Home and Away: Writing the Beautiful Game<\/a>, a series of letters with the Swedish author Fredrik Ekelund about the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. There, he writes what many of us are feeling now: \u201cIt was a perfect summer, as all World Cup summers are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norway plays Brazil on Sunday. What do you think of your chances?
I think Brazil actually will be an easier opponent than Ivory Coast<\/a> because there was an expectation for Norway to win. But when it\u2019s Brazil, there\u2019s no expectation whatsoever. And then Brazil has a very slow midfield and didn\u2019t play particularly well in their last game against Japan. And I do remember, and all the people of my age remember, the 1998 game against Brazil<\/a>, which still is the glorious moment in Norwegian football. So it\u2019s really, really nice to meet them.<\/p>\n

You write about that game, when Norway shocked Brazil with a 2-1 victory in the group stage, in My Struggle and about how everyone streamed into the streets in delirium afterward. How is the current team different from that team?
The \u201998 team was very, very well-organized. They had a kind of genius, mad-professor manager, Drillo. It was all about the collective, and he took them as far as I think a collective could go. This team is very different. They have so much individual quality that I never thought I would see in a Norwegian team. I watched football in the 1970s, \u201980s, \u201990s. I\u2019m used to defense. I\u2019m used to maximum three passes in a row. I\u2019m used to losing 2-1 in Eastern Europe. Time after time, we never qualified for anything. And then all of a sudden, we\u2019ve got this generation and they are really exceptionally good. So when they qualified, you know, we were happy. The rest is a bonus.<\/p>\n

But were you surprised when they reached the Round of 16?
I didn\u2019t think they would make it because Senegal is really good, but they played very well against Senegal<\/a>. It was their best game. When I saw Senegal, I thought, Yeah, they\u2019ll make it. And then I was dreading Ivory Coast. And I was right \u2014 they were very good. It was very painful to watch. Incredibly painful to watch. It\u2019s sad because it\u2019s almost better when your team is not in the World Cup; then you can just enjoy the football. But I can\u2019t enjoy when Norway is playing. It\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n

I support Japan, and during those games, I can\u2019t even sit down. I\u2019m standing the entire time, total anxiety enveloping me.
You had such an amazing team. It was such bad luck to get Brazil there<\/a>. And also, you could have won. No, that\u2019s a shame. That was one of my favorite teams, along with Morocco.<\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0
That\u2019s the World Cup.<\/p>\n

So we have to talk about Erling Haaland. Tell me what you think about Haaland as a player but also as a mascot for this team and the most visible Norwegian at the tournament.
I first became aware of him when I think he scored nine goals<\/a> in a youth national team game. So it was something sensational surrounding him from the very beginning. He\u2019s always had pressure, but he\u2019s dealing with it in an amazing way. He\u2019s funny, he\u2019s friendly, he\u2019s well-liked, he can play with his status. And he has got an extra star in my book because he bought a book, Snorri Sturluson\u2019s saga<\/a>. It\u2019s this old Norse history book. It was worth millions. And he bought it and donated it to the library where he comes from. He does things like that. He cares about the people around him.<\/p>\n

Of course, he\u2019s got this commercial aspect to him. It seems like he is signing up to every major commercial enterprise in the world. But maybe he\u2019s got ten years \u2014 there\u2019s a window. So you can\u2019t blame him, really.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Haaland the Barbarian.
\n Photo: Julian Finney\/FIFA\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n

And what do you think about his style of play? Do you think there\u2019s something Norwegian about him, or is he just a unique talent?
Well, physically, he is Norwegian. But there\u2019s something about him that\u2019s very old-fashioned, very British. He\u2019s like the strikers in the 1970s, when I started to watch football. The genius of him is the presence he\u2019s got. I don\u2019t know if you saw his missed chance<\/a> against Senegal. He was down on the ground and his head in his hands. Then the play continued and he was up and almost scored the very next second. It\u2019s his ability to switch on that is unique. He\u2019s incredibly present. When he\u2019s in the box, he\u2019s probably the most aware man on the planet.<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s his technique and his touch \u2014 he just shoots with one touch. He\u2019s also got an acrobatic level to his shooting in the air. I don\u2019t know if you saw Michael Olise against Sweden. He did a bicycle kick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, oh my God.\u00a0
The technical level of that is magical, but that\u2019s also what Haaland can do. A bit more awkward, not as elegant, but he can do those kinds of things.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the other Norwegian standouts.
The right back, Julian Ryerson<\/a>. He\u2019s been injured, but he\u2019s got incredible willpower. He\u2019s absolutely 100 percent solid, and he is very fearless. And of course, \u00d8degaard, who is more like my type of player, really.<\/p>\n

In what sense?
He can unlock a defense with one pass when he is at his best. Like the one he had against Senegal<\/a>, through two defenders, exactly weighted so Haaland can just score. He was like a prodigy \u2014 he was playing against grown men when he was 11. My favorite player of all time is Andrea Pirlo<\/a>. \u00d8degaard isn\u2019t at that level, but he is the same kind of player who can create some magic not by dribbling or running on the wing but by passing.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Sander Berge, the Fulham midfielder, the balance in the midfield. He doesn\u2019t look good at first, but when you start to look at him, he looks better. And against Ivory Coast, our best player was Patrick Berg, Bod\u00f8\/Glimt captain. He was absolutely brilliant, tactical, and wise. Another big surprise was the keeper, \u00d8rjan Nyland, who got the save<\/a> against Amad off the free kick. And Oscar Bobb is such a joy to watch \u2014 his through pass against Ivory Coast<\/a> decided the game \u2014 and he is the only one of the players that I know of on the team that has read Dostoevsky.<\/p>\n

What do you and other Norwegians make of the whole Viking thing?
Well, I can tell you, it\u2019s very divided. You\u2019ve got the more serious, intellectual newspaper side, who think this is terrible. The runic type on the back of their jerseys, they say it\u2019s vulgar, it\u2019s leaning towards right-wing aesthetics, Viking aesthetics. Because that was what happened in the 1930s and \u201940s: When the Viking aesthetics went national, the Nazi party here used it. But I think it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s joyful, and it works. The Viking row thing is almost like a metaphor \u2014 we are in the same boat, all of us, and this World Cup brings us together, not only in Norway but all the other nations. And this is a symbol for that. And I think it\u2019s good to take those aesthetics back to something fun instead of the right-wing thing. It\u2019s very innocent, really. But, of course, it is a bit corny. I agree.<\/p>\n

And if you were in the crowd, would you be doing the rowing as well?
Good question. I hope I wouldn\u2019t be put in that situation. But I probably would. Yeah, I would.<\/p>\n

After they beat Senegal, there were tens of thousands people out in Oslo. They all went to the castle and said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to wake up the king. We\u2019re going to wake up the king.\u201d And they sat down and did a row in front of the castle. It\u2019s been 28 years since we were at the World Cup, and that\u2019s the kind of a thing we talk about occasionally: \u201cWhere were you then?\u201d And it\u2019s the same thing now.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. <\/p>\n

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