Norway national football team

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 host 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 was 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 teams 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.[5]

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 ranked No. 2. 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. Norway failed to qualify for second round qualification on goal difference as all 4 teams in the group finished with 4 points. In the 1998 World Cup in France, Norway was once again 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[6] after Norway lost at home to Switzerland and had limited chances to qualify for the 2014 World Cup with one game to spare. He was replaced with Per-Mathias Høgmo. Olsen later claimed he was sacked.[7]

National football team of Norway, before the match with Bulgaria, 3-09-2015

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.[8] 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.[9]

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 18 November 2020.[12][13]

Manager	Nationality	Tenure	P	W	D	L	F	A	Finals
Willibald Hahn	Austria	1 August 1953 – 31 December 1955	26	7	7	12	28	42
Ron Lewin	England	1 January 1956 – 31 December 1957	17	5	4	8	25	38
Edmund Majowski	Poland	1 January 1958 – 15 September 1958	5	3	1	1	10	8
Ragnar Larsen	Norway	16 September 1958 – 31 December 1958	1	0	0	1	1	4
Kristian Henriksen	Norway	1 January 1959 – 31 December 1959	10	3	0	7	15	29
Wilhelm Kment	Austria	1 January 1960 – 15 August 1962	20	6	2	12	32	45
Ragnar Larsen	Norway	16 August 1962 – 31 December 1966	33	11	7	15	47	74
Wilhelm Kment	Austria	1 January 1967 – 31 December 1969	25	9	3	13	39	61
Øivind Johannessen	Norway	1 January 1970 – 31 December 1971	17	4	2	11	18	43
George Curtis	England	1 January 1972 – August 1974	17	3	2	12	17	30
Kjell Schou-Andreassen and Nils Arne Eggen	Norway	August 1974 – 31 December 1977	27	6	4	17	26	52
Tor Røste Fossen	Norway	1 January 1978 – 30 June 1987	94	28	28	38	96	119
Tord Grip	Sweden	1 July 1987 – 30 June 1988	7	0	4	3	3	7
Ingvar Stadheim	Norway	1 July 1988 – 10 October 1990	24	5	8	11	32	37
Egil Olsen	Norway	11 October 1990 – 30 June 1998	88	46	26	16	168	63	1994 World Cup – Group stage 1998 World Cup – Round of 16
Nils Johan Semb	Norway	1 July 1998 – 31 December 2003	68	29	21	18	89	61	Euro 2000 – Group stage
Åge Hareide	Norway	1 January 2004 – 8 December 2008	58	24	18	16	88	65
Egil Olsen	Norway	14 January 2009 – 27 September 2013	49	25	8	16	61	50
Per-Mathias Høgmo	Norway	27 September 2013 – 16 November 2016	35	10	7	18	33	49
Lars Lagerbäck	Sweden	1 February 2017 – 6 December 2020	34	18	8	8	60	34
Leif Gunnar Smerud	Norway	18 November 2020	1	0	1	0	1	1
Ståle Solbakken	Norway	7 December 2020 –	0	0	0	0	0	0

The following table shows Norway's all-time international record, correct as of 18 November 2019.[14]

Norway's all-time international record, 1908–2019
Opponents	Played	Won	Drawn*	Lost	GF	GA	GD	% Won
Albania	4	2	2	1	6	5	+1	50%
Argentina	2	2	0	0	3	1	+2	100%
Armenia	2	1	1	0	4	1	+3	50%
Australia	3	1	1	1	6	4	+2	50%
Austria	11	3	1	7	12	21	−9	27%
Azerbaijan	7	4	2	1	9	1	+8	57%
Bahrain	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	100%
Belarus	7	3	2	2	9	5	+4	43%
Belgium	9	0	3	6	8	17	−9	0%
Bermuda	2	2	0	0	6	1	+5	100%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	4	2	0	2	5	3	+2	50%
Brazil	4	2	2	0	8	5	+3	50%
Bulgaria	18	5	5	8	16	31	−15	28%
Cameroon	1	1	0	0	6	1	+5	100%
Chile	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0%
China PR	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1	100%
Colombia	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0%
Costa Rica	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	50%
Croatia	5	1	1	3	6	10	−4	20%
Cyprus	11	11	0	0	28	4	+24	100%
Czechoslovakia	5	0	1	4	5	13	−8	0%
Czech Republic	8	1	3	4	8	10	−2	13%
Denmark	90	21	15	54	107	229	−121	23%
East Germany	9	1	2	6	8	15	−7	11%
Egypt	6	3	3	0	7	2	+5	50%
England	16	2	4	8	14	33	−18	27%
Estonia	7	4	2	1	16	5	+11	57%
Faroe Islands	4	4	0	0	15	0	+15	100%
Finland	66	41	16	9	181	81	+100	62%
France	16	4	4	8	16	24	−8	25%
Georgia	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	100%
Germany	15	2	4	9	11	34	−23	13%
Ghana	1	1	0	0	3	2	+1	100%
Greece	8	2	2	4	9	11	−2	28%
Grenada	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1	100%
Guatemala	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2	100%
Honduras	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2	100%
Hungary	21	7	6	8	26	36	−9	33%
Iceland	34	20	6	8	64	35	+29	59%
Israel	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	50%
Italy	17	3	4	10	13	22	−8	18%
Jamaica	2	1	1	0	7	1	+6	50%
Japan	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
Jordan	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0%
Kuwait	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	0%
Latvia	2	1	0	1	3	4	−1	50%
Lithuania	2	2	0	0	2	0	+2	100%
Luxembourg	11	8	1	2	24	9	+15	73%
Malta	12	10	2	0	30	4	+26	83%
Mexico	6	2	1	3	8	11	−3	33%
Moldova	5	4	1	0	6	1	+5	80%
Montenegro	2	1	0	1	3	4	−1	50%
Morocco	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	0%
Netherlands	20	5	6	9	27	44	−17	25%
New Zealand	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
Nigeria	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	0%
North Korea	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
North Macedonia	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	50%
Northern Ireland	9	7	0	2	19	9	+10	78%
Oman	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1	100%
Panama	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	100%
Paraguay	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	0%
Poland	21	4	3	14	26	60	−34	18%
Portugal	11	1	2	8	5	18	−13	9%
Qatar	2	2	0	0	8	1	+7	100%
Republic of Ireland	20	4	9	7	21	30	−9	20%
Romania	13	2	7	4	10	14	−4	15%
Russia	4	1	3	0	6	5	+1	25%
Saar	2	0	1	1	2	3	−1	0%
San Marino	4	4	0	0	24	1	+23	100%
Saudi Arabia	1	1	0	0	6	0	+6	100%
Scotland	17	3	6	8	18	27	−9	17%
Senegal	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1	0%
Serbia	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0%
Serbia and Montenegro	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	100%
Singapore	1	1	0	0	5	2	+3	100%
Slovakia	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
Slovenia	9	6	2	1	16	8	+8	67%
South Africa	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	67%
South Korea	5	2	1	2	8	6	+2	40%
Soviet Union	12	0	2	10	4	26	−22	0%
Spain	8	1	2	5	4	12	−8	13%
Sweden	109	24	26	59	148	277	−129	22%
Switzerland	21	8	6	7	26	21	+5	38%
Thailand	2	2	0	0	8	0	+8	100%
Trinidad and Tobago	1	0	0	1	2	3	−1	0%
Tunisia	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	50%
Turkey	11	3	4	4	16	12	+4	27%
United Arab Emirates	2	2	2	0	2	2	0	50%
United States	5	2	1	2	14	8	+6	40%
Ukraine	5	0	1	4	0	5	−5	0%
Uruguay	2	0	1	1	3	2	−1	0%
Wales	12	4	4	4	15	17	−2	33%
West Germany	9	2	1	6	9	25	−16	22%
Yugoslavia	13	2	1	10	15	29	−14	16%
Zambia	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0%
Total	849	301	200	348	1242	1398	−156	35%

Major:

• Summer Olympics
  • Third place: 1936

Regional:

• Nordic Championship
  • Winners: 1929–32

Kit provider	Period
Le Coq Sportif	1976–1980
Hummel	1981–1991
Adidas	1992–1996
Umbro	1996–2014
Nike	2015–present

Between 1996 and 2014, Norway's kits were supplied by Umbro. They took over from Adidas who supplied Norway's kit between 1992 and 1996.

On 10 September 2014, the NFF and Nike announced a new partnership that made the sportswear provider the official Norwegian team kit supplier from 1 January 2015.[17] The new partnership will run until at least 2021.

• Football in Norway
• Norway women's national football team
• Norway national under-21 football team
• Norway national under-20 football team
• Norway national under-19 football team
• Norway national under-17 football team
• Sápmi football team

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norway national football team.

• Official website of The Norwegian Football Association (NFF)
• Norway FIFA profile
• Norway UEFA profile
• RSSSF archive of results 1908–
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• Complete list of Norwegian international players