Erling Haaland scored two goals in his first 2026 World Cup match, and Norway soccer players Kristian Thorstvedt and Alexander Sørloth joined him in carrying a family line that reaches back to the 1994 World Cup. Three Norway players are now part of that rare thread. The pattern gives this tournament a link between generations, not just results.
Haaland and the Norway line
Haaland did his part in a 4-1 win over Iraq, and he is already Norway's all-time leading scorer. Two of the elder Haaland's 34 career international caps came during the 1994 World Cup, though he never managed a goal in international competition. The son has gone further on the scoreboard than the father, and he did it on his first World Cup appearance.
That creates the cleanest split in the Norway group. One generation made its mark by getting to the World Cup; the next is producing goals inside it. The 2026 tournament now has 14 players whose fathers also played for a national team at the World Cup, and Norway supplies three of those sons.
Thorstvedt and Sørloth
Kristian Thorstvedt appeared in Norway's first World Cup game as a substitute. He has four goals in 38 international appearances, a modest total beside Haaland's output but still enough to show why he matters in the squad's attacking depth. His father, Erik Thorstvedt, made three appearances as a keeper at the 1994 World Cup and totaled 96 appearances for the national team.
Alexander Sørloth made his World Cup debut against Iraq. He has 26 goals in 73 caps, yet the family line has one unfinished piece: a Sørloth has yet to score a World Cup goal. His father, Gøran, played one match during the 1994 World Cup, so the route into this tournament is clear even if the final touch has not arrived.
A rare World Cup pattern
World Cup father-son pairings are not common. There have been 39 in tournament history, and Roy Andersson is the only World Cup player to have multiple sons appear in the tournament. Norway's three sons at the 2026 World Cup push that history into the foreground without changing the basic task in front of them: turn the family name into output on the field.
The next test is simple for Norway's trio. Haaland has already delivered two goals, Thorstvedt has already come off the bench, and Sørloth still needs his first World Cup strike. That mix leaves Norway with three live connections to 1994 and one obvious benchmark for the rest of the tournament: carry the family story past symbolism and into the score sheet.
