In the lead-up to the match against Brazil, a local left-wing media outlet suggested that they need to have more immigrants to resemble the "super teams"
The 2-1 victory of Norway over Brazilin the 2026 World Cup has once again brought to the forefront a debate that some sectors insist on transferring to football: the idea that sporting success depends on a national team being increasingly diverse from an ethnic or migratory perspective.
Hours before the match ofthe round of 16, instead of focusing on the sporting challenge of facing one of the tournament's strongest rivals, the local media Aftenpolsten published an article questioning why the national team does not have more players from immigrant neighborhoods, like in the case of France.
"The super teams are full of children of immigrants. In Norway, it is going in the opposite direction" reads the headline of the Aftenposten article
However, the result ended up offering a strong contrast to that argument. Norway eliminated one of the tournament favorites thanks to collective performance, tactical solidity, and the performance of its players, demonstrating that the positive results of a national team are not linked to meeting certain demographic criteria, but rather to having the best available players.
Paradoxically, the article itself acknowledges that there are already several members of the squad with foreign ancestry, such as Antonio Nusa, son of a Norwegian mother and a Nigerian father, or Oscar Bobb, with a Norwegian mother and a Gambian father. Still, the focus of the publication remains that Norwegian football should produce more players from certain social and migratory backgrounds.
The article also highlights that many members of the national team come from families with a good economic standing, suggesting that access to football may be conditioned by social circumstances. That could indeed be a valid debate in terms of opportunities, but it is different from claiming that a national team needs to meet a certain ethnic or migratory composition to be competitive.
Norway does not need foreign talent to play well
The victory against Brazil ended up reinforcing that idea. There is no single formula for building a competitive team: some countries produce talent from large cities, others from small towns; some have more diverse squads while others have more homogeneous teams. What ultimately makes the difference remains the quality of the players and the collective performance on the field, not the fulfillment of identity quotas.
