Norwegian fans may have become famous for their Viking row at the 2026 World Cup. But unlike their ancestors, thankfully, the sound of drums and Scandinavian screams are not followed by a wild assault on unsuspecting locals.
But I wanted to know if the Norwegian’s good humor was still alive and well when faced with England fans parading around with the World Cup trophy ahead of a closely contested quarter-final between the two teams.
Will that famous Scandinavian politeness remain, or will it evoke the spirit of the ancient Vikings feared in the British Isles centuries ago?
Despite talk of 30,000 British fans taking over Miami ahead of the World Cup quarter-finals, the Ocean View district, lined with bars and restaurants where soccer fans gather before the match, was a sea of red.
Norway may only have a slightly larger population than Scotland, but they headed to America in droves, much like the Tartan Legion, which had missed out on major tournaments for decades.
In fact, the crowds performing Viking Row were so large that local police twice had to disperse them with dune buggies.
The question I had was what the Norwegian crowd would think of a lone Englishman, Bobby Moore-style, carrying the World Cup on the shoulders of his comrades.
It’s safe to say that by the time we entered the belly of the beast, Norwegian fans were pretty well watered down.
As we were walking towards the largest group, I saw security kicking out a Norwegian fan wearing an Erling Haaland shirt. Fans were mocking the British group by singing “England is going home”. Further down the Strip, fans in retro ’90s jerseys swayed and gestured rudely toward dancing robots brought to the beach by foreign TV crews.
So I donned a Three Lions jersey and put it to the test by riding through a sidewalk full of Norwegians on the shoulders of a brave fellow fan.
It got off to a somewhat shaky start as he almost collided with an umbrella after being lifted into the air. But we stood our ground, moved into the crowd and hoisted the trophy.
The Norwegians responded audibly and visually with laughter, boos and a surprising amount of cursing. Soon we were completely surrounded by Scandinavians chanting their favorite anti-England chant ‘England is going home’ to the tune of Three Lions (Football Returns).
I tried my best to sing the correct version back to them, but for several minutes we were stuck in this weird chorus. We both belted out the same song with almost the same lyrics, but there was a definite difference.
This scene immediately attracted the attention of several television crews who were filming the Norwegian fans, and strangely a reporter from a Spanish-speaking network attempted to interview me in the middle of the crowd.
I couldn’t hear a word he was saying over the noise, so when he shoved the blue microphone in my face, I hoped another rendition of Football Coming Home was the soundbite he needed.
Looking over, I saw that the robot had also been inexplicably dragged into the crowd of Norwegians, struggling to navigate between two large fans wearing Viking hats.
At this point, the DJ at the bar we were passing noticed our stunt and was playing Coming Home by Football over the speakers.
“Wow,” I thought. “All the Norwegian fans are already playing my version, so I don’t have to compete with them.”
But DJ was more subtle than that. As the song reached its climax, he cut the music and let the crowd of red-shirted fans taunt me with the song ‘England’s Going Home’.
After that, the atmosphere changed a little. A very drunk Norwegian walked me through the crowd to a brave fan and said, “You have to leave now.” When my friend answered, “We’re fine,” he became enraged and started punching my friend in the chest.
At the same point, another very drunk blonde guy snatched the World Cup trophy from me and started trying to pull my arm.
It was time to make an exit, so we made our way through the crowd to a nearby palm tree and leaned against it as it fell to the ground.
What I didn’t realize was that I was being followed by Norwegian fans trying to steal the World Cup trophy.
When my foot touched the floor, he grabbed it and let out what I thought was a Viking roar, and I had to snatch it back from him.
Luckily, I managed to get the trophy back and left in a hurry.
The moral of the story is that while the majority of Norwegian fans are a joke smorgasbord, there are still some couples whose ancestral exuberance comes to the fore when they drink too much beer.
