No league tables, no trophies: how Norway made sport fun for kids – and built a football team that beat Brazil

Norway's World Cup victory over Brazil gained significance from the contrasting development systems that shaped each nation's players. Whilst Brazil's talents like Vinícius Júnior emerged from academies focused exclusively on football, Norway's athletes including Erling Haaland grew through an entirely different framework. Norway's sports federation revised its youth regulations in 2007 to fundamentally reshape how children engage with competitive sport.

The Norwegian system prohibits league tables, rankings and trophies for children under nine, with competitive scoring restricted until age thirteen. A core principle allows young athletes freedom to explore multiple sports rather than specialising early. Haaland exemplified this approach, spending his childhood in handball, athletics and cross-country skiing before selecting football at fourteen. The article suggests that athletic skills developed across these disciplines—such as jumping technique from handball—translated into his later football performance.