How three Norway players are continuing the mission their dads started at the 1994 World Cup Father’s Day came early for Norway at the FIFA World Cup. On Tuesday in Boston, the Røde, Hvite, Blå fielded three players whose fathers all played together for the national team in 1994, when the tournament was last held in the United States. This marked the first time in World Cup history that multiple players from the same generation shared a lineage with a previous team, creating an extraordinary narrative arc for their families over a 32-year span. Former goalkeeper Erik Thorstvedt, whose son Kristian is now playing for Norway, admitted to CNN Sports that he had tears running down his cheeks as his son took the field against Iraq. “It’s like a fairytale that is coming true,” Gøran Sørloth, whose son Alexander is playing alongside Erling Haaland, told CNN. Haaland’s father, Alf-Inge, also competed in the 1994 tournament. The 1994 Norway team faced a cruel group stage exit, a fate that left many players with a sense of unfinished business. They had beaten Mexico, lost to Italy, and drawn with the Republic of Ireland, finishing with identical goal differences and four points. Despite conceding only one goal, their fate was sealed by their goal-scoring record, as the three teams in their group advanced, with Italy reaching the final. None of those players could have imagined that several of them would return to the U.S. more than three decades later to cheer for their sons in the same competition. Midfielder Patrick Berg, whose father Ørjan Berg earned 19 caps between 1988 and 2000, added to the legacy, making it a rare occurrence for three or four players from the same national team to share such a connection.#erling_haaland #alexander_sorloth #erik_thorstvedt #gorn_sorloth #alfinge_thorstvedt
