‘Bigger than football’: Norway fans’ Viking row makes waves at World Cup

From Times Square to the Norwegian parliament and even in fighter jet cockpits, the choreographed row is everywhere The fans have done it, in their thousands, in the stadiums. The players have done it on the pitch. Pretty much anyone who was there did it in New York’s Times Square. Norwegian MPs did it in parliament. Prince Sverre Magnus, third in line to the Norwegian throne, rowed in an Oslo subway carriage. Care home residents in their 90s rowed in rural Norway and Norwegian Royal Air Force pilots rowed in their F-35 fighter jets. Forget the Icelandic thunderclap that took over the 2016 European championships. The Viking row, the synchronised rowing chant that accompanies the Norwegian football team’s appearances, is the viral phenomenon of the 2026 World Cup. When their team advanced to the last 16 this week, its best World Cup run since 1998, the hordes of jubilant supporters rowing en masse in Oslo and Bergen produced so much sound that seismologists recorded an earthquake. “This is bigger than football,” Norway’s star striker Erling Haaland posted alongside a clip of the squad rowing after their win over Côte d’Ivoire. He told reporters: “Seeing thousands rowi