History-maker Erling Haaland ready to spark 'biggest party ever' as ice cold Man City star looks to fire Norway to first World Cup in 28 years - and get one over his dad

Haaland has a very close relationship with his former footballer father, Alfie, but also a healthy rivalry with him. "He never pushed me to anything but he early knew that i wanted to become good at football," Haaland told Time magazine. "I said a long time ago that hopefully I'll become better than you. I told him many times. That's been something that has been a motivation for me ever since I was young, to live from football and become better than him."

It is fair to say that Erling has already had a far more impressive career than Alfie, who won zero major honours in his 20-year career. Erling has won nine trophies including the Champions League and Premier League, two Golden Boots and been named player of the season in England and Germany. But Alfie can boast of one thing his son is yet to achieve: he has played in a World Cup.

Alfie was part of the Norway side that qualified for the 1994 World Cup in the USA and so there is an added significance to Erling's bid to reach next year's World Cup and become the second member of his family to not only play in the world's most prestigious tournament but to do so in the same country as his father.

Norway last reached the World Cup in 1998 (Alfie didn't make the squad). And while in the USA they agonisingly missed out on the knockout stage by one goal after all four teams in their group finished on four points, Norway had an epic journey in France, reaching the last 16 by beating none other than world champions Brazil. 

Granted, Brazil had already qualified as Group A winners but they were still fielding one of their best sides including Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivlado and the best player in the world at the time, Ronaldo. Norway went behind in the 79th minute but staged an incredible turnaround in the space of five minutes to snatch a 2-1 win with goals from Tore Andre Flo and an 89th-minute penalty from Kjetil Rekdal. 

Norway were beaten 1-0 by Italy in the last 16 but no one alive then will forget the achievement of beating Brazil and making it to the knockout stage. Haaland is not looking that far ahead but he knows that just making it to the finals will be a historic achievement. "If we would qualify for the World Cup, it would be like another big nation winning it," he told Time. "It would be the biggest party ever. Scenes in Oslo would be incredible."

Norway had something approaching the biggest party ever when they beat Italy 3-0 in June. Rain had hammered down relentlessly throughout the game but fans remained inside the Ullevaal Stadion long after full time, serenading their players while wearing their ponchos. "People didn't want to go home," said coach Stale Solbakken. "The rain was pouring, but they were there long before the game and long after the game."

Solbakken was part of the squad at the 1998 World Cup, giving the current crop of players, the vast majority of whom were not born then, let alone able to remember the tournament, a link with the past. Although it is a link that Solbakken wants to break. "We are sick and tired of talking about that now, so we need to get to another tournament," he told FIFA.com. "We are only halfway through qualifying, but obviously it will be a big, big thing in Norway (if we can reach World Cup 26). It’s 25 years since we've been in a major tournament, so it's about time."

Solbakken's experience at the World Cup is not even his most significant achievement. While training with Copenhagen in 2000, the 57-time Norway international collapsed from a heart attack. His heart stopped beating for almost seven minutes and he went into a coma for 30 hours. "He was clinically dead," said the club doctor who revived him. "It is a miracle that he is still alive."

Solbakken was forced to retire at the age of 30, entering coaching in 2002. He won eight league titles with Copenhagen in two spells before becoming Norway coach in 2020. He is blessed with an incredible generation of players headlined by Haaland and Odegaard but backed up by Haaland's City team-mate Oscar Bobb, Atletico Madrid striker Alexander Sorloth, RB Leipzig winger Antonio Nusa, Fulham midfielder Sander Berge and Borussia Dortmund full-back Julian Ryerson.

"Offensively, we have players with some X factor now. We feel we can always score a goal," he added. As a team, we have become much more solid defensively as well. We have a better mix. The feeling (in the squad) has always been good, but there’s an extra edge to it now that we have done so well."

No one has quite the X factor of Haaland. And yet Solbakken insists the striker is "easy to coach". "He is very down-to-earth in terms that he wants to do his work defensively as well," he added. "He thinks about the team before he thinks about himself. You can see that when other players score, he's as happy as he is when he scores himself. He's aware he's a leader and he's taking care of his team-mates in a very good way. The other players know that Erling is our biggest match-winner and that we have to make sure that we put him in the right areas so he can score goals and be dangerous."

Haaland's commitment to the team's cause was on display during the hammering of Moldova. According to a source close to the player, Haaland was acutely aware of the importance of goal difference in Norway's bid to qualify before the game, stressing the need to score as many times as they could to gain an advantage on Italy. Haaland backed up his words on the field, scoring five times himself and grabbing the ball after each goal to restart the game as quickly as possible so he had time to score again and again.

They sure did that and as a result they have a massive lead in goal difference on the Azzurri. Italy have won all their games aside from their humbling defeat in Oslo, deciding to sack coach Luciano Spalletti two days later. Bizarrely, he took charge of their next game against Moldova despite being sacked, which might explain why they only beat the minnows 2-0 rather than giving them the merciless thumping Norway doled out. Spalletti's successor, Gennaro Gattuso, has been a little more adventurous but they are way behind Norway, who hold a goal difference of 21 compared to Italy's five.

Italy will have another crack at Moldova in their penultimate match before their showdown with Haaland et al. in San Siro in November in a bid to eat into that goal difference, but Norway have a home game against Estonia to try and limit the damage before then.

Haaland is fully aware of the significance of the next three games for Norway and how he can take his nation to just their fourth World Cup as their main goalscorer. Haaland became Norway's all-time top scorer last year at the age of just 24, breaking a record that had stood for 90 years. He struck that all-important 34th goal in a Nations League win over Slovenia, a game he described as the best overall performance he had been part of with the national team. 

Crucially, Norway managed to produce such a performance without Odegaard, who is currently nursing a knee injury and will be fighting to return for the last two qualifiers in November. Odegaard is Haaland's top supplier of goals and the Arsenal midfielder's absence means that the City striker, now on 48 strikes in just 45 games for his country, will be the one everyone looks to for inspiration against Israel. 

He is more than capable of handling that responsibility. He has led from the front for an inconsistent City team early in this season and will gladly step up again for his country. A historic moment for his nation, as well as for his family, is within his grasp.