What Erling Haaland’s Viking Row Taught Me About Leadership
Every time Haaland scored, he turned first to his teammates. Not to the cameras, not to the crowd — to the players who set him up, who ran the routes, who did the unglamorous work that made the finish possible. He pointed, he hugged, he shared the moment before he claimed it.
Then came the real story. When the final whistle blew, captain Martin Ødegaard handed the drumsticks to Haaland, and he led the entire stadium in Norway’s now-famous “Viking Row” — supporters seated shoulder to shoulder, rowing in unison to the beat of a drum, chanting “Ro!” in a tribute to Vikings rowing into battle. The chant started with one superfan’s idea and has since spread to Times Square, the Norwegian Parliament, and even a Royal Norwegian Air Force pilot performing it from the cockpit of an F-35. It’s a country rowing together, literally and figuratively.
