Norway's football team ship traditional food to its US World Cup training base to avoid eating American food

The people of the US love to brag about their fast food joints and free refills but it seems as if a lot of Europeans don't really agree about the quality of their food.

The World Cup is well underway now and squads will have spent the last few weeks living in the US ahead of the huge football tournament, which was causing plenty of controversy before a ball was even kicked.

Apart from having to deal with the various new rules set by FIFA and the extreme temperatures in some of the stadiums (at least the ones that aren't air conditioned), players will also have had to deal with the food on offer.

Now American food certainly has a reputation for being pumped full of sugar, fats and preservatives and considering the strict diet that footballers need to follow to keep their bodies in top condition, sometimes this simply won't cut the mustard.

And that's certainly the opinion of the Norway squad at least, who came prepared by shipping hundreds of kilograms of traditional Norwegian food to its camp in Greensboro.

The Norway squad are eating good at this World Cup (Getty Stock)

Reports from News18 suggest that the squad shipped 300 kilograms of Atlantic salmon and white fish, 116 kilograms of brunost, Norway's distinctive caramelised brown cheese, and 6,000 oranges ahead of the tournament, with more likely to be ordered if the squad lives up to its reputation as dark horses.

Lead chef Aron Espeland expects the players and staff to consume all of that fish over the next couple of weeks and suggests that they took this precaution to avoid disruptions to digestion, sleep and concentration that could affect performance during the tournament.

Haaland helped himself to a brace on his World Cup debut (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

So, while Thomas Tuchel's side might be missing the traditional beans on toast and English breakfast that you'll struggle to find in the US, it seems as if Norway players will get to stick to their usual diets.

And it certainly paid dividends in their opening fixture, as Erling Haaland scored twice in a 4-1 victory against Iraq. Unfortunately for the European side, there's the small matter of brief AFCON champions Senegal up next before playing France, one of the tournament favourites, in their final group stage fixture.

While the manner of their first victory should give them a good chance of progressing even if they do finish third, it's difficult to put this progression entirely down to their diet.

But if Haaland and co shock the world by going all the way at this summer's World Cup, then perhaps we do need to give a lot of compliments to the chef.