In the Faroe Islands’ Soccer Team, the Players Also Have Day Jobs

2 weeks ago 25

Europe|This Scrappy Soccer Team Has a Cinderella Chance at Making the World Cup

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/world/europe/this-scrappy-soccer-team-has-a-cinderella-chance-at-making-the-world-cup.html

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Rain dripped down the men’s faces. The wind howled, raking the pitch. A mammoth storm had descended on the Faroe Islands but the players just wiped their faces and kept going, running drill after drill under the misty floodlights. In just a few days, they will play the game of their lives for a chance to etch their tiny archipelago into soccer history.

This is the Faroe Islands men’s national soccer team, and it is the biggest underdog story in the qualifying stages of the World Cup.

The Faroes have only 55,000 people. The climate is brutal. Most of the players are not full-time professionals and they have never gotten this close.

But the Faroes team, whose roster includes carpenters, electricians, a C.E.O. and a car salesman, is on a three-game winning streak and has performed shockingly well against much higher-ranked opponents. On Friday, the Faroe Islands have a do-or-die match against Croatia, an international powerhouse. If they somehow win or even draw, they will keep alive their chances of becoming the one of the smallest territories ever to play in the World Cup.