France vs Norway World Cup clash spotlights crypto’s growing grip on global football

Two of the most marketable athletes on Earth face off today in a World Cup group stage match that matters far beyond the pitch. France and Norway meet on June 26 to decide who tops Group I, and the crypto industry is paying very close attention.

Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland have each scored four goals in the tournament, sharing the top of the scoring charts. That on-field production has a direct ripple effect on blockchain-based platforms where their digital assets trade like volatile mid-cap tokens.

The NFT scoreboard

Sorare, the blockchain-based fantasy football platform, sits at the center of the crypto-football intersection. Mbappé signed a partnership with Sorare back in 2022, and the results were immediate: NFT sales on the platform surged 795% within 24 hours of the announcement.

Haaland’s Sorare cards have commanded even more eye-popping individual prices. His NFTs have previously sold for up to 265 ETH, roughly $600K to $750K depending on when the transaction cleared.

FIFA’s crypto play gets louder

On June 9, FIFA announced Kraken as its Official Crypto Exchange Supporter, a partnership focused on fan engagement and digital asset education across North America and Europe.

The fan token gap

France, like several high-profile national teams, operates in an ecosystem where fan tokens and blockchain partnerships are increasingly common. Platforms like Chiliz and Socios.com have built entire businesses around tokenized fan engagement, with countries like Argentina and Spain actively participating.

Norway, by contrast, does not have an official fan token or any formal blockchain partnership for its national team. That means while Haaland’s individual NFT cards generate massive secondary market value, the Norwegian Football Association itself isn’t capturing any of that crypto-native revenue.

Unofficial meme tokens branded with names like MBAPPE and HAALAND have appeared on the Solana blockchain. These carry no official endorsement from either player, low trading volumes, and the kind of market caps that suggest they’re more novelty than investment vehicle.

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