FK Bodø/Glimt

While other towns in Nordland county like Narvik, Mo i Rana and Mosjøen had started their football clubs earlier, the larger town of Bodø was without a major football club until the latter part of 1916. The new club was founded as Football Club Glimt (Glimt meaning flash in English). One of the founders was Erling Tjærandsen, who also became the club's first club president and later an honorary club member. (Tjærandsen was also known as a footballer and skier.) Glimt's first match was against Bodø Highschool (because Glimt was the only football club in town).

In 1919 Glimt won their first title: County Champions of Nordland. In the 1920s, Glimt suffered from bad morale and poor finances. At one point, there were talks about merging Glimt into the Ski Club B. & O.I, but following discussions, the intentions were not carried through. The club received an infusion of new encouragement through visiting footballing stars and coaches from southern Norway such as Jørgen Juve in 1929. In the 1930s Glimt also began training indoors to reduce the impact of the severe arctic winters.

This new approach in the late 1920s and early 1930s yielded some positive results, and Glimt have since been a top club in Northern Norway (winning nine North-Norwegian championships) and in Norway overall since the 1970s.

Teams from Northern Norway were not allowed to compete in the Norwegian cup-competition until 1963. In their first appearance in the Norwegian FA cup in 1963, Bodø/Glimt managed to get as far as the fourth round after a home win 7–1 over Nordil, and two away wins. The first beating Nidelv (from Trondheim) and then a mighty win over Rosenborg. In the fourth round, Glimt had to play another away game, this time against Frigg from Oslo. Frigg won 2–0 and Glimt was out of the Cup. However, Bodø/Glimt had proven that teams from Northern Norway could play at the same level as the southern teams.

It was not until 1972 that northern teams had the right to gain promotion to the Norwegian top division. This was due to the old belief that the teams from Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark could not compete at the same level as the southern teams. Bodø/Glimt is one of three teams from Northern Norway that have played in the Norwegian top division, the others being Tromsø and Mjølner.

From 1973 Norway had three second divisions: two divisions for southern teams and one for northern teams. Bodø/Glimt took three years to gain promotion, due to the promotion rules. The first place holders in the two southern divisions gained instant promotion, but the first place holder in the northern second division had to compete in play-off matches against the two second-place holders from the south. This league system caused a lot of bitterness in the north. This worsened in 1975 when Bodø/Glimt, as the first club from Northern-Norway, won the Norwegian Cup, but did not gain promotion due to the special play-off rules for North-Norwegian clubs.

In the 1974 and 1975 season, Bodø/Glimt won their division (they had played a few draws but no losses), but still lost in the play-offs.

In 1976, Bodø/Glimt managed at last to beat the league-system with a 4–0 win over Odd and a 1–1 draw against Lyn, making Glimt the second North-Norwegian team to gain promotion to the top division, after FK Mjølner's promotion in 1971. Not until the late 1970s did the Norwegian Football Association changed the promotion rules; the play-off matches for Northern clubs were dropped. From then on there was no difference where a club had its home-ground.

After a glorious top-division debut in 1977 — second place in the league and the cup, both against Lillestrøm — Bodø/Glimt played four seasons at the top level before relegation in 1980, finishing last at 12th place.

The 1980s were the darkest hours in the club history, with Bodø/Glimt playing in the 2nd division and the regional 3rd division. For a couple of years in the mid-1980s, they weren't even the best team in Bodø, with rivals Grand Bodø surpassing them in the standings. But the tide turned in 1991. With coach Jan Muri in charge, Glimt was promoted to 1st division. The following season they hired Trond Sollied as coach, and the team won the 1st division in the 1992 season. At last, in 1993, Bodø/Glimt was back in the top-division, and as in the debut season of 1977 they took second place in the league. This time they also managed to win the cup final (a 2–0 win over Strømsgodset). The Cup-Championship was the crowning of three remarkable seasons, going from 2nd division to 2nd place in the top-division in only three years — an achievement rarely seen in the Norwegian league system.

Since reentering the top division Bodø/Glimt have had a rather checkered performance-chart. A good league performance one season has usually been followed with near relegation the next. This was illustrated with the 1993 and 1994 seasons when Glimt won the cup and became league runners-up, in 1994 only a better goal-difference allowed Bodø/Glimt to stay in the top division.

Runar Berg was until 2010 a midfielder and key player for the team, with almost 500 matches played for Bodø/Glimt.

Another example of the rollercoaster ride of Bodø/Glimt league performance is the 2003 and 2004 seasons. In 2003 season the club finished runner-up behind league valedictorians Rosenborg. The team also lost the 2003 Norwegian Cup Final to Rosenborg. In the 2004 season Glimt finished third last and had to play a two-game qualification match against Kongsvinger to avoid relegation. Glimt lost the first game 0–1 in Kongsvinger, but soundly defeated Kongsvinger in Bodø by the score of 4–0, winning 4–1 on aggregate.

After the club's comeback in 1993, Glimt played continuously in the Norwegian top division for 12 seasons, for a total of 16 top division seasons. In the 2005 season however, Bodø/Glimt was relegated.

Life in the Adecco League proved harder than most fans had anticipated. Many were disappointed when Glimt failed to secure the third place play-off spot they had held during most of the course of the season, finally ending in fifth place. The season was tainted by financial difficulties, forcing the team to sell their top scorer Håvard Sakariassen and captain Cato Andrè Hansen to promotion rivals Bryne in the middle of the season. This had to be done to stabilize their financial situation, which was so poor that the Norwegian Football Association threatened to not give the team their playing license for next season, which would have resulted disastrously in forced relegation to the second division.

The poor results towards the end of the season finally prompted the board of the supporters’ club to write an open letter in which the training and alcohol consumption habits of certain unnamed players were criticised. In a bizarre twist a few weeks later, the supporters’ club was threatened with a lawsuit in the multi-million class by former coach Trond Sollied, who was briefly mentioned in a by-sentence of the letter as having been in charge when the bad habits of the team had begun. All claims were quickly retracted by the supporters’ club.

In the second season in Adeccoligaen, Bodø/Glimt achieved promotion back to Tippeligaen after two promotion matches – once again, as in 1976 – against Odd. Bodø/Glimt was the first team for nine years in Norway to win the promotion matches to Tippeligaen. This was also the final match for Bodø/Glimt for the Norwegian legends Erik Hoftun and Kent Bergersen.

In 2013, Bodø/Glimt was again promoted to Tippeligaen, after becoming the winner of Adecco-ligaen. Coach Jan Halvor Halvorsen managed to keep Glimt in the top lead for the next two seasons.

Ahead of the 2016 season, club legend Aasmund Bjørkan was appointed as head coach. The team started the season well, and was on top of the league table after three games. However, Glimt lost the next six games. The place in the top league nevertheless looked secure with four games remaining, but Glimt lost all of them and was relegated. Despite relegation, Aasmund Bjørkan stayed on as head coach, and the club brought in then unknown Kjetil Knutsen as assistant coach. Bodø/Glimt won the league by a 16 point margin, and was once again back at the top flight. Aasmund Bjørkan was named coach of the year,[1] but stepped down as head coach, and took the role as sporting director at the club ahead of the 2018 season. Assistant Kjetil Knutsen was promoted to head coach. Glimt made a decent performance during 2018, a record of 14 draws saw them finishing in 11th place, retaining their status as a top-flight team. Ahead of the 2019 season, Glimt was mentioned among the relegation candidates by most pundits, especially since the club had sold key players like captain Martin Bjørnbak and top scorer Kristian Fardal Opseth. Glimt surprised everyone, and clinched a 2nd place in the Norwegian Eliteserien. Kjetil Knutsen was named coach of the year, and Håkon Evjen was named both player of the year and young player of the year. Ahead of the 2020 season, Glimt again sold several key players, among them captain Ricardo Friedrich and Håkon Evjen, and was not considered among the title candidates. However, Glimt performed a record breaking season, winning 26 games and scoring 103 goals in 30 matches. Bodø/Glimt won the Eliteserien for the first time in history, also becoming the first team from Northern Norway to win the Eliteserien. Again Kjetil Knutsen was named coach of the year. Philip Zinckernagel was named player of the year, having contributed 19 goals and 18 assists. Ahead of the 2021 season, Bodø/Glimt had sold their three front men Philip Zinckernagel, Jens Petter Hauge and Kasper Junker. These three players scored all together 60 goals and provided 35 assists in the 2020 season, and Glimt had not brought in clear replacements for these players. Pundits were again skeptical to Glimts title chances, but again Glimt surprised everyone, and were crowned back-to-back league champions after a 3-0 victory at Mjøndalen in the last match of the season. Glimt had also succeeded in not only qualifying for the group stage of an European competition during the season, but also advancing from the group stage, beating Jose Mourinho's AS Roma 6-1 at Aspmyra in the process.

Europe

Bodø/Glimt have participated in European Cups a number of times. The first time was in 1976, when they lost against Napoli in the Cup Winners' Cup. In 1978, they lost to Inter Milan, and in 1994 to Sampdoria in the same competition. In 2021, they made their debut UEFA Champions League appearance, facing Legia Warsaw from Poland Ekstraklasa in the first qualifying round. After being eliminated in the first qualifying round, the club managed to make their debut in the group stage of UEFA Europa Conference League, where they recorded surprisingly positive results so far, gaining chances to move past this stage as well to the Round of 16 in 2022.

As of match played 10 December 2021

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Champions League	2	0	0	2	2	5
UEFA Cup/Europa League	15	7	2	6	28	24
UEFA Europa Conference League	12	7	4	1	26	9
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	10	3	1	6	14	16
Total	39	17	7	15	70	54

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1976–77	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Napoli	0–1	0–2	0–3
1978–79	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Union Luxembourg	4–1	0–1	4–2
		Second round	Internazionale	0–5	1–2	1–7
1994–95	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying Round	Olimpija Rīga	6–0	0–0	6–0
		First round	Sampdoria	3–2	0–2	3–4
1996–97	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	Beitar Jerusalem	2–1	5–1	7–2
		First round	Trabzonspor	1–2	1–4	2–5
1999–2000	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	Vaduz	1–0	2–1	3–1
		First round	Werder Bremen	0–5	1–1	1–6
2004–05	UEFA Cup	Second qualifying round	Levadia Tallinn	2–1	1–2	3–3 (8–7 p)
		First round	Beşiktaş	1–1	0–1	1–2
2020–21	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Kauno Žalgiris	6–1	N/A	N/A
		Second qualifying round	Žalgiris	3–1	N/A	N/A
		Third qualifying round	Milan	N/A	2–3	N/A
2021–22	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	Legia Warsaw	2–3	0–2	2–5
	UEFA Europa Conference League	Second qualifying round	Valur	3–0	3–0	6–0
		Third qualifying round	Prishtina	2–0	1–2	3–2
		Play-off round	Žalgiris	1–0	2–2	3–2
		Group C	Roma	6–1	2–2	2nd place
			Zorya Luhansk	3–1	1–1
			CSKA Sofia	2–0	0–0
		Knockout round play-offs	Celtic
2022–23	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round

As of 16 September 2021[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  NOR Marius Lode 3 DF  ISL Alfons Sampsted 4 DF  NOR Marius Høibråten 5 DF  NOR Fredrik André Bjørkan 7 MF  NOR Patrick Berg (vice-captain) 8 FW  NGA Victor Boniface 9 FW  NOR Ola Solbakken 10 MF  NOR Hugo Vetlesen 11 FW  NOR Amahl Pellegrino 12 GK  RUS Nikita Khaykin 14 MF  NOR Ulrik Saltnes (captain) 16 DF  NOR Morten Konradsen 17 MF  EST Mattias Käit 18 DF  NOR Brede Moe

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 MF  NOR Sondre Brunstad Fet 20 FW  NOR Erik Botheim 21 DF  NOR Vegard Kongsro 22 MF  NOR Vegard Leikvoll Moberg 23 MF  NOR Elias Kristoffersen Hagen 24 FW  NOR Lasse Selvåg Nordås 26 DF  NOR Sigurd Kvile 27 FW  NOR Sondre Sørli 28 FW  BRA Pernambuco (on loan from Lviv) 30 GK  NED Joshua Smits 31 MF  NOR Kent Malik Swaleh 32 FW  NOR Joel Mvuka 77 FW  GHA Gilbert Koomson

For season transfers, see transfers winter 2020–21 and transfers summer 2021.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 6 DF  NOR Isak Amundsen (on loan at Tromsø until 31 December 2021) 15 FW  NOR Runar Hauge (on loan at Stjørdals-Blink until 31 December 2021) 25 GK  NOR Marcus Andersen (on loan at Fløya until 31 December 2021) 35 MF  NOR Adan Abadala Hussein (on loan at Florø until 31 December 2021)

No. Pos. Nation Player 37 MF  NOR Ask Tjærandsen-Skau (on loan at Start until 31 December 2021) — MF  SWE Axel Lindahl (on loan at Degerfors until 31 December 2021) — FW  NOR Elias Hoff Melkersen (on loan at Ranheim until 31 December 2021) — FW  TUN Sebastian Tounekti (on loan at Groningen until 31 July 2022)

The club's yellow kit

The club is known to play in yellow kits. However, it wasn't until the mid 70s that FK Bodø/Glimt changed their white shorts to an all yellow strip. In 1980 the club signed its first kit-manufacturer deal with the German firm Adidas, though the club used track jackets and shorts from Adidas since 1976.[3] Nordlandsbanken, a major bank in the region, was one of the main sponsor of the club, present on their shirts until 2011. Since the 2007 season, Diadora has been manufacturing the kits.

Glimt supporters are known as "1916", "Den Gule Horde" (The Yellow Horde), "Glimt i Sør" (Glimt South) and "Glimt i Steigen" (Glimt in Steigen). Glimt i Sør is a supporter group based in Oslo, the capital of Norway. The Steigen branch is a small group of supporters which is known for their online support, especially on Twitter.

• Official web site for Bodø/Glimt
• Glimtforum.Net – Discussion forums