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 the southern teams and one for the 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. The league-system made a lot of bitterness in the north. This bitterness worsened in 1975 when Bodø/Glimt, as the first club form Northern-Norway, won the Norwegian Cup, but did not gain promotion due to the special play-off rules for the 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 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 the reentering in the top-division Bodø/Glimt have had a rather strange performance-chart. A good league performance one season have usually been followed with nearly relegation the next season is illustrated with the 1993 and 1994 seasons when Glimt won the cup and became league runners-up, in 1994 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 the league's valedictorian 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. Therefore, winning 4–1 on aggregate.

Since the club's comeback in 1993, Glimt have 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, and 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 supporter's 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 supporter's 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 supporter's club.

In the second season in Adeccoligaen, Bodø/Glimt made their target from the first season in Adeccoligaen, a promotion back to Tippeligaen after two promotion matches – once again, as in 1976 – against Odd. Bodø/Glimt was the first team on nine years in Norway for winning the promotion matches to Tippeligaen. This was also the last match and day at work in Bodø/Glimt for the Norwegian legend Erik Hoftun and Kent Bergersen.

In 2013, Bodø/Glimt was again promoted to Tippeligaen, after becoming the winner of Adecco-ligaen. The following years, Bodø/Glimt struggled to keep itself in the top league. The team was relegated to 1. divisjon in 2016. In 2019 Bodø/Glimt won the silver medal in the Norwegian Eliteserien. In 2020, Bodø/Glimt won Eliteserien for the first time in history. Also becoming the first team from Northern Norway to win Eliteserien.

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. Their latest loss came to Milan in the 2020 UEFA Europa League.

As of match played August 27, 2020

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	10	3	1	6	14	16
UEFA Cup/Europa League	15	7	2	6	28	24
Total	25	10	3	12	42	40

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

• Eliteserien:
  • Winners (1): 2020
  • Runners-up (4): 1977, 1993, 2003, 2019
• 1. divisjon:
  • Winners (2): 2013, 2017
• Norwegian Cup:
  • Winners (2): 1975, 1993
  • Runners-up (3): 1977, 1996, 2003
• North-Norwegian championships
  • Winners (9): 1930, 1933, 1934, 1939, 1952, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1969
  • Runners-up (5): 1949, 1955, 1961, 1962, 1966

As of June 17, 2020

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  NED Joshua Smits 2 DF  NOR Marius Lode 3 DF  ISL Alfons Sampsted 4 DF  NOR Marius Høibråten 5 DF  NOR Fredrik André Bjørkan 6 DF  NOR Isak Amundsen 7 MF  NOR Patrick Berg (vice-captain) 8 FW  NGA Victor Boniface 12 GK  RUS Nikita Khaykin 14 MF  NOR Ulrik Saltnes (captain) 15 FW  NOR Runar Hauge 16 MF  NOR Morten Konradsen 17 FW  NOR Sebastian Tounekti 18 DF  NOR Brede Moe

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 MF  NOR Sondre Brunstad Fet 20 MF  NOR Hugo Vetlesen 21 FW  DEN Kasper Junker 22 MF  NOR Vegard Leikvoll Moberg 23 MF  NOR Elias Kristoffersen Hagen 24 DF  NOR Aleksander Foosnæs 25 GK  NOR Marcus Andersen 26 FW  NOR Ola Solbakken 31 MF  NOR Kent Malik Swaleh 32 FW  NOR Elias Hoff Melkersen 33 FW  NOR Mads Halsøy 35 MF  NOR Adan Abadala Hussein 37 MF  NOR Ask Tjærandsen-Skau — MF  SWE Axel Lindahl

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

• Jørgen Juve (1939)
• Arvid Halvorsen (1963–1965)
• Andreas Berg (1965–1969)
• Karl Adamek (1970)
• Andreas Berg (1971–1975)
• Odd Bjørn Kristoffersen (1975–1977)
• René van Eck (1978)
• Odd Bjørn Kristoffersen (1978)
• Erik Ruthford Pedersen (1979–1980)
• Joe Hooley (1981)
• Harald Berg (1981)
• Odd Bjørn Kristoffersen (1981)
• Truls Klausen (1982)
• Andreas Berg (1983)
• Harald Berg (1983)
• Jacob Klette (1984)
• Øystein Gåre (1985–1989)
• Odd Bjørn Kristoffersen (1989–1990)
• Jan Muri (1991)
• Trond Sollied (1992–1996)
• Øystein Gåre (1997–1998)
• Dag Opjordsmoen (1999–2001)
• Øystein Gåre (2001–2004)
• Kent Bergersen (2005–2007)
• Kåre Ingebrigtsen (2008–2011)
• Cato André Hansen (2011–2012)
• Jan Halvor Halvorsen (2013–2015)
• Aasmund Bjørkan (2015–2017)
• Kjetil Knutsen (2018–)

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.[1] 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.

• 2019 FK Bodø/Glimt season
• 2018 FK Bodø/Glimt season
• 2016 FK Bodø/Glimt season
• 2015 FK Bodø/Glimt season
• 2014 FK Bodø/Glimt season
• Aspmyra Stadion
• Bodø Spektrum

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