Bodo/Glimt revels in historic run to Europa semifinals

PARIS — Bodo/Glimt's historic run to the semifinals of this season's Europa League has not happened by chance. It's a remarkable success story that has been years in the making.

On Thursday, the club from just north of the Arctic Circle will become the first Norwegian team to play in the semifinals of a major European competition when it takes on Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of their last four tie.

It is a stunning achievement for a side from a town with a population of barely 50,000 and situated almost 1,200 kilometers, or 16 hours by road, north of Norway's capital Oslo.

What should be a frozen soccer backwater has been placed firmly on the map thanks to the performances of Kjetil Knutsen's team over the last half-dozen years.

On April 17, Bodo/Glimt — "glimt" means "flash" in Norwegian — pulled off its most stunning result yet, when it beat Lazio on penalties in Rome in the Europa League quarterfinal.

It won 2-0 at home in the first leg a week earlier, thanks to two goals by Ulrik Saltnes, albeit only after snow from a blizzard had been cleared off the pitch at its 8,200-capacity Aspmyra Stadion.

The team then weathered the storm on the pitch in Italy to progress in the shootout and set up the tie with Tottenham.

Spurs are an underperforming Premier League giant and were the ninth-richest club in the world last year, with revenue of 615 million euros ($702 million) according to analysts Deloitte.

Bodo/Glimt, meanwhile, saw revenue reach 60 million euros last year, up from a budget of 4.2 million euros in 2017, the club's CEO Frode Thomassen told the website Calcio e Finanza.

"The club has gone from being a small second division team in Norway to probably having the most solid financial platform in the country in the last seven to eight years," he said.

In 2017 it was promoted to Norway's top tier, the Eliteserien, a competition which had been dominated for three decades by Rosenborg of Trondheim.

No stars, but stability

Bodo/Glimt was runner-up in 2019, before winning its first title in 2020. It has now won four of the last five domestic championships.

That form has seen it become a regular in Europe under Knutsen, who took it to the quarterfinals of the Europa Conference League in 2022, notably beating Jose Mourinho's Roma 6-1 in a group game and eliminating Celtic.

It has had three failed attempts to go beyond the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, but there have been glamor ties against Arsenal, Ajax and Manchester United.

Now, reaching a semifinal means it has eclipsed Rosenborg, who got to the Champions League quarterfinals in 1997.

"I don't believe in miracles, I believe in our journey," said Knutsen after ousting Lazio.

Knutsen, 56, took over at the beginning of 2018, promoted from his role as assistant, so has been there throughout an astonishing seven years of success.

Star players in the current team include Danish forward Kasper Hogh and experienced midfielder Saltnes, who has spent his whole career at the club.

Others have come back, like Norwegian international winger Jens-Petter Hauge, who went to AC Milan in 2020 and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, but returned home last year.

Midfielder Patrick Berg, whose father and uncles played for Bodo/Glimt, also came back after a spell at Lens in France in 2022.

It is not a team of stars, but it has enjoyed success by keeping its squad together, and keeping its coach.

"Our main focus is on performance, rather than player deals," Thomassen told Calcio e Finanza.

"This has been made possible thanks to the financial support from UEFA competitions, which have become crucial for the club's long-term growth."

This season's European run has already been worth about 20 million euros in prize money for a club which is currently planning to move into a new 10,000-seat stadium, the Arctic Arena, in 2027.

The future looks bright, and so does the present, with 3,000 Bodo/Glimt supporters set to back their team against Tottenham in London on Thursday.

AFP