 | |||
| Full name | Viking Fotballklubb | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | De mørkeblå (The dark blues) | ||
| Founded | 10 August 1899; 125 years ago (1899-08-10) (asIdrætsklubben Viking) | ||
| Ground | Viking Stadion,Stavanger | ||
| Capacity | 15,900 | ||
| Chairman | Jan Henrik Jelsa | ||
| Head coaches | Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim &Morten Jensen | ||
| League | Eliteserien | ||
| 2024 | Eliteserien, 3rd of 16 | ||
| Website | www | ||
 Current season | |||
Viking Fotballklubb, commonly known asViking orViking Stavanger internationally, is a Norwegian professionalfootball club from the city ofStavanger. The club was founded in 1899. It is one of the most successful clubs in Norwegian football, having won 8Norwegian top division titles, most recently in1991, and 6 domesticNorwegian Cup titles, most recently in2019. The club has played more top-flight league games than any other club in Norway.[1] It has played in the top division since the league was established, except for the years 1966–67, 1987–88 and 2018.[2] Notable European successes include knocking English sideChelsea out of theUEFA Cup during the2002–03 season, knocking outSporting CP from the same tournament in1999–2000, and qualifying for the group stages of the2005–06 UEFA Cup.
Viking was founded inStavanger in 1899 and played mainly local games in the early years. From the 1930s, the club established itself at the national level, playing in the1933 cup final, which it lost toMjøndalen. During the 1930s the club produced several of its best known players, most prominentlyReidar Kvammen, who played inNorway'sbronze medal winning1936 Olympic team. His brotherArthur Kvammen was also capped forNorway, whileBernhard Lund later went on to write the club anthem.
After theSecond World War, Viking became a dominant side in the 1950s, beatingLillestrøm in the1953 cup final andSandefjord in the1959 final, as well as winning the league title in1957–58. Long-serving goalkeeperSverre Andersen was the most prominent player in this generation, whileEdgar Falch also earned several caps for Norway. Rolf andKåre Bjørnsen, Asbjørn Skjærpe and Leif Nicolaysen were other prominent players, while a youngOlav Nilsen began his remarkable Viking career in 1959. The club attendance record also stems from the semifinal of the1959 cup, when 18,892 spectators saw Viking beatOdd 4–0.
While the 1960s was a somewhat quieter decade for Viking, the club returned to dominate Norwegian football in the 1970s. Viking won four straight league titles from 1972 to 1975, as well as the double in 1979. Innovative 1972 managerKjell Schou-Andreassen has been credited with laying the foundation for the success, with his ideas on cooperative behaviour and his revolutionary use of pacey, attacking full backsSigbjørn Slinning and Anbjørn Ekeland. However, the team had a new manager every year, withSverre Andersen,Stuart Williams and Olav Nilsen leading them to the title in the subsequent years, andTony Knapp managing the 1979 team. Midfielder Olav Nilsen was also a crucial player on the pitch in the first half of the decade, earning the nickname "Olav Viking", while fellow midfielderSvein Kvia was awarded the Norwegian Player of the Year title on several occasions.Arvid Knutsen, Reidar Goa, Hans Edgar Paulsen,Erik Johannessen, Inge Valen, Johannes Vold, Svein Hammerø, Gunnar Berland andTrygve Johannessen were other key players.
The 1980s started well for the club. Kjell Schou Andreassen returned to guide the club to the league title in1982. They also finished runners-up in the league in1981 and1984, and in the cup in1984, producing players such asBjarne Berntsen, Per Henriksen,Erik Thorstvedt,Svein Fjælberg,Nils Ove Hellvik, Tonning Hammer,Isak Arne Refvik, Torbjørn Svendsen, Trygve Johannessen and Gary Goodchild. However, the mid-80s saw the club relegated to the Second Division, and 1987 was the club's worst season in recent memory as the club fell to 8th position in the Second Division, while local rivalsBryne won the cup and neighbouring minnowsVidar almost won promotion to the Tippeligaen.
Swedish managerBenny Lennartsson and playersKjell Jonevret and Per Holmberg arrived on large salaries to save the club. The gamble paid off when charismatic strikerAlf Kåre Tveit secured a controversial penalty in the 95th minute againstVard in the final league game of the 1988 season. Arild Ravndal converted the spot kick to give Viking the victory and secure promotion, dubbed "the miracle inHaugesund". This signalled the start of a new era, and the club won the cup in 1989 and the league in 1991. Lars Gaute Bø,Roger Nilsen, Kent Christiansen,Egil Fjetland,Jan Fjetland,Trond Egil Soltvedt, Mike McCabe and Børre Meinseth were other key players in a young Viking team.
However, many of the young players from the 1991 league winning squad did not manage to live up to their expectations, and the club was almost relegated under new managerArne Larsen Økland in 1992.Bjarne Berntsen took over as manager in mid-season and secured renewed Tippeligaen status. Viking FK almost knocked the world famous sideFC Barcelona, the second sports team with 100 million Facebook followers,[3][4] out of the European Cup. While the club spent most of the 1990s challenging for Premier League medals, it did however never manage to challengeRosenborg for the league championships. The 1990s was also the era of player exports in Norwegian football, and Viking made substantial earnings from the sales of strikerEgil Østenstad toSouthampton for £900,000 in 1996 and goalkeeperThomas Myhre toEverton for £800,000 in 1997, among others.Gunnar Aase, Lars Gaute Bø,Magnus Svensson,Bjarte Aarsheim,Kenneth Storvik,Roger Nilsen and Ingve Bøe were other key players in this generation.
Benny Lennartson returned in 2000 to take over from DanePoul Erik Andreasen, and this resulted in two bronze medals, a cup title and a memorable European Cup victory overChelsea. In 2003, Kjell Inge Olsen took over as manager, and the club finished fifth in the league.
At the beginning of the 2004 season, the club moved to its new stadium in Jåttåvågen, namedViking Stadion. At the same time, EnglishmanRoy Hodgson took over as manager. The club finished ninth in its first season in the new stadium and fifth in the 2005 campaign.Brede Hangeland,Egil Østenstad,Peter Kopteff andFrode Hansen were notable players in this period. At the end of the 2005 season, Roy Hodgson quit his job as Viking coach to take over asFinland manager, and he was replaced byTom Prahl.
The 2006 season started poorly for Prahl's team and poor soon turned to terrible. With seven matches to go, the once so feared team were situated at the bottom of the table. FormerStart coachTom Nordlie was brought in on a three-month contract to replace Tom Prahl and save Viking from relegation. Under new leadership, Viking won three of the first four games, jumping to tenth place in the standings, but were then defeated consecutively twice to once again fall into the relegation zone. Now lying second from the bottom, it looked like the best the club could hope for was making the play-off spot. The season finale proved to be extraordinary, however, as Viking crushed league runners-upBrann 5–0[5] at home to pass bothHamKam andOdd Grenland in the standings and ultimately retain their spot in the Tippeligaen. Tom Nordlie was considered the favorite for the manager role after the season, but he chose a move toLillestrøm instead. On 22 November 2006, Viking appointedUwe Rösler (who was replaced by Tom Nordlie in Lillestrøm just one week earlier) as their new manager.
Under Rösler, Viking returned as a top team, and claimed the 3rd spot on the table in 2007. However, the following seasons were less successful, with Viking ending on 6th place in 2008 and 10th in 2009. They were also surprisingly knocked out of theUEFA Cup by Finnish teamFC Honka in 2008, and suffered an embarrassing loss against local rivalsBryne in the domestic cup in 2009. After not living up to the expectations two consecutive seasons, Rösler resigned from his position as manager on 18 November 2009.
In early December 2009, after a period of massive speculation in local newspapers, Viking appointedÅge Hareide, former manager of theNorway national football team, as their new manager.[6] Failing to bring any titles to Stavanger, Hareide was sacked by the club on 9 June 2012.[7]
Kjell Jonevret signed as the club's new manager on 19 June 2012. Jonevret had previously had a spell at Viking during his playing career, from 1988 to 1990.[8] Jonevret spent over four years in charge of a team suffering from the club's increasing financial difficulties, achieving acceptable results despite the difficult financial premises. In August 2015, he renewed his contract until the end of the 2018 season.[9] However, after the2016 season the club reached a mutual agreement with Jonevret to terminate his contract.[10]
On 24 November 2016, EnglishmanIan Burchnall was announced as the club's new manager.[11] Despite Viking signing an inexperienced manager and having financial trouble, Norwegian media predicted Viking to finish mid-table ahead of the2017 season.[12] However, it proved to be a difficult season for Burchnall, as the team struggled throughout the year, being in the relegation zone from start to finish. Two matches before the end of the 2017 season, Burchnall was fired from the job following the club's relegation to the1. divisjon.[13] Assistant managerBjarte Lunde Aarsheim took charge as head coach for the last two matches, achieving a win in Viking's last match in the league.[14]
On 19 December 2017,Bjarne Berntsen left his role as vice president of theNorwegian FA to take over the manager position at Viking. Berntsen has previously served as player, manager and director at the club.[15]
During the months of December 2017 and January 2018, Viking's financial difficulties reached a level where there was a real possibility that the club could go bankrupt. A statement from the club revealed that it would not be able to pay players and staff in February unless a solution was found. The financial situation was eventually resolved in a deal with Stavanger-based bankSR-Bank which allowed the club to refinance its debts. The bank also purchased parts of the stadium and the stadium naming rights.
On 11 November 2018 Viking secured promotion toEliteserien by placing 1st in1. divisjon, in a tight ending of the season where two points were the difference between 1st and 3rd place. Viking defeatedKongsvinger 3–1 in front of a packedViking Stadion on the last day of the season to secure the1. divisjon title and put the club back in theEliteserien after just one season on the second tier of Norwegian football. The victory sparked apitch invasion by the Viking fans. Pitch invasions are extremely uncommon in Norwegian football.
On 8 December 2019 Viking won the Norwegian Cup after a 1–0 victory overFK Haugesund. Goalscorer wasZlatko Tripić on a penalty kick.
On 26 November 2020, the club surprisingly decided to terminateBjarne Berntsen's contract, even though he had taken the club from the second tier to Eliteserien on first attempt and achieved top half finishes in the following two seasons. Berntsen expressed great disappointment over the decision.[16] The club moved to a dual head coach model, withMorten Jensen andBjarte Lunde Aarsheim jointly in charge of the team. Despite a lot of initial public scepticism about this decision, the duo coached the club to third position in the2021 Eliteserien, qualifying for the2022-23 UEFA Europa Conference League.
| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| 1983–1988 | Adidas[17] | Sandnes Trelast[18] |
| 1989–1992 | SR-Bank[18] | |
| 1993–1998 | Stavanger Energi[18] | |
| 1999–2010 | Lyse[19] | |
| 2011– | Diadora[20] |
The original kit colours in 1899 were all white.[21] This turned out to be problematic at that time. To avoid colour bleeding from the red and yellow club badge when cleaning the white shirts, the badge had to be removed from each shirt prior to washing and then re-attached afterwards. The club therefore changed to dark blue, and is now nicknamed after the dark blue colour of their shirts.
The club badge is shaped like a flag, and remained relatively unchanged from the club's formation in 1899 until 2020. In January 2020, the club introduced a redesigned badge. The flag shape remained, but the font was changed. The oak tree stump graphics were also changed, the year of foundation (1899) was moved and the name of the home city (Stavanger) was made slightly smaller. The traditional red background of the badge was also replaced with a dark blue background matching the colour of the shirts. Two years later, the2022 edition of the kit reintroduced the red badge background.
From 2011,Diadora is the technical sponsor.The Norwegian power companyLyse has been the club's main shirt sponsor since 1999.[19][18]
Since the2004 season, Viking Stadion has been Viking's home stadium. Previously, the club played at Stavanger Stadion, which had a capacity of 17,555. Stavanger Stadion had been the club's stadium since the club was founded in 1899.[22]
The first season with Viking Stadion saw the average attendance increase from 6,712 in 2003 to 12,450 in 2004. The average attendance numbers have been around 10,000 since the stadium was inaugurated. The lowest average attendance came in 2017, when Viking finished in 16th place and were relegated fromEliteserien. In 2007, Viking had an average attendance of 15,842, which is the highest in Viking's history.[23] The official supporter club of Viking, isVikinghordene (the Viking hordes).[24] Other supporter groups areF19 Stavanger,Viking Oslo,Blå Brigade 99 andVecchia Guardia.[25]
Viking's biggest rivals both locally and historically areBrann,Bryne,Haugesund,Sandnes Ulf,Start andRosenborg BK. The rivalries with Brann and Haugesund are often referred to asVestlandsderbyet (theWestern Norway derby). The rivalry with Start is commonly known asSørvestlandsderbyet (the Southwestern Norway derby). Bryne, Haugesund and Sandnes Ulf are all located inRogaland, the same county as Viking. Bryne and Sandnes Ulf are geographically the two closest rivals. Bryne is often considered Viking's biggest rival.[26] The2003 season was the last season Bryne and Viking played against each other in the league, even though the clubs have met in thecup since then.[27]
| Season | League | Cup | Other competitions | League top goalscorer(s) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Pos | ||||||
| Player | Goals | ||||||||||||||
| 2014 | Tippeligaen | 30 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 42 | 42 | 0 | 36 | 10th | QF | Vidar Nisja | 9 | ||
| 2015 | Tippeligaen | 30 | 17 | 2 | 11 | 53 | 39 | +14 | 53 | 5th | SF | Veton Berisha | 11 | ||
| 2016 | Tippeligaen | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 33 | 35 | −2 | 43 | 8th | 3R | Suleiman Abdullahi Mathias Bringaker Patrick Pedersen | 5 | ||
| 2017 | Eliteserien | 30 | 6 | 6 | 18 | 33 | 57 | −24 | 24 | 16th | 2R | Samuel Adegbenro | 6 | ||
| 2018 | 1. divisjon | 30 | 20 | 1 | 9 | 68 | 44 | +24 | 61 | 1st | 2R | Tommy Høiland | 21 | ||
| 2019 | Eliteserien | 30 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 55 | 42 | +13 | 47 | 5th | W | Kristian Thorstvedt | 10 | ||
| 2020 | Eliteserien | 30 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 54 | 52 | +2 | 44 | 6th | Cancelled | UEL | 2QR | Veton Berisha | 16 |
| 2021 | Eliteserien | 30 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 60 | 47 | +13 | 57 | 3rd | SF | Veton Berisha | 22 | ||
| 2022 | Eliteserien | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 48 | 54 | −6 | 35 | 11th | QF | UECL | PO | Veton Berisha | 8 |
| 2023 | Eliteserien | 30 | 18 | 4 | 8 | 61 | 48 | +13 | 58 | 4th | 4R | Zlatko Tripić | 13 | ||
| 2024 | Eliteserien | 30 | 16 | 9 | 5 | 61 | 39 | +22 | 57 | 3rd | 4R | Lars-Jørgen Salvesen | 12 | ||
| Competition | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | GF | GA | GD | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League | 51 | 20 | 12 | 19 | 69 | 63 | +6 | 039.22 |
| European Cup / Champions League | 14 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 29 | −18 | 007.14 |
| European Cup Winners' Cup | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 000.00 |
| UEFA Europa Conference League | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 050.00 |
| Total | 73 | 24 | 15 | 34 | 90 | 104 | −14 | 032.88 |
Source:UEFA.com
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
| Position | Staff |
|---|---|
| Head coaches |  Bjarte Lunde AarsheimMorten Jensen |
| Assistant coach and analyst | Stig Vik Nedrebø |
| Goalkeeping coach |  Jason Wyn-Jones |
| Physiotherapists | Halvard Øen Grova Kenneth Rosbach Petter Søndenå |
| Doctor | Øystein Dale |
| Chiropractor | Tarald Sørenes |
| Player developer | Rune Repvik |
| Mental coach | Frank Heggebø |
| Equipment manager | Stian Refvik |
Last updated: 15 January 2025
Source:[29]
| Position | Staff |
|---|---|
| Chairman | Jan Henrik Jelsa |
| Chief executive officer | Eirik Bjørnø |
| Sporting director | Erik Nevland |
Reinhard Andersen (1946) Sophus Jensen (1947–49)
Frantz Gutkas (1950)Gunnar Stensland (1951–52)Georg Monsen (1953–54)William Danielsen (1955)Georg Monsen (1956–57)William Danielsen (1958–59)Sverre Andersen (1960) Svend Aage Jespersen (1961)Georg Monsen (1962–63)Reidar Kvammen (1964)Georg Monsen (1965)Sverre Andersen (1966–70)Kjell Schou-Andreassen (1971–72)Sverre Andersen (1973)Stuart Williams (1974)Olav Nilsen (1975)Arvid Knutsen (1976)Svein Kvia (1977)
Tony Knapp (1978–1981)Kjell Schou-Andreassen (1982)Andreas Morisbak (1983)Keith Blunt (1984)Svein Kvia (1984)Bill Foulkes (1985)Sverre Andersen (1985)Svein Kvia (1986–87)Kjell Schou-Andreassen (1987)
Benny Lennartsson (1988–91)Arne Larsen Økland (1992)Bjarne Berntsen (1992–95)
Poul Erik Andreasen (1996–99)Benny Lennartsson (2000–02)Kjell Inge Olsen (2003–04)Bjarne Berntsen(interim) (2004)Roy Hodgson (2004–05)Tom Prahl (2006)Tom Nordlie (2006)
Uwe Rösler (2007–09)Åge Hareide (2010–12)Kjell Jonevret (2012–16)Ian Burchnall (2017)Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim(interim) (2017)Bjarne Berntsen (2018–20)Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim &Morten Jensen (2021–)
