It starts with the name, Bodø/Glimt, which the rest of Europe calls Bodo without much ceremony. For those who don’t want to risk pronouncing one of the nine Norwegian vowels, just do as the locals do: just use Glimt. With an irresistible “free game”, yellow shirts, artificial grass and inclement weather on their side, Glimt, in northern Norway, makes history this week by competing in the round of 16 of the Champions League, the biggest interclub on the planet.
The outfit is unprecedented, an adjective that is repeated in the club’s recent history with unusual frequency. Before Sporting, this Wednesday’s opponent (11), Glimt eliminated Inter Milan, with a 3-1 at home, which someone even tried to attribute to the cold, the synthetic pitch, etc., and a 2-1 away, in which only the ball remained as an explanation. If anyone still pointed to a polar zebra in the first game, in the round, at the San Siro, there were no arguments.
Weeks earlier, the team’s first victories in the Champions League, over Manchester City (3-1) and Atlético de Madrid (2-1), put little Bodø on the map of European football. A surprising trajectory for a team that, less than ten years ago, was struggling in the second division of a country that is not on the lists of football powers.
“Monaco was the only club that didn’t concede a goal in Bodø this season. We won 1-0 in the group stage. They have a sporting logic, the same coach for many years and basically working with the same group of players for a long time”, says Thiago Scuro, CEO of the principality’s team.
Former Red Bull Bragantino, Scuro sees Glimt as “a sporting result that has been built for at least three years”. “It’s not new, by any means. It has merit, it has work. It’s a very organized team, with very talented players.”
Outside the European scene, the story begins even earlier, in 2018, when Glimt overcame relegation and a crisis that, despite recent success, still lives in the memories of fans in Bodø. “We’ve been through ups and downs, mostly downs. There were difficult years in the lower divisions. Now we’re in the Champions League. It’s surreal”, describes Robin Gundersen, who together with his twin brother, Rudi, runs an art gallery in the city.
Sea and Nordic landscapes have given way, in recent months, to views of the Aspmyra stadium, portrayed in bright colors and with the city’s “natural elements” _in addition to the mountains and snow, planes and helicopters, integral to Bodø’s peculiar urban landscape. “It’s not luck anymore. We’re a good team and we don’t focus on results. Our focus is on progressing and improving with each game,” says Robin, who calls himself a Glimt ultra.
Despite the term, there is no news of violence in Bodø. The team’s success in the Champions League attracts visitors, but the stadium is so small (8,270 seats) that the city’s various hotels do the trick. “It’s unlikely that so many people would decide to come to Bodø if it weren’t for football. And that’s very good. People are excited because now there is a new and completely different destination [no calendário da Champions]”, says Anke Lange, responsible for the city’s tourist information office.
Yes, Bodø (pronounced “bodá”), 53,600 inhabitants, is small, different, but within a Norwegian standard reality. Buses and electric cars run through the city center, although short walks cover most trips. Europe’s cultural capital in 2024, it has modern libraries, galleries, museums and the region’s main university.
“It’s not just a stopover for Lofoten anymore,” says Anke, of the region’s main tourist destination, an island connected to Bodø by an efficient ferry service. As proof of the city’s potential beyond football, she takes out her cell phone to show a photo of the northern lights taken from the city’s port, despite the lighting. “And I don’t even know how to take a photo.”
Glimt, which means spark or shine in Norwegian, was called “northern lightning” by journalist Luís Aguilar, in an article published in the Portuguese newspaper A Bola. It was a warning to Sport fans about the size of the team’s task in this knockout stage. “Small teams tend to protect themselves. Bodø attacks.”
“Glimt’s players never kick. The team faces opponents as if they were equals”, says Thiago Monteiro, former club athlete and now youth coach. Owner of an unlikely career, which began in the American MLS and ended at the Nordic club then in the second division, the “Paulistano from Mooca” who mixes phrases in English and Portuguese highlights the work of Kjetil Knutsen, the coach of the main team.
“It took a few years for him to put the system into practice, for the players to understand the system they play in now. It took time to grow.”
A kind of swear word in Brazilian football, continuity has been the key to Glimt’s success so far. Knutsen joined as an assistant in 2017, with the team relegated from the national championship, but in 2018 he was back in the elite. Under his command, Glimt achieved four titles and two runners-up in six seasons from 2020. “He didn’t stop training the team even during the pandemic”, says Monteiro.
The success in Norway qualified the team for European tournaments. The Champions League is the last stage of this journey based on a “free game”, as Knudsen himself described this Tuesday (10). THE Sheet the coach claims there is no timetable for the team’s total success, a European title. The question was whether Glimt, as demonstrated during the season, was behind or ahead of the schedule.
“I don’t think we have that kind of schedule. I think we’re living in the present and working hard with the players, developing them and the team. We’re not thinking about that. But if we look at the big picture, I think we’re a little ahead of schedule.”
Bodø and Champions thank you.
