Norwegian success story: Bodo/Glimt's historic run to Europa League semi-final

On Thursday, the club from just north of the Arctic Circle will become the first Norwegian team to play in the semi-finals of a major European competition when they take 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 situated almost 1,200 kilometres, or 16 hours, by road north of Norway's capital Oslo. What should be a frozen footballing 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 their most stunning result yet when they beat Lazio on penalties in Rome in their Europa League quarter-final. They 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 their 8,200-capacity Aspmyra Stadium.

They then weathered the storm on the pitch in Italy in the return to progress in the shoot-out and set up a tie against 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 ($702m) 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-eight years," he said. In 2017 they was promoted to Norway's top tier, the Eliteserien, a competition which had been dominated for three decades by Rosenborg of Trondheim.

Stability but no stars

Bodo/Glimt were runners-up in 2019 before winning their first title in 2020. They have now won four of the last five domestic championships.

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

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

Now, reaching a semi-final means they have eclipsed Rosenborg, who got to the Champions League quarter-finals 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 they have enjoyed success by keeping their squad together, and keeping their coach.

"Our main focus is on performance, rather than player sales," 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.