The Limerick influence on Bodø/Glimt's remarkable rise that has unified Norway
Glimt's players celebrate at the end of the Champions League win over Inter Milan. Pic: AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
EIGHTY kilometres inside the Arctic Circle sits the Norwegian coastal town of Bodø, historically serving a fishing community and a major transport hub for northern Norway.
Just 15 sq kms in size and with 50,000 inhabitants, it is home to long, dark polar days and nights as the sun barely reaches the horizon, such is the proximity to the North Pole.
Dark and cold it can be, but in footballing terms FK Bodø/Glimt have been lighting fires under some of Europe’s biggest football clubs while simultaneously warming the hearts of Bodø fans and beyond.
Despite their domestic season ending in November, the Superlaget have been rampant in this year’s Champions League, initially qualifying via a 6-2 aggregate victory over Austrian Champions Sturm Graz, before going on to pick up wins against Man CIty and Atletico Madrid in the League stage as well as draws against Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund.
This form has earned them a 23rd place finish in the league phase, enough to seal qualification to the knockout playoff round, where they were drawn to play Italian Serie A Champions Inter Milan. Few expected the Norwegian outfit to overcome the Nerazzurri over two legs, not least because the entirety of the Bodø population would just about fill half of the San Siro stadium, but after a 3-1 first leg win at home, manager Kjetil Knutsen’s side sent a shockwave across Europe as they won 2-1 in Milan to reach the Champions League last 16 for the first time in the club’s history - sending last season’s runners up out in the process.
Limerick man Tomás Lane spent almost two years living in northern Norway working as Lead Academy Physical Performance coach at Bodø/Glimt between 2022 and 2024.
“There was a big emphasis on them being a Norwegian football club. There’s a family energy there. Even though they play on the biggest stage, it’s a tight-knit community... a fairly small-sized backroom staff where everyone works in close proximity - players, management, coaches, admin staff, academy, all working and socialising together. Once a year, the club would pay for everyone to travel together to a European game, so it was a big focus area of the club to operate as one whole unit.”
Having started out as a youth coach at Treaty United, Lane’s ambition was to progress full-time into professional coaching, and while working as a postman in his hometown and simultaneously completing a Masters in Sports Performance and Exercise at the University of Limerick, the Askeaton man applied for an internship at Malmo FC and within a matter of weeks he had moved to Sweden to embark on a full-time career in professional football.
“One of the first things I observed is the level of professionalism and funding towards football in Scandinavia. The structure of their academy football is so high - the facilities, contact hours, training intensity. Even at a small club like Bodø, they have a school in the stadium, so education is set up around the training which allows players to be elite athlete at a young age and train every day, have their gym sessions while also receiving a full education.”
Things weren’t always so rosy for the club. Martin Sleipnes, a lifelong Bodø fan and host of the popular “Enkel Servering” podcast, describes how the club was originally forbidden from competing in the Norwegian league due to harsh climatic conditions and geographical isolation, and how they have since unified the entire country through their success on the European stage.
“It wasn’t until they won the Norwegian Cup in the 1970s that the club was permitted to play in the Norwegian Premier Division. Now they have united the whole country, because of the idea that a small Norwegian team from a city with 50,000 inhabitants could achieve the things they've done now.”
Club DNA is clearly at the heart of FK Bodø/Glimt, and in addition to a familial and nurturing environment, it’s evident that work-rate, intensity, physicality and process are core fundamentals throughout the organisation, often outrunning, outsmarting and outplaying some of the biggest teams in world football, as Lane describes from his time at the club.
“The two things that stand out are their style of play, which is all about high energy, high press, bravery on the ball and being quick in transition, along with being extremely process-driven rather than result-oriented, focusing on how they play both on and off the ball instead of just on scoring and winning at any cost.”
Sleipnes cites the impact that manager Knutsen has had on the club over the past eight years along with mental coach Bjorn Mannsverk, a former Norwegian fighter pilot.
“Back in 2018, the club had something like 14 draws in the league. The belief was that the players were more afraid to lose than to try and win games. That is what they have focused on, removing the fear of making mistakes. So now when you see the players enter the San Siro against Inter, they aren’t afraid, they will try short passes, flicks and clever play..if they lose the ball, they work to get it back and then try again.”
This process-driven approach was tangible against Inter. Despite having just scored to put his side 1-0 ahead away in Italy, Bodø’s Jens Petter Hauge’s first reaction was to challenge teammate Ole Didrik Blomberg for not passing the ball earlier rather than celebrate a momentous goal for him and his club.
“It’s small details that can change matches. I was a little bit surprised that he didn’t pass the ball but in the end it was a goal and we are happy. But next time if we don’t score, it’s maybe a different match.” Hauge told TNT Sport after Bodø’s San Siro stunner.
This intensity has wreaked havoc on multiple Champions League regulars this season, with elite clubs often unable to cope with their high press and extreme fitness levels. Following a 3-1 defeat to Bodø in their penultimate league phase clash, Man City manager Pep Guardiola highlighted how Bodo were well organised, "close incredibly inside, you have to go outside and then outside again..as a transitional team, they are really good.”
How is this engrained and embedded into the culture and philosophy of the football club? Lane cites a top-to-bottom approach as being crucial in Bodø/Glimt’s footballing evolution and club philosophy.
“We were encouraged as an academy to play the same way and to simulate how the first team play.. high energy, high pressing, transitional play. The 4-3-3 structure is in place from the bottom right to the top, so that academy players are trained to fit the system and perform in these roles. That’s the club’s identity.”
A clear identity indeed, which Sleipnes describes as having transformed the entire city of Bodø in recent times.
“It’s like a big party and everyone is invited. On any day, even when there is no match, you will see thousands of yellow flags hanging from houses, street lights, shops, even the airport. They paint their houses yellow, paint the city yellow, everyone is just proud to the brim of what they have achieved together.”
Bodø’s European adventure continues, as does Lane’s Scandinavian expedition with the Limerick coach now Head of Sports Science at Aarhus Gymnastikforening (AGF), proudly sitting atop the Danish Superliga and favourites to win their first league title in 40 years. Having met his now fiancé during his time at Bodø and with a June wedding in Ireland to come, it is shaping up to be a year to remember for Askeaton's Lane and for his former employers.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
