Vålerenga Fotball

Vålerenga Fotball

Full name	Vålerenga Fotball
Nickname(s)	Enga, Vål'enga, the Bohemians, the Pride of Oslo, St. Hallvard's men
Founded	29 July 1913
Ground	Ullevaal Stadion Oslo (Capacity: 25,572)
Chairman	Odd Skarheim
Manager	Martin Andresen
League	Tippeligaen
2009	Tippeligaen, 7th
Home colours Away colours

Vålerenga Fotball is a Norwegian association football club from Oslo and a part of the multi-sport club Vålerengens IF. Founded in 1913, the club is named after the neighbourhood of Vålerenga. Vålerenga won the Norwegian Football Cup in November 2008, but finished 10th in the 2008 Norwegian Tippeliga after a disappointing season.

Vålerenga's home ground, as of 2009, is Ullevaal Stadion, the stadium for the Norway national football team. The previous stadium was Bislett Stadion, which hosted speed skating and track and field events in addition to football, and hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics.

History

Early days

The history of Vålerenga goes back to Fotballpartiet Spark which was founded in 1898, which became Idrettslaget Spring on 29 July 1913. Later the club changed its name to Vaalerengens Idrættsforening.

Vålerengen won the Oslo Championships four times before a national league (Norgesserien) was established in 1937. In the 1948/49 season Vålerengen finished second.

1960s–1980s

In 1965 Vålerengen won the 1st division (now Tippeligaen) for the first time, and in the 80s they won 3 league championships and 1 cup championship. During that decade they also were twice cup runners-up and placed 3rd in the league in 1985.

However, the team was relegated to the 3rd division in 1970, and weren't back in the top league again until 1974.

1990s

In 1990 Vålerenga were relegated after 14 seasons in the top division. Vålerenga was close to further relegation in the 1992 season, but managed to remain in the second highest division thanks to a last round 3-0 win against Eik-Tønsberg IF. In 1994, Vålerenga returned to the top division, but were relegated again in 1996. In 1997 Vålerenga won the cup and the First Division and were again promoted to Tippeligaen. As earlier in the 90s, the stay in the top division lasted only a few years.

2000–2004

In the 2000 season Vålerenga lost the play-off matches against Sogndal and was relegated to the 1st division. Vålerenga returned to Tippeligaen and won the cup in 2002.

The 2003 season was poor for Vålerenga and they wound up third last in the league sending them into playoffs against Sandefjord to avoid relegation. The result was a 0-0 draw in Sandefjord and a 5-3 victory in Oslo and so Vålerenga retained the position in the top league and avoided relegation.

Vålerenga rebounded nicely in the 2004 season and proved a serious challenge to the dominant Rosenborg team in the bid for the league's gold medal. After a frantic final round where Vålerenga beat Stabæk 3-0, they missed out on the league title since Rosenborg beat FK Lyn, Vålerenga's city rivals 4-1. Vålerenga won the silver medal, finishing 2nd to Rosenborg equal on points and goal difference, but Vålerenga had scored one fewer goal than Rosenborg during the entire league campaign, leaving Rosenborg as league champions.

Champions 2005

At the start of the 2005 season it was apparent that Rosenborg was in bad shape and it seemed like Vålerenga's season to go all the way. After a strong season opening, the club sensation IK Start - newly promoted to the Premier League - looked to give Vålerenga a fight to the finish, and the two clubs basically alternated on leading the series to the very last round. On 29 October it looked to be a thrilling last round reminiscent of the previous year, as both Start and Vålerenga had the exact same amount of points, but Start with a slightly better goal difference. Start met Fredrikstad FK at home, while Vålerenga met Odd Grenland away. As the opening whistle blew the scene was set for some nail-biting football minutes around Norway. Eventually Fredrikstad, who faced relegation if they lost, beat Start 3-1 while at the same time Vålerenga managed a 2-2 draw against Odd Grenland. Vålerenga stepped one up from the previous year, and won the title with a one point margin. History was made on several levels that night as it marked the first time in 21 years that Vålerenga won the league, and most notably it put an end to the 13 year long reign of Rosenborg.

2006 onwards

The follow-up season of 2006 didn't start out as well for the reigning champions, and a poor start left them at the very end of the table after seven rounds, having gained only 5 points. A steady rise in form though still brought the team to 6th place by the time the season was half-through. Late July brought a string of bad results, including embarrassing losses to main rival FK Lyn, and the exit from the UEFA Champions League qualifier after losing 5-3 on aggregate to Czech club FK Mladá Boleslav in the 2nd qualifying round. Vålerenga had aimed to qualify for the tournament after missing out the previous year by being defeated by Belgian side Club Brugge K.V. on a penalty shoot-out. After losing five out of seven games between 22 July and 19 August head-coach Kjetil Rekdal decided enough is enough, and announced his resignation. Assisting coach Petter Myhre took over, and as a consequence the club regained their form and scored 25 out of the last 30 possible points, bringing the club to yet another medal in the league, the third consecutive, as well as a qualification spot for the 2007-2008 UEFA Cup. Vålerenga has also qualified for play in the 2006-2007 Scandinavian Royal League after finishing among the top four teams in Norway. In 2008 Vålerenga again won the cup. In 2009 the team made the semi final in the cup.

Recent league history

Colours

Up to 1913, Vålerenga's kit was moss green ("VIFs Drakter"). In 1914, the Norwegian State Railways had a set of blue and red kits left over, which Vålerenga bought cheaply, so their official colours became blue and red. The 2006 season away kit was white with a touch of moss green.

Stadium

Ullevaal Stadion is the current home ground, but it is owned jointly by the Football Association of Norway and Vålerenga's main rival FK Lyn.

From the 60s till the 80s and a short period in the end of the 90s Bislett Stadion was Vålerenga's home ground. Poor conditions and maintenance of Bislett forced Vålerenga to move to Ullevaal and a groundshare with FK Lyn.

After Vålerenga moved from Bislett Stadion plans for building their own ground were conceived, but poor results on the field combined with financial problems kept those plans at bay for a few years. After the 2nd place in 2004 and the league title in 2005 as well as business man John Fredriksen's deletion of the club's debt in 2003, the talks of building a ground for Vålerenga have resurfaced. The original plans were to build a ground in Bjørvika, right next to the future opera house in the centre of Oslo. Vålerenga has won little political support in Oslo city council for this proposal. There have been several proposals for other sites where a ground can be built, but there are two sites that recur as the most likely: Ensjø east in Oslo close to Vålerenga's training facilities at Valle Hovin and to build the ground over the railway tracks at Oslo Central Station.

Following an announcement made on 15 May 2008, it appears that Vålerenga will be moving "home" to Valle Hovin as they purchased the area of the proposed stadium for the sum of 1 Norwegian Krone. The development mainly includes a 22,000 seater stadium.

Supporters

Vålerenga supporters in the stand nicknamed “The West Bank"

Vålerenga's main supporter club Klanen (the Clan) was founded on 5 May 1991 and is with its about 10,000 members the biggest supporter club in Norway. Klanen is considered to be among the best supporters in Norway and is by some called "the best mixed choir in Norway" because of their joy of singing and cooperation. The kit number 12 is reserved Klanen.

Of the two big Oslo clubs Vålerenga and FK Lyn, Vålerenga usually gather a crowd more than three times as large as their city rivals. In the 2006 season Vålerenga gathered an average attendance of 13,871 at their home matches, ranking them fourth in Norway with regard to attendance.

Klanen celebrating the bronze medal after the final game of the 2006 season

Recent history

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Europe		Notes
1997	AL	1	26	19	3	4	70	21	60	winner
1998	ES	7	26	10	3	13	44	48	33	3rd round
1999	ES	11	26	8	4	14	40	53	28	last 16
2000	ES	12	26	5	9	12	32	44	24	quarter-final			relegated after play-off
2001
2002	ES	8	26	7	12	7	38	31	33	winner
2003	ES	12	26	6	10	10	30	33	28	quarter-final
2004	ES	2	26	13	9	4	40	22	48	3rd round
2005	ES	1	26	13	7	6	40	27	46	semi-final
2006	ES	3	26	13	5	8	43	28	44	quarter-final	UC	1st round	elim. 3rd round ECL
2007	ES	7	26	10	6	10	34	34	36	fourth round	UC	1st round]
2008	ES	10	26	8	5	11	30	36	30	winner
2009	ES	7	30	12	4	14	47	50	40	semi-final

Records

• Largest victory in the premier league: 8-0 against Lisleby FK 1951
• Longest consecutive seasons in premier league: 14 seasons (1977-1990)
• Most premier league matches since 1963: Freddy dos Santos, 198 matches (2001-)
• Most goals in mandatory matches: Einar Bruno Larsen, 99 goals (1957-1968)
• Most goals in a single season: Jørn Andersen 23 goals in 22 matches (1985)
• Record attendance: Ullevaal Stadion, 23 October 2005. The 2005 season's last home game, against Rosenborg, 24894 spectators
• Biggest win in a European cup match: 6-0 vs. FK Ekranas 30 August 2007 (7-1 overall)

(numbers as of 3 September 2007)

Players and staff

Current squad

As of January 15th 2010 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Lars Hirschfeld 3 DF Andreas Nordvik 4 DF André Muri 6 MF Freddy dos Santos 10 MF Lars Iver Strand 11 FW Morten Berre 14 FW Bengt Sæternes 17 MF Mohammed Fellah 19 MF Dawda Leigh 20 FW Mostafa Abdellaoue 21 FW Luton Shelton

No. Position Player 22 DF Birger Madsen 23 MF Kristofer Hæstad (Captain) 24 DF Stefan Strandberg 26 MF Bojan Zajić 27 MF Adnan Haidar 28 MF Harmeet Singh 30 GK Frode Larsen 31 MF Kristian Brix 33 DF Amin Nouri 34 GK Gudmund Taksdal Kongshavn

Reserve squad

Youth players with professional contracts, but not officially part of the first team. Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 7 MF Kamer Qaka 13 FW Håvard Nielsen

No. Position Player — DF Joakim Eyde — MF Haakon Simensen Farstadvoll

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 29 MF Fredrik Carlsen (on loan to Aalesunds FK until the end of 2010) — MF Christer Jensen (on loan to Strømmen IF until the end of 2010)

Coaching staff

Notable former players

• John Carew
• Tore André Flo
• Steffen Iversen
• Ronny Johnsen
• Kjetil Rekdal
• Troy Perkins

See also

• Vålerenga (Place)
• Vålerenga Ishockey
• Vålerenga Trolls

References

• Nome, Petter. Vi er Vål'enga. Oslo: Cappelen, 1997. ISBN 82-02-17623-9.

External links

• Official pages
• Vålerenga Fotball På Nett - the biggest site for unofficial news and views
• Klanen, official Vålerenga supporters club