Fotballklubben Bodø/Glimt (), also referred to as Bodø/Glimt or its former name Glimt ("Gleam"), is a Norwegian professional football club from the city of Bodø in Bodø Municipality, Nordland county, Norway. The club currently plays in Eliteserien, the Norwegian top division. The club was founded on 19 September 1916.
Bodø/Glimt are four-time champions in Norway after winning the 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024 Eliteserien seasons. They also have won the now-defunct Northern Norwegian Cup nine times, and the Norwegian Cup three times. They were the first team from northern Norway to win a national title by winning the cup in 1975, the first team from the region to win the national league, and also the northernmost European club to win a national league competition.
After being promoted to the top flight ahead of the 2018 season, the club has experienced the greatest success in its history, winning the league championship four years in five seasons, reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2022, and the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League in 2025, becoming the first Norwegian club to reach the last four of a European club competition. Bodø/Glimt qualified for the league phase of the UEFA Champions League for the first time the same year, becoming the northernmost team to ever play in that stage of the competition, reaching the round of 16.
History Founding years
While other towns in Nordland county like Narvik, Mo i Rana and Mosjøen had started their football clubs earlier, the larger town of Bodø was without a major football club until the latter part of 1916. The new club was founded as Fotballklubben Glimt. One of the founders was Erling Tjærandsen, who also became the club's first president and later an honorary club member. TJærandsen was also a known footballer and skier. Glimt's first match was against Bodø High School, because Glimt was the only football club in town.
In 1919, Glimt won their first title: County Champions of Nordland. In the 1920s, Glimt suffered from bad morale and poor finances. At one point, there were talks about merging Glimt into the Ski Club B. and O.I, but following discussions, the intentions were not carried through. The club received an infusion of new encouragement through visiting footballing stars and coaches from southern Norway, such as Jørgen Juve in 1929. In the 1930s, Glimt also began training indoors to reduce the impact of the severe Arctic winters.
This new approach in the late 1920s and early 1930s yielded some positive results and Glimt have since been a top club in Northern Norway, winning nine North-Norwegian championships, and nationally in Norway since the 1970s.
Name change and Cup entry The club changed its name in 1948,Nordlandsposten, November 26 1948, p. 2: Glimt forandrer navnet til «Bodø-Glimt» (Norwegian) due to an older club from Trøndelag having the same name, and has since gone by the name Fotballklubben Bodø/Glimt. The slash was originally a hyphen, but was gradually changed in the 1980s to avoid confusion as hyphens were often used to separate teams on betting coupons and in result tables in newspapers.
Teams from Northern Norway were not allowed to compete in the Norwegian cup-competition until 1963. In their first appearance in the Norwegian FA cup in 1963, Bodø/Glimt managed to get as far as the fourth round after a home win 7–1 over Nordil, and two away wins. The first beating Nidelv (from Trondheim) and then a mighty win over Rosenborg BK. In the fourth round, Glimt had to play another away game, this time against Frigg from Oslo. Frigg won 2–0 and Glimt was out of the Cup. However, Bodø/Glimt had proven that teams from Northern Norway could play at the same level as the southern teams.
Road to the Top Division It was not until 1972 that northern teams had the right to gain promotion to the Norwegian top division. This was due to the old belief that the teams from Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark could not compete at the same level as the southern teams. Bodø/Glimt is one of three teams from Northern Norway that have played in the Norwegian top division, the others being Tromsø IL and FK Mjølner.
From 1973, Norway had three second divisions: two divisions for southern teams and one for northern teams. Bodø/Glimt took three years to gain promotion, due to the promotion rules. The first-place holders in the two southern divisions gained instant promotion, but the first-place holder in the northern second division had to compete in play-off matches against the two second-place holders from the south. This league system caused a lot of bitterness in the north. This worsened in 1975 when Bodø/Glimt, as the first club from Northern-Norway, won the Norwegian Cup, but did not gain promotion due to the special play-off rules for North-Norwegian clubs.
In the 1974 and 1975 seasons, Bodø/Glimt won their division (they had played a few draws but no losses), but still lost in the play-offs.
In 1976, Bodø/Glimt managed at last to beat the league system with a 4–0 win over Odd and a 1–1 draw against Lyn, making Glimt the second North-Norwegian team to gain promotion to the top division, after FK Mjølner's promotion in 1971. Not until the late 1970s did the Norwegian Football Association change the promotion rules; the play-off matches for Northern clubs were dropped. From then on, there was no difference in which club had its home ground.
Top-Division debut and 1980s decline After a glorious top-division debut in 1977 — second place in the league and the cup, both against Lillestrøm — Bodø/Glimt played four seasons at the top level before relegation in 1980, finishing last at 12th place.
The 1980s were the darkest hours in the club's history, with Bodø/Glimt playing in the 2nd division and the regional 3rd division. For a couple of years in the mid-1980s, they weren't even the best team in Bodø, with rivals Grand Bodø surpassing them in the standings. But the tide turned in 1991. With coach Jan Muri in charge, Glimt was promoted to 1st division. The following season, they hired Trond Sollied as coach, and the team won the 1st division in the 1992 season. At last, in 1993, Bodø/Glimt was back in the top division, and as in the debut season of 1977, they took second place in the league. This time they also managed to win the cup final (a 2–0 win over Strømsgodset). The Cup-Championship was the crowning of three remarkable seasons, going from 2nd division to 2nd place in the top-division in only three years — an achievement rarely seen in the Norwegian league system.
Rollercoaster years Since reentering the top division Bodø/Glimt have had a rather checkered performance-chart. A good league performance one season has usually been followed with near relegation the next. This was illustrated with the 1993 and 1994 seasons when Glimt won the cup and became league runners-up, in 1994 only a better goal-difference allowed Bodø/Glimt to stay in the top division.
Another example of the rollercoaster ride of Bodø/Glimt league performance is the 2003 and 2004 seasons. In 2003 season the club finished runner-up behind league valedictorians Rosenborg. The team also lost the 2003 Norwegian Cup final to Rosenborg. In the 2004 season Glimt finished third last and had to play a two-game qualification match against Kongsvinger to avoid relegation. Glimt lost the first game 0–1 in Kongsvinger, but soundly defeated Kongsvinger in Bodø by the score of 4–0, winning 4–1 on aggregate.
After the club's comeback in 1993, Glimt played continuously in the Norwegian top division for 12 seasons, for a total of 16 top division seasons. In the 2005 season however, Bodø/Glimt was relegated.
Financial troubles and promotion battles
Life in the Adecco League proved harder than most fans had anticipated. Many were disappointed when Glimt failed to secure the third place play-off spot they had held during most of the course of the season, finally ending in fifth place. The season was tainted by financial difficulties, forcing the team to sell their top scorer Håvard Sakariassen and captain Cato Andrè Hansen to promotion rivals Bryne in the middle of the season. This had to be done to stabilize their financial situation, which was so poor that the Norwegian Football Association threatened to not give the team their playing license for next season, which would have resulted disastrously in forced relegation to the second division.
The poor results towards the end of the season finally prompted the board of the supporters’ club to write an open letter in which the training and alcohol consumption habits of certain unnamed players were criticised. In a bizarre twist a few weeks later, the supporters’ club was threatened with a lawsuit in the multi-million class by former coach Trond Sollied, who was briefly mentioned in a by-sentence of the letter as having been in charge when the bad habits of the team had begun. All claims were quickly retracted by the supporters’ club.
In the second season in Adeccoligaen, Bodø/Glimt achieved promotion back to Tippeligaen after two promotion matches – once again, as in 1976 – against Odd. Bodø/Glimt was the first team for nine years in Norway to win the promotion matches to Tippeligaen. This was also the final match for Bodø/Glimt for the Norwegian legends Erik Hoftun and Kent Bergersen. The return to Tippeligaen was a successful one as the team performed well to end in 4th place in 2008, but the next season followed the club trend of struggling after a good season, and Bodø/Glimt was again relegated with a 15th place, second to last in the league.
In 2013, Bodø/Glimt was again promoted to Tippeligaen, after becoming the winner of Adecco-ligaen. Coach Jan Halvor Halvorsen managed to keep Glimt in the top lead for the next two seasons.
The Knutsen era and historic titles
Ahead of the 2016 season, club legend Aasmund Bjørkan was appointed as head coach. The team started the season well, and was on top of the league table after three games. However, Glimt lost the next six games. The place in the top league nevertheless looked secure with four games remaining, but Glimt lost all of them and was relegated. Despite relegation, Aasmund Bjørkan stayed on as head coach, and the club brought in then unknown Kjetil Knutsen as assistant coach. Bodø/Glimt won the league by a 16-point margin, and was once again back at the top flight. Aasmund Bjørkan was named coach of the year, but stepped down as head coach, and took the role as sporting director at the club ahead of the 2018 season. Assistant Kjetil Knutsen was promoted to head coach. Glimt made a decent performance during 2018, however a record of 14 draws saw them finishing only in 11th place, but retaining their status as a top-flight team.