Norwegian underdogs Bodo/Glimt have survived their dark days and are shining in Europe… now, after shocking Roma and Porto, they're relishing their 'special' Man United trip

When Havard Sakariassen talks about the dark days, he is referring to the tough times at Bodo/Glimt not the Norwegian winter when the sun doesn’t rise for months and the Northern Lights can be seen from the club’s Aspmyra Stadion 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

The days when there was about as much chance of encountering a real-life troll as playing Manchester United in Europe.

Like in 2006 when Sakariassen was sold to rivals Bryne in mid-season to help pay the bills amid threats of enforced relegation. Or 2011 when he hung up his boots in the middle of a campaign in the second tier, and joined the back-room staff at another time of crisis.

‘I was old and not any good,’ admits Sakariassen, now the club’s sporting director. ‘I left the changing room and went upstairs. At that time the club was in such bad conditions that we didn’t have a kit manager. We washed our training gear at home and came to training already dressed. When we played, home and away, we didn’t have anyone to do the washing of the jerseys.

‘That was the situation at Bodo/Glimt in 2011. Suddenly we hit the wall. There was no money and we had to survive.

‘We had one person working for the A team that autumn. That was me. That meant we didn’t have a kit man. I was the kit man.

The club, who staved off enforced relegation in 2006, have now won three titles in four years

They next travel to Manchester United in Ruben Amorim’s first home game on Thursday

‘To compare that to our resources today, it’s insanely different.’

Bodo/Glimt were traditionally a yo-yo team in Norway, struggling to stay up and stay afloat – particularly during the 1980s when they spent 11 years outside the top-flight, and three of them in the third division.

Even recently, midfielder Ulrik Saltnes remembers the squad having to travel to away games on domestic flights, often connecting via Oslo on long-distance trips.

‘If you are taking a bus or a train from northern Norway, you are a very patient man,’ smiles Saltnes. ‘The closest bus journey to a team would be about eight hours. We did all the travel by plane, but there is a very big difference between now and having to go through Oslo at inconvenient hours.

‘Now we charter our own plane. We travel as we see fit to help us prepare better for the games. Before it was all about economics.

‘I can’t really picture how it was because everything was so much smaller. It’s been quite a journey, especially from 2019 where we all of a sudden went from being a team bouncing up and down the leagues to being a stable top team and then entering Europe.

‘A normal day and normal year for a football player now compared to when I was young is just two different worlds.’

A one-club man, Saltnes has been at the forefront of a revival that has seen Bodo/Glimt win three titles in the last four years (a fourth could follow on Sunday) and is considered a club legend at the age of 32.

Traditionally a yo-yo team, Bodo/Glimt have entertained some of Europe’s biggest teams

Jose Mourinho’s Roma were humiliated 6-1 when they travelled to Norway’s north-west coast

In Europe, they have faced the likes of Arsenal and AC Milan. When Roma travelled to the north-west coast of Norway in the Europa Conference in 2021, Jose Mourinho’s side were humiliated 6-1.

After the two sides were drawn together in the quarter-finals, Bodo/Glimt won again in the first leg at the Aspmyra but a seething Mourinho got his revenge in Italy.

‘I don’t think he liked the first times we met,’ adds Saltnes. ‘By the fourth game, he had turned half of Rome to literally hating us. It was quite an atmosphere. On the bus ride, I didn’t see 10 metres without someone shouting and flipping us off on the way to the game; grandmothers and children and everyone. He dd a pretty good job there. We were destroyed in the fourth game.’

For all Bodo/Glimt’s progress, a Europa League tie against Manchester United in what will be new head coach Ruben Amorim’s first game at Old Trafford on Thursday night, is arguably the greatest occasion of all.

Although United will be hot favourites, they lie three places below opponents who have already beaten FC Porto and Braga in the competition this season to sit 12th in the table.

‘It’s going to be a huge challenge,’ Saltnes says. ‘It will be the first home game as well for the new coach, and I think statistically that may be the worst game you can have.

‘We are going to see a whole different Manchester United – a more competitive one. They’re going to play in a simpler way, more of a 3-4-3. They’re going to immediately improve.

‘We’ll come in as a huge underdogs, I think. Ultimately I hope we can just enjoy the occasion and the game and then just take it from there. We’re not too worried about the results, not in this game, not really.

Bodo/Glimt also faced Arsenal in the Europa League in 2022 but lost both matches

There is no great injection of cash behind their rise, with success built on smart recruitment

‘It will probably be the same kind of challenge [as Arsenal in 2022]. But being Norwegian, I would say Martin Odegaard is just different. They don’t have any Odegaards at Manchester United.’

There is no great injection of cash behind the rise of Bodo/Glimt from a small family club to champions of Norway. No rich benefactors here. The club’s budget may have quadrupled since 2017, but it is still only £21million without additional revenue from selling players.

The Aspmyra Stadion has a capacity of 8,270, marginally more than the 6,500 fans who are making the journey to Manchester and represent 12 per cent of the town’s 55,000 population.

They are known as ‘fish hippies’ because of Bodo’s skrei cod fishing industry, and the symbol of the club is a yellow toothbrush. Don’t ask.

And if you were wondering about the forward slash between Bodo and Glimt (which translates as Flash), it replaced a hyphen that used to cause confusion on betting slips and printed scorelines.

Success has been built on solid recruitment of Scandinavian players, nurturing homegrown talent and prudent selling.

‘It’s important that when we scout players, we scout their football abilities but also look at the human being,’ says Sakariassen. ‘So we work on culture at Bodo/Glimt and probably that is why the team looks like it does, because it’s mainly Norwegian and Danish guys.

‘We truly believe that we can get the potential out of the players we have here, as individuals and as a team, it is huge. If you can make a great team, it goes a long way.

The Aspmyra Stadion has a capacity of 8,270, 12 per cent of the town’s 55,000 population

‘Maybe I am naïve, but in a single match like Thursday we will be able to compete against Manchester United and have a great performance at Old Trafford. But over time, against these clubs, we will not catch up with them financially.’

There are still the logistical problems of playing in Norway, however. Being in Europe for the fifth year in a row means Bodo/Glimt are once again playing well beyond the end of the domestic season which concludes on Sunday when Kjetil Knutsen’s side could win another title by beating Lillestrom.

‘We will play not just up until Christmas but also in Europe after Christmas so there is no break for us, and that’s a bit crazy,’ says Sakariassen.

Bodo/Glimt will then spend much of the three months from January to March training in Spain to escape the darkness and freezing temperatures at home.

He adds: ‘The winter here if you go to late December around Christmas time and January, the sun is not up, so it’s dark all around, 24 hours. Even if you live here for a long time, it’s kind of heavy.

‘To talk on the positive side, the summers here are truly amazing because we have sun all night long. It’s a spectacular place on earth. The nature here is crazy. If you’re not used to this, if you come from Manchester for example, and you visit Bodo in the summertime, it’s an amazing place.’

Still, Sakariassen grew up dreaming of Manchester; of its legendary music scene in the 90s and of United.

‘English football is really big in Norway, and everyone had an English team in the 90s. Many of us including me supported Man United heavily,’ he says.

Bodo/Glimt are self-professed ‘huge underdogs’ for their visit to Manchester this week

‘Personally, they were the defining years of my life because I was between 15 and 22. Manchester was the coolest place on earth for me because of music and the football team. If you ask the 20-year-old Havard, it would be unreal to go to Old Trafford with Bodo/Glimt.

‘Of course, today I am working with this every day and we have been around the block for some years now, but still to go to Old Trafford is special for me.

‘It’s hard to reflect on actually what we are achieving because I feel like we are in the middle of a hurricane every day. Maybe when we get old and do something else, it’s time to reflect on these things.

‘It’s amazing to see the impact that the club has in Bodo, in the north of Norway but also in Norway. It’s really extraordinary for me as a Bodo/Glimt boy.’