Central defender as goalkeeper
Electrician is getting closer and closer to the Champions League miracle
08/09/2023 11:24 am
Klaksvik Itrottarfelag are working on something really big: the Faroe Islands club are getting ever closer to qualifying for the Champions League. The underdog, with an electrician in goal, also won the first leg against the Norwegian champions.
It would be one of international football’s greater sporting wonders: Klaksvik Itrottarfelag in the Champions League? What sounds inconceivable is becoming more and more within reach. The club from a town of 5,000 in the Faroe Islands won the first leg of the third round of qualifying for the Champions League against Norwegian champions Molde FK 2-1 and can therefore travel confidently to the second leg next Tuesday. Double goal scorer Arni Frederiksberg (64′, 86′) turned the deficit into a surprising victory thanks to Magnus Wolff Eikrem’s opener in the 48th minute.
The club has already written a little fairy tale and local football history. Klaksvik eliminated Hungarian champions Ferencvaros in the first round of qualifying, and a dramatic penalty shoot-out defeat of Swedish champions BK Häcken in the previous round means Klaksvik will become the first Faroese side to reach the group stage of UEFA competition . 2020 had Klaksvik Itrottarfelag already had their big success in mind: After beating record champions Dinamo Tbilisi 6-1, they lost 3-1 in the play-off game at Irish representatives Dundalk FC and narrowly missed qualifying for the Europa League.
“Now you know that anything is possible”
Now it’s about which international competition it will be: the Conference League? The Europa League that would be safe if they get through the 3rd qualifying round? Or is it the Champions League? For that, the small club would have to win the playoffs. The belief in more has long been there: “We’ve already done something twice that should be almost impossible,” said goalkeeper Jonathan Johansson before the first-leg win over Molde FK, the former club of Tormaschine Erling Haaland, the “kicker”. . “I think now that we’ve come this far we just have to keep working hard. We now know that anything is possible.”
Johansson had described the journey through the qualification as “the best holiday in the world” – and commented on the draw with a smile: “It’s a bit sad when you’re on a European adventure and first have to go to Gothenburg and then to Molde,” he said laughed: “Besides, my girlfriend is from near Molde. It could have been a bit more exotic.”
The men who could write a sporting fairy tale and make the miracle possible are all not full professionals, the squad consists of students and carpenters. Arni Frederiksberg, who scored twice again after a brace in the second leg against Häcken, is the CEO of a company in the fish industry. Goalkeeper Johansson, who saved the decisive penalty against Hacken to advance, is an electrician – and before his commitment to the Faroe Islands he played as a defender in Norway’s fifth division.
Klaksvik men play their home games in the capital, Torshavn, at Tórsvøllur (“Thor’s Square”), the national stadium of the Faroe Islands. There is room for 6000 people. A little more than 50,000 people live on the “Sheep Islands”.