Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt made headlines across Europe this midweek after they had destroyed Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma 6-1 at the Aspmyra Stadium in Bodo, deep in the northern part of Norway. And while a result like that was seen as something that was quite shocking and out of this world, in truth Bodo’s rise to prominence has been going on in full swing for quite some time, and they had one man to thank for their change in fortunes – Kjetil Knutsen.
When Knutsen arrived at Bodo in 2017, the club were just relegated out from the Eliteserien, Norway’s top-flight league. Knutsen stepped into the Aspmyra Stadium as an unassuming figure, having been sacked from his previous position as head coach at fellow second division side Asane, before being recruited as Bodo’s new assistant coach underneath Aasmund Bjorkan.
Under Bjorkan’s leadership Bodo won the 2017 1.divisjon, earning promotion back to the Norwegian top-flight, before Bjorkan was moved upstairs as Bodo’s new sporting director in the buildup towards the 2018 season. Bjorkan passed the head coach baton to Knutsen, and the former Brann youth player guided his team to a relatively safe position in the league, 11th at the end of the season, after briefly flirting with the relegation places during the season’s first few months.
It was during 2019 that Knutsen began his transformation of Bodo. Talented youngster Jens Petter Hauge was brought back to the club after a loan spell at Aalesund, while Knutsen molded his team after players blooded from Bodo’s own academy. The likes of Hauge, Patrick Berg, Ulrik Saltnes, and Brede Moe were all either born in Bodo or being raised somewhere within Northern Norway, all of whom graduates of the Bodo academy. 2019 standout performer Hakon Evjen was also a local boy, having studied his footballing skills at the Bodo academy before spending a year at his hometown club Mjolner, returning to Bodo afterward.
Knutsen built a sense of camaraderie, a sense of family among his players. The players were all very keen to make their region proud through Bodo. And unlike many teams, Bodo didn’t have any ambitious goals or targets to achieve by the end of the season – they just wanted to play good football, and good football is what they’re playing underneath Knutsen’s rule.
Bodo’s tactics underneath Knutsen implemented an adventurous, open, expansive, and ruthless style of play that some have dubbed, “kamikaze football,” and that attractive style of play, combined with a clear and relaxed state of mind free of pressure brought on by regular counseling sessions with the club’s mental coach Bjorn Mannsverk, helped Bodo emerge as shock title contenders in the 2019 season, losing the title after a late slip-up.
As the club’s main man for 2019, Evjen was immediately hounded by the European elite, and a move to Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar saw Bodo lose their crown jewel of that year. But the sense of unity amongst Bodo’s players, combined with the club’s superb academy and shrewd transfer tactics, helped the squad regenerate from that loss in no time. Out goes Evjen and in goes Hauge, ready to set the Eliteserien alight alongside new striker partner Kasper Junker.
Both Hauge and Junker, alongside established players in Saltnes and Phillip Zinckernagel, exploded into life in 2020, taking Bodo to an epic 20-match unbeaten run in the league as well as giving AC Milan a run for their money in the Europa League qualifiers. The men in yellow ended the season with their first-ever top-flight title, losing only once in the league and never relinquishing first place since Matchweek 2.
Hauge left mid-way through the 2020 campaign – with Milan having been impressed by his performances against them – and now the Norway international is out on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany. The loss of Hauge was superficial as the team still had Junker, Saltnes, and Zinckernagel amongst them, with Nigerian Victor Boniface pitching in his goals as well.
But then the buildup towards the 2021 season saw both Junker and Zinckernagel departing the club – Junker stirring up a storm of his own at the J.League 1 with Urawa Red Diamonds, while Zinckernagel is currently on loan at Nottingham Forest from Premier League new boys Watford. As with the departures of Evjen and Hauge, the duo’s loss was quickly rectified as their replacement stepped up to the plate quite quickly – Amahi Pellegrino came to Northern Norway all the way from Damac in Saudi Arabia, while Erik Botheim, best friend of Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, was brought in from perennial giants Rosenborg BK.
Supporting the new duo were Saltnes, Berg, and Ola Solbakken, regulars from the 2020 season who anchored their feet at the club for 2021.
Bodo retained their ruthlessness for the 2021 season as they set to retain their Eliteserien title, even though they had to squeeze out more effort for that having lost three and drawn four of their 22 games so far. Knutsen’s charges are currently locked in a title race with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s former club Molde, going into the final eight matches of the season with three points separating them. The chasing pack in Kristiansund (3rd), Rosenborg (4th), and Viking (5th) are also not to be underestimated, and Bodo need to be on high alert as they enter the business end of the season.
But having gone quite unnoticed in the general public outside of Norway for the past couple of years, Bodo made their bold announcement this midweek with their demolition job of Roma. Granted, Mourinho didn’t field his strongest players on that Europa Conference League group stage match, but the starting lineup still boasts the likes of Rui Patricio, Stephan El-Shaarawy, and Borja Mayoral, talented players in their own right, while the Roma bench that night has Tammy Abraham, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Lorenzo Pellegrini, and Jordan Veretout, all of them packing quite the firepower.
Under Knutsen, Bodo had gone from being a mediocre team going up and down the divisions to architects of Norway’s newest footballing dynasty, and with the Europa Conference League giving teams from Europe’s smaller nations a chance to prove themselves, maybe Bodo can stake their claim in European football too.