Greenhorns of this year’s cups: Klaksvík has the value of a football midget, yet this year he knocked out Ferencváros or Hacken

He has the value of a football midget, yet we will see him in the European Cup group this year. KÍ Klaksvík will be the first Faroese team in the regular group of one of the competitions, after having eliminated the clear favourites in the qualifiers.

KÍ Klaksvík was founded in 1904, although the Faroese football league has only been running since 1942. The team from the town of five thousand inhabitants managed to win it on 20 occasions, adding six domestic cup triumphs and dominating the Super Cup three times.

After relegation, a difficult return

As football in the Faroe Islands moved on, a second league was created, to which Klaksvík was relegated for the first time in 2009. The summer before, he bought one of Faroese football’s most famous players, Atli Danielsen.

Klaksvík quickly recovered from the relegation and in 2016 was within reach of its first league title since 1999. In the end, Vikingur Gøta were bettered by a single point. The season after that was even worse, with Vikingur celebrating ahead of Klaksvík by only a score.

Klaksvík symbolically ended the wait for the title after twenty years, in 2019.

Cup successes in the recent past

The 2019 title kick-started a surpassing of maximums on the international stage. Right after the championship celebrations, Klaksvík made it through the first preliminary round of the Europa League for the first time ever, knocking out Lithuanian side Riteriai.

A year later, as champions, they knocked out Slovan Bratislava 3-0 in the first preliminary round, then fell short to Young Boys Bern and were relegated to the EL, where they were the first Faroese club to reach the group play-offs, with Dundalk of Ireland being more successful.

Nevertheless, the third round match against Dinamo Tbilisi is considered the biggest match in the history of the EL. The Faroese gave a sound opponent a six (6: 1), which was watched by three thousand fans, although the seating capacity is only two thousand.

This year, history was rewritten even more significantly. The Faroese champion ran over Ferencváros in an away rematch, then knocked out Hacken to secure the cups for the first time. Although they then fell unluckily to Molde and Sheriff Tiraspol, both opponents triumphed by just a goal.

Source: KÍ Klaksvík