Scandinavia, a cold region in the north of Europe made up of three sovereign states (Denmark, Sweden and Norway), in football terms is best known for the occasional superstars who would “sail” across the cold seas to the fifth league.
Some of the most notable names are for sure Michael Laudrup, Peter Schmeichel, Jon Dahl Tomassonthen Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrik Larsson, Fredrik Ljungbergand Norway also gave its representatives in this selected “ice” club John Carew, John Arne Riise and in recent times Erling Haalandone of the most famous football names from that area in history.
And while in the representative area can single out greater successesof which Denmark’s winning of the European Championship in 1992 is certainly the biggest, in the field of club football, the Scandinavians have not recorded any significant successes in recent times. Even the clubs that represented them in competitions all over the old continent followed an established matrix.
The Swedes were mostly proud FF MalmoDanes FC Copenhagenand the Norwegians BK Rosenborg. Over time, new champions such as Norrkoping, AIK, Djurgarden or Midtylland appeared, and the Norwegians felt the first serious tectonic disturbances in their championship with Bodo Glimtomwho gradually built his sports story, crowning it by knocking out Inter and playing in the 1/8 finals of this season’s Champions League. But this year brings a complete change of football kings in these three modern kingdoms.
For the title and Guinness
It started in Sweden. The small village of Hallevik in the south of the country, which has a little less than 1500 inhabitants, it has become the center of the country, and the most deserving for that is their local club Mjallby AIF which he secured at the end of October the first title in the club’s history. How successful this is is best evidenced by the only title held by the club’s president, local businessman Magnus Emeus, in the club’s coffers until then, which is Guinness record as a team from the smallest place that plays in the highest rank of domestic competitions.
Thirteen points ahead of the second-placed Hammarby was in to the rank of fairy talesand coach Anders Torstensson, a former principal of one of the local schools, now has the task of going over the material from the section “For those who want to know more” with his “students” because they will soon qualify for the Champions League, a competition that was never reserved for “locals”.
Return of the Vikings
After it is Bodo Glimt ended the dominance of Rosenborg and established its own, especially on the home field, no one expected that a club would appear so soon that would be able to match such a realization and scoring efficiency. Named after native warriors, Viking finished one point ahead of Bodo Glimt at the end of the season and thus won the title after 34 years of waiting.
The club from Stavanger has gone from “thorns to stars” in the last seven years. They saved their bare lives and that in the second league with the help of SR-Bank, which supported them with its investment saved from bankruptcy with the condition that they become the club’s main sponsor, which turned out to be a turning point in the club’s recent history.
After returning to the “Eliteserien”, winning the cup and one third and one fourth place, led by the captain Zlatko Tripića native of Rijeka with no experience in HNL, sat at the top of the Norwegian football kingdom, and to make matters even better thanks to the good coefficient of the Norwegian league, the first place also leads them directly to the Champions League.
Andersenovsky
At the end, we left one more “fairy tale”, the freshest one. It was not written by Hans Christian Andersen, although it comes from the same country already Jakob Poulsenwho, after forty years of creating the story, “bound” this archaic story. By winning away at Brondby (0:2), Aarhus ran away from the second-placed Midtjylland to an unattainable four points before the end.
Full name Aarhus Gymnastikforeningwhich means gymnastics association, Aarhus is one of the oldest Danish clubs, and their nickname “Galehuset” (“Madhouse”) speaks of the turbulence of the results. This is their sixth Danish championship title, as we mentioned the first in forty yearsand were relegated from the league three times.
The fans of Aarhus sensed that something big was about to happen already there in mid-March after 22 rounds of the championship, when the league is divided into a league for the champion and a league for the “badass”. Aarhus was in first place with four points ahead of the only serious follower Midtjyllandand sixteen points more than Brondby while Copenhagen was looking for salvation from a desperate season in the lower house of the championship.
In the last round, they have a home match against Viborg i spectacular celebration the long-awaited championship title, which, according to the local media, means a great social victory for the inhabitants of the Jutland peninsula, divided into Danish and German parts.
(www.jabuka.tv | DK / Photo: swecogroup.com)
