Meet Viking FK - Who Are Bayern Munich’s Nearly Conquerors?

What is it with Norwegian teams taking the UEFA Champions League by storm these last few seasons?!

Last year, it was Bodo/Glimt who embarked on a fairytale journey, beating Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan as they defied puny expectations to reach the last 16. Now, Stavanger-based Viking FK have inherited the baton of the new underdogs on the block, with the defending Eliteserien champions quite incredibly holding red-hot Bayern Munich to a 3-3 draw at home, their first UCL home night in 34 years.

A night to remember for Viking 🥵

UCL https://t.co/cToGW5z2mx

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) October 13, 2026

The Vikings took on the Harry Kane-inspired Bavarians in a firefight on their home turf at the Lyse, and they well and truly matched them. Reminiscent of the smash-and-grab approach adopted by Bodo last season, Viking bided their time, harnessed their exceptionally noisy fans, and took their chances. Four of their eight shots were on target, and three of them found the net.

It’s fair to say that absolutely no one saw that performance coming, and the result is made even more impressive by the fact that the last time the Norwegian minnows played a Champions League game, the Cold War had only just ended - the year was 1992, in case you were wondering.

So who exactly are the new dominant force in Norwegian football, and what will they bring to the Champions League this season that no one else can offer?

Dead And Buried

Based in the southern city of Stavanger, Norway’s third-largest city, Viking do not boast the same minnow-esque background as Bodo did last season, but their story is, on the whole, more interesting.

The first thing you need to know about Viking FK is that they are a very successful club. Nine-time Eliteserien champions and a further five Norwegian cups make them the third most decorated club in the country behind Rosenberg and Fredrikstad. However, silverware success only tells half the story.

That is because Viking have not always been at or near the top of Norwegian football - instead, their fortunes fluctuated. Prior to 2025, they had gone 34 years without a Norwegian top-flight title, and even suffered relegation to the second tier back.

A side that won six titles between 1972 and 1982, such a dry spell was unprecedented for the club, and it didn’t help that, alongside their league drought, they hadn’t won a single piece of silverware since 2001, when they lifted the Norwegian Cup for the fifth time.

It is a remarkable rise. Only eight years after a season in Norway’s second tier Viking FK of Stavanger are back in the UEFA Champions League.

Relegated from the Eliteserien at the end of 2017, Viking won the 1. divisjon in 2018 and returned to the top flight.

Last season they claimed their first league title since 1991, then defeated Dinamo Zagreb 5-3 on aggregate in the play-off round to reach the Champions League proper for the first time.

Floodlit nights at Lyse Arena now await some of Europe’s biggest clubs. Viking are no longer an afterthought.

The heavyweights will discover that a trip to western Norway is no routine assignment.

The VIKINGS are here for a fight!

— Norway Fan TV 🇳🇴 (@NorwayFanTV1) September 10, 2026

Despite this barren run, it could not be denied that the outfit was producing some serious talent – both Brede Hangeland and Erik Nevland spent considerable time developing their games at the club before securing moves to Fulham in the late 2000s, as Viking remained competitive but unsuccessful.

However, season by season, their league position deteriorated, and in 2017, under the guidance of English coach (yes, the former Notts County and Forest Green Rovers manager), disaster struck – Viking were relegated from Norway’s top flight for the third time in their history, and the first time since 1988, marking their lowest point this century.

It was time to change approach, because the old way of doing things clearly didn’t work anymore, and it started by hiring former player Bjarne Berntsen. An icon in the halls of power around the Lyse Arena, Berntsen had also managed them between 1992 and 1995, enjoyed a spell as caretaker boss, and had even occupied the role of chief executive for a time. It was under him that the slow but inevitable return of Viking FK began.

Bounce Back Ability

Immediately, Berntsen implemented a new system. Making a conscious effort to reconnect the club with the community around it, he introduced a host of academy players into the squad, many of whom, such as Sondre Bjorshol and Viljar Vevatne, are still there today. Current captain Zlatko Tripic also joined the club immediately in the wake of relegation, and has since become one of the sides' main stars.

We’ve seen the effect that an influx of homegrown players can have on a squad here in England, with Chelsea’s 2019/20 campaign a perfect illustration of what having players in the squad who will die for the badge can do, and it took just one season for ‘De mørkeblå’ (the Dark Blues) to find a winning rhythm again, and the very next season, they secured an excellent fifth-place finish and, more significantly, lifted the Norwegian Cup for the first time since 2001.

Bouncing back up to the first tier at the first time of asking, Berntsen had finally supplied a club lacking in belief with a glimmer of hope for the future. More importantly though, he had implemented a system for a sustainable long-term future, a future that would come fully to fruition only after he left the club in 2020.

Morten Jensen and Bjarte Aarsheim arrived in a rarely seen dual-head coach setup to take Berntsen’s place, and they took his project into hyperdrive – five top six finishes in six seasons followed, and the most recent saw Viking finally return to the summit of Norwegian football, pipping Bodo to the post by just one point.

🥹🇳🇴 Viking FK won their first Norwegian league title in 34 YEARS. 🏆✨

The fans even went on the pitch! ❤️ https://t.co/I8OUepUmpT

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) December 1, 2025

It was the culmination of over three decades of hard, dirty work to get the club back to where they belonged, and some may even have stopped there, sitting pretty at the top of the league and resting on their laurels. Not Viking, though – boasting a squad that is still filled with academy graduates, all of them want to take their boyhood sides to bigger and better things.

Much motivation came from the fact that, despite lifting the domestic title, Viking were still not guaranteed a spot in the Champions League draw proper, instead being dumped into the final qualifying round, where they were pitched against Dinamo Zagreb, a side accustomed to competing in the group stage of virtually every European competition.

So it was poetic that it was Captain Tripic, a man who had seen the club through thick and thin, who netted twice in both legs to secure Viking’s path back to the promised land for the first time in 34 years, beating the Croatian side 5-3 on aggregate.

Viking’s recent history is a tale of grit, determination, and a 'never say die' attitude, something that was on full display as they netted a 90th-minute equaliser to hold a one of Europe’s most decorated sides to a draw in the biggest competition of all.

Moreover, it seems that now they have re-familiarised themselves with the taste of success, Viking cannot stop winning, as they sit joint top of the Eliteserien table alongside Bodo/Glimt, boasting the exact same points and goal difference as their counterparts in what is fast becoming an engrossing rivalry.

🇳🇴 I refuse to believe that FK Bodø/Glimt are the 2nd best team in Norway's Eliteserien.

If they can play like this, in the Champions League, then how good must Viking FK be, the current champions of Norway's highest league.

https://t.co/JJ8nVkpNPh

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Footballtweet) March 15, 2026

Though they are yet to win a Champions League game this season after losing to Stuttgart in the opening gameweek, Viking have illustrated that, at least at home, they can hang with the very best.

You may also remember that Bodo/Glimt had an exceptionally slow start to their fairytale campaign last year, taking just two points from their first five games before going on their giant-killing spree. Viking FK’s story is far from over, and there is certainly a chance that it is only just beginning…