From Bankruptcy to Resurgence: How Viking FK Was Saved and Rebuilt

Ahead of Dinamo Zagreb's potential clash in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, the Norwegian club Viking FK is being recognized not as a new phenomenon, but as a resurgent force. Historically, Viking is the second most successful club in Norwegian league history, trailing only Rosenborg, with nine league titles, a record shared with Fredrikstad.

However, the club from Stavanger endured a long wait for a championship, with their last title in 1991. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, they typically finished between third and sixth place. The 2010s saw a further decline, with the team hovering between seventh and tenth place. The nadir arrived in 2017 when, amidst heavy spending, Viking was relegated to the second division and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.

Saved by local investors and sponsors, coupled with a fundamental shift in operational strategy, the club embarked on a rebuilding process. "Since that year of 2017, the club's transformation has been massive. We had to adjust the entire strategy. We were a big club in the richest city in Norway, thinking the money bag was bottomless and we could spend as much as we wanted. We stopped that and changed our mindset. We told ourselves that we had to build everything step by step and generate enough revenue ourselves to be self-sufficient, not dependent on foreign or external investments," explained Eirik Bjørnø, the club's CEO.

Viking's return to the top flight was swift, achieved after just one season in the second division. This relegation served as a wake-up call, prompting a complete overhaul of the club's functioning. They shifted focus to developing players from their own academy and modernized all aspects of their operations, from training methodologies to medical and psychological support.

Bjarne Berntsen, the coach who guided the team back to the top tier and secured the Norwegian Cup in 2019, was let go in 2020. This decision, unpopular with fans given Berntsen's legendary status and diverse roles within the club, led to a unique appointment: not one, but two successors. Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim and Morten Jensen took over as co-head coaches, a partnership that continues to lead the team today. In November 2020, the duo famously met at a house on the island of Rennesøy to devise their coaching plans, a moment that symbolized their collaborative approach.

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Od te 2017. godine, transformacija kluba bila je masivna. Morali smo prilagoditi cijelu strategiju. Bili smo veliki klub u najbogatijem gradu Norveške, misleći kako vreća s novcem nema dna pa da se može trošiti koliko se želi. Stali smo s time i promijenili način razmišljanja. Rekli smo si da moramo graditi sve korak po korak i sami kreirati dovoljno prihoda kako bismo bili samodostatni, a ne ovisni o inozemnim ili vanjskim ulaganjima.