KI Klaksvik are the talk of European football this season, the first ever Faroese team to play in a major Uefa-organised competition group stage
Panoramic view from left to right overlooking the town of Klaksvik, the second largest settlement on the Faroe Islands . It fits snugly and peacefully between two inlets that lie back to back, forcing the town’s houses along the water’s edge and up the sides of the vast hills that rise on every dry side. Climb a little up any of them and you stare down on a vista of single-storey coloured houses that gives the impression of a cute model village.
The journey to Klaksvik from the south is expedited by three sea tunnels, double-laned and often lit in multicoloured shadows. But further north, these tunnels are single lane structures with passing places that feel like driving into the back of a giant’s cave. The changeable weather and omnipresent potential for fog requires car headlights to be on at all times. Such is the lack of traffic that those traversing the side of mountains appear like a string of fairy lights across the landscape.
Before then, KÍ’s recent history had been difficult. They won the league title in 1999 but were relegated exactly a decade later. According to chairman Tummas Lervig, who took over shortly before relegation, the problems were not unusual: KÍ had lost all their best players to other clubs and the money had run out. There had been some European pedigree before, a 3-2 second-leg qualifying victory over Maccabi Haifa in 1995 , but potential had perished since.
“People definitely thought that the club was crazy,” says Lervig. “But that was Mikkjal, and people always slightly believed things when Mikkjal said that they were going to happen. The coach and me as the chairman probably made people shake their heads a little bit, but here we are. And then we started winning.
“But then we came here, to the stadium, and met the people. And you just feel the love straightaway. I’m not a guy who needs love, but I’m a family man and when you work with players they become your family too. You could just feel the love, feel the heat. So did my wife and children too. Then I knew that this was the right place to be.”
By half-time in the away leg in Budapest, KÍ were 3-0 up. Everybody I speak to during the week I spend in the Faroe Islands says the same thing: it was as if reality had been immediately shifted, their world turned upside down in a glorious way, as if they were watching another team in KI colours from that moment on. Hoseth admits that he had no idea what to say in the dressing room before the second half – he hadn’t planned for this scenario.
You clearly haven’t been listening. On October 5, KÍ got the most extraordinary result of all. It did not cause as much of a ripple because it came during the group stage and so did not bring with it a landmark achievement. But against Lille, then fourth in France’s“It was a strange feeling after the Lille match because, isolated, I think that’s a far bigger result even than beating Hacken and Ferencvaros because Lille won Ligue 1 two years ago,” Hoseth says. “It’s incredible.
The same is true of everybody else besides. Chairman Lervig has another job. Media officer Christiansdottir works as a broadcast journalist. On matchday, there are around 60 volunteers who help to get everything ready: washing the kit, preparing the coffee, selling the tickets and programmes. When KÍ have spent time with officials from other clubs in their Conference League group, they cannot believe the comparatively miniscule budgets that have fuelled this run.
They want something else to think about. They want to be able to rely upon something other than football for their wage, because then they are playing football purely for the love of the game. The local players are just people of their town, playing for their town.. As if to fulfil the prophecy that everybody in this town has been or knows a KÍ player, Lutzen played in the victory over Maccabi Haifa in 1996 and used to be a board director.
After the away victories in Hungary and Sweden, the population gathered at the end of the sea tunnel that brings you to the top of the town to welcome them back as heroes. These are their heroes because they are their equals embarking on an unprecedented journey. “They are us” as Danielssen says. “You can hug them, you can speak to them, you can invite them out for tea.”
“Tomorrow is actually the first game where I need to put something extra on the players,” admits Hoseth on Wednesday. “Because we can win – this is the one. But then you look at that Olimpija squad and it still has good international footballers in it. It’s silly – it’s still such a different level. But that’s how it goes here.”
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