‘We can inspire Norwegian girls’: Vålerenga eager to bridge Champions League gap

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The Guardian

·9 October 2024

‘We can inspire Norwegian girls’: Vålerenga eager to bridge Champions League gap

The first time only ever happens once. It is both a time to celebrate the hard work that got you here and an opportunity to build a platform for the future. For the Norwegian champions, Vålerenga, their first ever Champions League group stage match, against Juventus, is one of those moments.

When their manager, Nils Lexerød, watches his side walk out in front of the home support at the Intility Arena in Oslo on Wednesday evening, history will be made and a long-term objective of the club finally realised. “The Champions League group stage has been the club’s primary ambition and our main goal since we started working together in January 2022,” he says. “This objective has driven us from day one. Everything we’ve done has been with the aim of reaching this milestone. To be here now is a major achievement for everyone involved – players, staff and supporters alike. It marks a proud moment in the club’s history.”

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Reaching the European stage has been a lengthy aspiration for Vålerenga, a club whose progress has not always been linear. Despite forming a women’s team in 1982, it was dismantled for several years before being re-established in 1996. From that point, Vålerenga moved up through the divisions with some bumps along the way before finally achieving promotion to the highest level of domestic football in Norway in 2011.

A first Toppserien title came nine years later before Lexerød led them to their second Championship win last season. A third looks inevitable this year. The Oslo-based side lead Brann by 11 points with five matches remaining. All their players are on professional contracts and they possess notable talent, including the Norwegian internationals Thea Bjelde and Karina Sævik, and the Danish midfielder Janni Thomsen. “The key has been continuity – both within our support staff and our player group,” Lexerød says. “We have a core group of players who have been playing together for two to three years, and our staff has worked consistently with them throughout. This stability has been crucial to our progress.”

While Vålerenga might be dominating at home – they are unbeaten in the league since June – the contest in Europe will pose a completely different challenge. Victories against Romania’s Farul Constanta and the Belgian side Anderlecht were the first two hurdles to overcome in qualifying and the quality in opposition will be substantially higher from now on.

Drawn in Group C, Vålerenga will face the German champions, Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Juventus. All three have more experience at this level and come from domestic leagues that are more developed in terms of investment and resources available. While Vålerenga have managed to maintain a stable group of players over the past couple of seasons, it is generally a struggle for teams to retain talent in a league that has not necessarily had the backing it needs from its own federation and other sources.

This is not just the case in Norway; teams in Sweden and elsewhere across Europe have to deal with a flux of players as their stars get scouted and enticed away by richer, better-resourced leagues. One only needs to look at BK Häcken in neighbouring Sweden and the players that have moved abroad in the last couple of transfer windows – Rosa Kafaji, Anna Csiki, Anna Sandberg and Marika Bergman-Lundin to name just few – to understand the challenge developing clubs have in balancing resource and aspiration. As Lexerød states: “To maintain and build on this progress, we need to continue developing strong clubs and a competitive league.”

Success on the field can only help to drive standards and in these Champions League group games, Lexerød and his team have the chance to show the rest of Europe exactly what they are about. Their compatriots Brann did exactly that last year with some positive performances and Vålerenga will be aiming to have a similar impact, if not go one step further.

“We’re entering these matches with a lot of confidence,” their manager says. “Our players are in great form, and that momentum from a successful domestic campaign provides a strong foundation as we face these tough European challenges. Our goal is to win our home matches and aim for draws when we play away. We know we’re up against strong teams, but we’re focused on our plan and believe we can compete with them at this level.”

The first challenge comes from Juventus, who return to the competition after a year out. Massimiliano Canzi’s side saw off Paris Saint-Germain in qualification, which is no mean feat. Lexerød, however, views this and the encounters that follow as a massive opportunity not only for his players but for inspiring the next generation of footballers. “We’re really excited about bringing these top European teams to our home ground,” he says. “We hope for a large turnout from our supporters, and we believe that these matches can inspire young Norwegian girls and show them that they too can succeed on the international stage.”