Aalesunds Fotballklubb, commonly known as Aalesund or AaFK, is a Norwegian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club from the town of

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ...

, that competes in the

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

, the first tier of the

Norwegian football league system The Norwegian football league system, or pyramid, is a series of League system, interconnected leagues for club Association football, football in Norway. 2017 system in men's football , the current national league system administered by the Norwegi ...

. The club was founded on 25 June 1914. As of 2004, the football club had 835 members and several teams on both professional and amateur levels. These teams are the 1st and 2nd teams, junior team, and also several age-specific teams.

History

In 2009 the club won the

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football ...

for the first time in its history. They beat rival

Molde FK Molde Fotballklubb () is a professional football club based in Molde, Norway, that competes in Eliteserien, the top flight of Norwegian football. Founded on 19 June 1911, the club was originally known as International and changed its name to ...

in the Final, and thereby qualified for participation in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. Aalesund also won the 2011 Cup Final, where they beat

SK Brann Sportsklubben Brann (commonly known as Brann, and less often as SK Brann) is a Norwegian professional football club, founded 26 September 1908, from Bergen. Brann had been in the Eliteserien, Norway's Premier Division of Football, since 1987, bar ...

Recent domestic

European

Supporters

The local supporter club for AaFK is called "Stormen", or "The Storm", with about 2000 members.

Rivalries

Rival football clubs in the city include

Herd A herd is a social group of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with this is called ''herding''. These animals are known as gregarious animals. The term ''herd'' is ...

, Rollon, Skarbøvik and

Spjelkavik Spjelkavik is a borough in the town of Ålesund in Ålesund Municipality, Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is also called ''"Vika"'' by many locals. Spjelkavik is located on the western end of the island of Uksenøya, at the intersection of ...

, with

Molde Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord. The administrative centre of the m ...

and Hødd traditionally being the main regional rivals. Hødd has been less competitive with AaFK in recent years, as they have not been in the same division for some time. More recent rivalries have centred on Molde and

Strømsgodset Strømsgodset is a former municipality in Vestfold county (from 1964 Buskerud county), Norway, today a part of the city of Drammen. History Strømsgodset was originally a small rural annex to the city parish of Bragernes (Drammen). But since th ...

, and to some extent Brann. The club's supporters enjoy a good relationship with supporters of Oslo club

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for it ...

, and it is not uncommon for supporters of one club to support the other in competitions where only one team participates. In the 2011 game against

Neath Neath (; cy, Castell-nedd) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a po ...

in Wales, some supporters of 2010's Europa League opponents

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

also made their way to support the club.

Stadium

Aalesund played their home matches at Kråmyra Stadium until the 2005 season, when they relocated to the new

Color Line Stadium Color Line Stadion is an association football stadium in Ålesund, Norway, and the home of 1. divisjon side Aalesunds FK. It was inaugurated in April 2005 and cost NOK 160 million to build. It is referred to as Aalesund Stadion by UEFA, as namin ...

with an approximate capacity of 11,000 people. Boosted by the new stadium, recent success and general increasing attendance in Norway, Aalesund has gone from attracting crowds of approximately 1,000 to regularly selling out their stadiu

in only a few years. Their average attendance of 9,943 in the

2006 1. divisjon 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

became at the time a new record for attendances at the second tier of the Norwegian league system.

Current squad

Out on loan

Club officials

*Sporting Development Manager: Bjørn Erik Melland *Head coach:

Lars Arne Nilsen Lars Arne Nilsen (born 6 April 1964) is a Norwegian football coach who is the head coach of 1. divisjon club Aalesunds FK. Nilsen is from Sotra in Fjell municipality. He played for Stord Sunnhordland FK as a young player and was the club's to ...

*Assistant coach: Roger Naustan *Assistant coach: Kristoffer Lie *Goalkeeper coach:

Frank Mathiesen Frank Mathiesen (born 13 February 1969) is a retired Norwegian football defender. A club legend in Aalesund, he joined them from Ørskog ahead of the 1988 season. The club was a mainstay on the second tier, but Mathiesen got the chance at Våle ...

*Reserve team head coach:

Amund Skiri Amund Skiri (born 25 February 1978) is a Norwegian football coach and a former player who is the manager of Kristiansund. He's known for putting away the deciding penalty kick in the Norwegian cup final in 2009, giving Aalesund the victory and the ...

Managers

Bobby Gould Robert Hewitt Gould (born 12 June 1946) is an English former footballer and manager. Early life Gould was born in Wyken, Coventry, Warwickshire on 12 June 1946. He is the son of Henry Gould and Helen McKellar Gould (née Morton). He spent hi ...

* Egil "Drillo" Olsen (1989) * Eivind Syversen (19??–93) *

Knut Torbjørn Eggen Knut Torbjørn Eggen (1 November 1960 – 20 February 2012) was a Norway, Norwegian association football, football coach and player, famous for his time in Rosenborg BK, Rosenborg as a player, and Moss FK, Moss and Fredrikstad FK, Fredrikstad as ...

(1994–96) *

Bård Wiggen Bård is a Norwegian language, Norwegian masculine given name. It is a Norwegian form of the Old Norse name ''Bárðr''. Sometimes it also appears as a surname. It may refer to: Given name * Bård Borgersen (born 1972), Norwegian football player ...

(1 July 1997 – 30 June 1999) *

Geir Hansen Geir is a masculine name commonly given in Norway and Iceland. It is derived from Old Norse ''geirr'' "spear", a common name element in Germanic names in general, from Proto-Germanic ''Ger (spear), *gaizaz'' (whence also Old High German ''gêr'', O ...

(2000) *

Ivar Morten Normark Ivar Morten Normark (born 27 May 1963, in Narvik) is a Norwegian football coach and former player. His most recent head coaching job was at FK Mjølner in the 2. divisjon. Normark resigned from this position at the end of the 2013 season. Normark ...

(1 January 2002 – 31 December 2005) *

Per Joar Hansen Per Joar Hansen (born 17 August 1965) is a Norwegian football coach. He grew up in the small community of Trofors in Nordland. He played for and managed Rosenborg BK, and he has managed GIF Sundsvall, Aalesunds FK, Ranheim and the Norwegian unde ...

(1 January 2006 – 31 December 2007) *

Sören Åkeby Sören Åkeby (born 23 February 1952) is a Swedish football manager and former player. Career Along with Zoran Lukić, Åkeby managed Djurgårdens IF from 1999 to 2003. The two were very successful during the first years of the 21st century winn ...

(1 January 2008 – 31 August 2008) *

Kjetil Rekdal Kjetil André Rekdal (born 6 November 1968) is a Norwegian football manager and a former player. He is the manager of Eliteserien club Rosenborg. Rekdal began his playing career in Molde FK, playing afterwards for clubs in the Bundesliga, Ligue ...

(5 September 2008 – 26 November 2012) *

Jan Jönsson Jan Jönsson (born 24 May 1960) is a Swedish football manager and former player. Career Playing career He spent most of his playing career with Halmstads BK. Coaching career Between 1993 and 1994 he was the Sanfrecce Hiroshima assistant coac ...

(8 January 2013 – 31 December 2014) *

Harald Aabrekk Harald Olav Aabrekk (born 22 February 1956) is a Norwegian football coach and a former player. He played for Sogndal and Brann in the Tippeligaen, Norway's top professional football league. He has been head coach of Sogndal, Tromsø, Brann, Haug ...

(1 January 2015 – 28 April 2015) *

Trond Fredriksen Trond Fredriksen (born 21 May 1977) is a football coach and former Norwegian footballer. He is a former football midfielder and former manager for Aalesunds FK. Manager career Ahead of the 2015 season, Fredriksen became assistant manager to the ...

(28 April 2015 – 12 December 2017) *

Lars Bohinen Lars Roar Bohinen (born 8 September 1969) is a Norwegian football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1986 until 2005, notably playing in the Premier League for Nottingham Forest, Blackburn Rovers an ...

(20 December 2017 – 23 August 2020) *

(25 August 2020 –)

Honours

League

1. divisjon The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon and OBOS-ligaen (named sponsor is property developer OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are p ...

*Champions (1):

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Cup

*Champions (2):

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

History of league positions (since 1963)

References

External links

Official website

Stormen Fanclub Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aalesunds Fk Association football clubs established in 1914 1914 establishments in Norway Eliteserien clubs Sport in Ålesund Companies based in Ålesund