The top clubs in Norwegian football have endured more dramatic troughs than their peers in most European leagues.
Fredrikstad, for instance, only returned to the Eliteserien in 2024, while Viking, Brann, and other widely recognised clubs have endured relegations in recent memory.
There is a clear top dog in Norway, but filling out the rest of these rankings was a complicated endeavour.
Biggest Clubs in Norwegian Football
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Rosenborg
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Bodø/Glimt
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Molde
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Viking Stavanger
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Vålerenga
It’s the challenge of weighing up current standing with the overall reputation and ‘size’ of the club. There are a variety of factors to balance in an exercise of this nature, and there’s always going to be a degree of subjectivity.
It’s never as simple as picking out the favourites in the latest outright football betting markets. Nor is this a list of the most successful clubs in Norwegian football.
How much does attendance matter? Is this about how well-known a club in across Europe? How do we weight honours in the last 21st century against titles from before mobile phones were commonplace?
Here are our rankings of the five biggest football clubs in Norway…
5) Vålerenga
Despite being relegated in 2023, Vålerenga sneak into fifth ahead of Brann, Lyn, and several other candidates.
The club from Oslo bounced back to the Eliteserien at the first time of asking and have consistently been competitive towards the top of the Norwegian top flight.
Five-time champions and with eight other top three finishes, Vålerenga have qualified for continental competition on 14 occasions.
While they haven’t had many deep runs in Europe, they knocked out Rapid Bucharest and Besiktas to reach the quarter-final of the 1997-98 Cup Winners’ Cup and made it to the third round of the 2003-04 UEFA Cup.
The biggest club in Oslo warranted a place in the top five. The years to come will show if Vålerenga can reestablish themselves as one of the strongest teams in the Eliteserien.
4) Viking Stavanger
Consistently among the league leaders in average attendance, Viking Stavanger claim fourth place in these rankings. Eight-time champions, Viking were relegated in 2017, but like Vålerenga, they topped the second tier in the next season.
From brief European endeavours in the 1970s and 1980s, Viking knocked Sporting out of the UEFA Cup in 1999-2000 and were only knocked out of the competition on away goals by Werder Bremen.
In 2001-02, they got the better of Celtic, and in the following season, they saw off Chelsea.
Those heights are a long time ago, but Viking have credit in the bank. Achievements in European competition elevate a club’s profile for years to come.
3) Molde
The former club of Erling Haaland and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Molde has arguably had a greater impact on European football than any other Norwegian club.
Haaland is on course to become one of the greatest strikers in Premier League history, while Solskjaer scored an unforgettable goal in the 1999 Champions League final.
Viking and Fredrikstad have won more titles than Molde. Lillestrøm and Vålerenga are also on five Eliteserien titles.
Molde’s overall record is not eye-catching, but Fredrikstad and Rosenborg are the only teams with more top two finishes. The former haven’t placed in the top two since 2008.
All five of Molde’s titles have come since 2012, and five of their six Norwegian Cup triumphs are since 2002.
This is a team which has been at its most relevant in the 21st century, including an appearance in the Conference League knockout playoff in 2022-23 and the Europa League last 16 in 2020-21.
2) Bodø/Glimt
Where Molde have been a factor near the top of Norwegian football for several decades, the story of Bodø/Glimt is skewed much more dramatically towards the last decade or so.
Their three league titles were won in 2020, 2021, and 2023. They were runners-up in 2019 and 2022.
The Yellow Horde were Conference League quarter-finalists in 2021-22 and took Ajax to extra-time in the Conference League knockout playoff in 2023-24.
Having spent much of the 20th century outside the top tier, and then been a yo-yo team for the first part of the 21st century, Bodø/Glimt have climbed these rankings rapidly in recent years.
Results against Roma, Celtic, and AZ Alkmaar truly put them on the map.
1) Rosenborg
Winners of 26 league titles, including four in a row from 2015 to 2018, there was no argument over top spot in these rankings.
Those who regularly engage in Eliteserien live betting will be familiar with Rosenborg’s relative slump over the last few years, with only one top three finish between 2020 and 2023.
The club has remained relatively competitive during that period, though, which is what big clubs tend to do. The biggest teams around Europe are never that bad, even if things aren’t going their way.
Being so clearly the most successful team in the country means Rosenborg have had much more exposure to European football than many of their Eliteserien peers.
If you were to ask a random football fan to name a Norwegian team, Rosenborg would usually be in the top three despite the attention Bodø/Glimt and Molde have garnered since the turn of the century.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Adobe*
