Fishing for Minnows

After a solid recovery session from yesterday’s lengthy column I’m back on the keyboard ready to serve as today’s blog trequartista. As I mentioned yesterday, today’s column is all about smaller football clubs that maybe you’ve never heard of before but that you should definitely know about so you can be better prepared for the late night football trivia debates in your local pub!

Today we journey to the city of Aalesund in Norway, home of Aalesunds Fotballklubb! Background and History:

Nicknamed the Tangotroyene (Tangoshirts) for their bright orange kits (Orange tops and blue bottoms for the home kit and all black kit for away), the club was originally founded in June of 1914 and have grown steadily ever since. The club is now a yearly challenger for honors in the Norwegian Premier League (the Tippeligaen) as well as the Norwegian national cup tournament.

The last few seasons in particular have been among the best in the history of the club as AaFK won the Norwegian national cup in 2009, finished 4 th in the Tippeligaen and made it to the 3 rd round of qualifying in the Europa League in 2010.

Currently the club sit 12 th in the Tippeligaen with 24 Pts out of a possible 57 but they have qualified for the Norwegian cup semi-finals and were eliminated in the final Europa League Playoff round before the group stage!

Rivals:

AaFK has a solid group of rivalries with SK Herd, FC Skarbovik, FC Spjelkavik, SPKL Rollon, Molde F.K. and Hodd among the more notable.

Staff (Coaching and Playing):

It is no coincidence that AaFK’s success began shortly after the arrival of current manager kjetil Andre Rekdal. The former midfielder and defender’s playing days saw him wear the colors of rival Molde FK as well as Bundesliga stalwarts Borussia Monchengladbach, Ligue 1 side Rennes and several other notable European sides. Rekdal was also capped 83 times for the Norwegian national side between 1987 and 2000 scoring 17 international goals along the way.

But of course a club is nothing without its players and the AaFK squad is one of the more diverse squads in the Tippeligaen with several players hailing from outside of Norway (Finland, Jamaica, Estonia, Costa Rica, Sweden, and Nigeria according to FIFA primary nationalities).

Former players of note include former AaFK stand out (now with Fulham) John Arne riise as well as current Manchester United Goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard.

Quick Hits:

- Local Supporters group called “Stormen” (The Storm) consists of approximately 2000 members

- Team website www.aafk.no

- Next Tippeligaen match on Sunday September 11 away against slight favorites Sogndal IL as AaFK look to halt a poor run of form over the last 5 matches.

That wraps up this edition of “Fishing for Minnows.” Check back on Friday for the big Weekend Preview!

Ciao.