The Greatest Story In European Football Nobody Is Talking About - KÍ Klaksvík - video Dailymotion

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00:00Ask any child growing up where they'd like to play football one day and you'll

00:07get largely the same responses. England, Spain, Italy, all of the trendy and

00:11prestigious locations of the game's global appeal. One place they're not

00:15likely to say is the Faroe Islands. An archipelago of 18 rocky islands in the

00:20North Atlantic Ocean sees an average of 300 days of rain per year and 13 degrees

00:25Celsius is regarded as a hot summer's day. The island's 50,000 inhabitants are

00:30comfortably outnumbered by its 80,000 sheep. But none of this has stopped the

00:35Faroese adopting football as their national obsession. Statistically one of

00:39the most football mad populations on earth, roughly 10% of the entire country

00:44plays regularly, it's about to embark upon the next stage of what's already

00:47been an incredible, implausible, arguably impossible European journey. This is the

00:54amazing story in European football that nobody's talking about. This is Keioi

01:00Klakschrik. Hailing from a town of just 5,000 people in a valley perched between

01:04two fjords and with a stadium that holds only 2,500, Keioi have become the first

01:09Faroese team ever to qualify for a European group stage, thanks to not one

01:14but two shock victories. Historically a giant of the Faroe Islands Premier League,

01:20the 20-time champions became their country's first ever invincibles last

01:24year. In 27 matches they won 25 times, drew just twice and conceded only seven

01:31goals. But with their domestic season running from March to October they had

01:35to wait fully nine months for their crack at this season's Champions League.

01:38They'd lost narrowly to Norwegian's Bodo Glimt in the first qualifying round of

01:42last year's competition and after being given a COVID-enforced first-round bye

01:46against Slovenian Bratislava were dumped out by young boys of Bern the year prior.

01:51In short they'd never technically won a Champions League tie so few gave Keioi

01:56any chance when they prepared to face Hungary's French Varos in the first

02:00qualifying round this July. Yet after a tense nil-nil home leg they stunned

02:05their more illustrious opponents on away soil running out three nil victors. It

02:11was a result that was met with disbelief in Hungary and the Faroe Islands alike. A

02:16day later the squad received a hero's welcome when they arrived back in

02:20Klaksvik and a significant proportion of the town lined the streets. There were

02:25flares, there were fireworks, it was a huge huge deal. In the second round Keioi

02:30took on Swedish champions BK Haken. Again they managed a goalless draw at home

02:34prompting their opponent's official social media account to declare that

02:38they would return to Sweden to win the tie. The second leg was a classic, a topsy

02:43turvy match that ended 3-3 with Keioi winning out on penalties. The

02:49celebrations among the sizable travelling contingent were not just for

02:52another giant killing but the fact that by winning this tie they'd made history.

02:57Not only had they become the first Faroe side ever to reach the third

03:01qualifying round of the Champions League but they were now guaranteed to become

03:05the first team from the islands to play in some sort of European group stage.

03:09This is by far the best time to be a fan of Keioi or of Faroe's football as a

03:15whole. Tormundur Danielsson, chairman of the club's Blue Wave fan club tells 442

03:20in this month's issue. This European run has already been incredible. Even if Keioi

03:26lost their next qualifying round of the Champions League against Norwegian

03:29title holders Mold they'd then drop into the final qualifying round for the

03:33Europa League. If they lost that they'd still go directly into the group stage

03:38of the Europa Conference League. Now if that feels like weak criteria for an

03:43incredible European story keep in mind the fact that the Faroe's club's players

03:47are all semi-professionals. They all hold down proper jobs elsewhere. Striker Arne

03:54Friedrichsberg who downed French Varos with a brilliant brace runs a food import

03:58business by day. Two other players work for the local electricity company with

04:02Keioi's social media posting pictures of them installing power lines the day

04:06after their historical European triumph. Keioi astoundingly defeated Mold 2-1 in

04:12the first leg of their third qualifying round tie. By that stage of the

04:16competition though UEFA staging regulations meant they could no longer

04:19even play at their home ground in Klaksvik. Instead they hosted the

04:23Norwegians at the Faroe's cozy but smart national stadium in Torshavn. Two

04:27islands further to the west accessible via sea tunnels one of which even

04:31contains an underwater roundabout. You've seen this stadium before of course. It was

04:36the subject of Richard Key's famous daft little ground silly game f*** off

04:40comment during Sky's coverage of the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Granted it wasn't

04:45the worst off-air incident that was leaked during his time at the

04:48broadcaster but it's certainly the one that set the biggest impact in the

04:51Faroe Islands. The return leg wasn't to give them the fairytale outcome. They

04:56lost albeit bravely in Norway but not before taking another Champions League

05:01tie to extra time before going out to 112th minute winner. This set up a

05:06Europa League playoff against Sheriff Taraspol. After a 1-1 draw in the first

05:10leg in Torshavn, KOI fans were advised not to travel to Taraspol, the capital

05:15of the unrecognized state of Transnistria within Moldova due to

05:19tensions that have grown since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Instead KOI fans

05:23gathered together in front of a big screen to watch their side play the

05:26second leg which Sheriff narrowly won 2-1 thanks to a 76 minute goal from

05:32Armel Zohuri. Given that the Moldovan champions stunned Real Madrid at the

05:36Bernabeu just two seasons ago there was no shame in this defeat and KOI knew a

05:41place in the Conference League group stage was waiting for them in any case. When the

05:45draw was made on September the 1st they were placed into Group A alongside Lille,

05:49Slovan Bratislava and Olympia Ljubljana. They started the group in typical

05:54fashion taking a shock 1-0 lead against the Slovakian champions before former

05:59Manchester City winger Wladimir Weiss broke their hearts with a late winner.

06:02Regardless though with one of the trickier away ties now out of the way

06:06their hopes of progression remain high. KOI are already set to reap the

06:11financial rewards of this season's European exploits. Their earnings for

06:15their summer's work will be vast by fairway standards and have opened a

06:18debate in the country about how they best spend their spoils. One area that

06:22may need to be addressed is that of their home stadium to allow them to play

06:26all of their future European games in Klatschwick. It's also been suggested

06:30that the club may buy some of their semi-professional players out of their

06:33day jobs. It's a move that everyone agrees would smash a ceiling preventing

06:38further progress but which could lead to further imbalances in the domestic league

06:42where most other clubs are understandably miles away from being

06:45able to make players professional. Investing in their homegrown players and

06:49their new academy system which was set up two years ago could be a further

06:52boost to the Faroe Islands national team who are already creating their own

06:56shockwaves beating Turkey in the Nations League last year when they took an

07:00impressive eight points from six games. They'd of course previously created

07:04headlines during qualifying for Euro 2016 when they defeated 2004 champions

07:08Greece home and away. That loss to the Faroes at home saw Claudio Ranieri

07:13sacked, fatefully leaving him free to take the Leicester City job. And while

07:18KOI Klatschwick might not be on the verge of doing a Leicester themselves

07:22they've already been the shock story of European football this summer. It's taken

07:26a whole heap of courage and a talented squad but they've made history for

07:30Faroese football. The club are writing a story that will be told in Klatschwick

07:35for generations and if they get their wish it's a journey that won't stop here.

07:40If you'd like to read more about the incredible story of KOI Klatschwick

07:44you'll find a full feature on them in this month's issue of 442. Written by

07:48Paul Watson and including contributions from several people connected to the

07:51club it's available now from all good retailers.

The Greatest Story In European Football Nobody Is Talking About - KÍ Klaksvík

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