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

00:35Faroe's adopting football as their national obsession. Statistically one of

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

00:43plays regularly, it's about to embark upon the next stage of what's already been an

00:48incredible, implausible, arguably impossible European journey. This is the

00:53amazing story in European football that nobody's talking about. This is Kaoi

01:00Clackstrick. 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, Kaoi have become the first

01:09Faroeese 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 goals.

01:31But with their domestic season running from March to October, they had to wait

01:35fully nine months for their crack at this season's Champions League. They'd lost

01:39narrowly to Norwegian's Bodo Glimt in the first qualifying round of last year's

01:43competition and after being given a COVID-enforced first-round buy against

01:47Slovy and Bratislava were dumped out by young boys of Bern the year prior. In

01:51short, they'd never technically won a Champions League tie, so few gave Kaoi any

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

02:00qualifying round this July. Yet after a tense 0-0 home leg, they stunned their more

02:06illustrious opponents on away soil, running out 3-0 victors. It was a result

02:11that was met with disbelief in Hungary and the Faroe Islands alike. A day later, the

02:17squad received a hero's welcome when they arrived back in Klaksvik and a

02:21significant proportion of the town lined the streets. There were flares, there were

02:26fireworks, it was a huge, huge deal. In the second round, Kaoi took on Swedish

02:31champions BK Haken. Again, they managed a goal-destraw at home, prompting their

02:35opponent's official social media account to declare that they would return to Sweden to

02:39win the tie. The second leg was a classic, a topsy-turvy match that ended 3-3, with

02:46Kaoi winning out on penalties. The celebrations among the sizeable travelling

02:51contingent were not just for another giant killing, but the fact that by winning

02:55this tie, they'd made history. Not only had they become the first Faroe

02:59side ever to reach the third qualifying round of the Champions League, but they

03:03were now guaranteed to become the first team from the islands to play in some

03:08sort of European group stage. This is by far the best time to be a fan of Kaoi or

03:14of Faroe's football as a whole. Tormund de Danielsson, chairman of the club's

03:18Blue Wave fan club, tells 442 in this month's issue. This European run has already

03:24been incredible. Even if Kaoi lost their next qualifying round of the Champions

03:28League against Norwegian title holders Molde, they'd then drop into the final

03:32qualifying round for the Europa League. If they lost that, they'd still go directly into

03:37the group stage of the Europa Conference League. Now if that feels like weak criteria

03:42for an incredible European story, keep in mind the fact that the Faroe's club's

03:46players are all semi-professionals. They all hold down proper jobs elsewhere.

03:52Striker Arnie Friedrichsberg, who downed French Varos with a brilliant brace, runs a

03:57food import business by day. Two other players work for the local electricity company,

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

04:06their historical European triumph. Kaoi astoundingly defeated Molde 2-1 in the first

04:12leg of their third qualifying round tie. By that stage of the competition though, UEFA

04:17staging regulations meant they could no longer even play at their home ground in Klaksvik.

04:21Instead, they hosted the Norwegians at the Faroe's cosy but smart national stadium in Torsan. Two islands

04:28further to the west, accessible via sea tunnels, one of which even contains an underwater roundabout.

04:33You've seen this staging before, of course. It was the subject of Richard Key's famous

04:38daft little ground, silly game, f**k off comment during Sky's coverage of the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

04:44Granted, it wasn't the worst off-air incident that was leaked during his time at the Broadcaster,

04:49but it's certainly the one that set the biggest impact in the Faroe Islands. The return leg wasn't to

04:54give them the fairytale outcome. They lost, albeit bravely, in Norway. But not before taking another

05:00Champions League tie to extra time before going out to a 112th-minute winner. This set up a Europa

05:06League play-off against Sheriff Tarasbol. After a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Torsan, Kaoi fans

05:12were advised not to travel to Tarasbol, the capital of the unrecognised state of Transnistria within

05:17Moldova due to tensions that have grown since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Instead, Kaoi fans gathered

05:23together in front of a big screen to watch their side play the second leg, which Sheriff

05:28narrowly won 2-1 thanks to a 76-minute goal from Armel Zahouri. Given that the Moldovan

05:34champions stunned Real Madrid at the Bernabeu just two seasons ago, there was no shame in

05:39this defeat, and Kaoi knew a place in the conference league group stage was waiting for them in any

05:44case. When the draw was made on September 1st, they were placed into Group A alongside Lille,

05:49Slovan Bratislava and Olympia Ljubljana. They started the group in typical fashion, taking a shock

05:551-0 lead against the Slovakian champions before former Manchester City winger Vladimir Weiss broke

06:01their hearts with a late winner. Regardless though, with one of the trickier away ties now out of the

06:06way, their hopes of progression remain high. Kaoi are already set to reap the financial rewards of

06:12this season's European exploits. Their earnings for their summer's work will be vast by Faroe

06:17standards and have opened a debate in the country about how they best spend their spoils. One area

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

06:27European games in Klachvik. It's also been suggested that the club may buy some of their semi-professional

06:32players out of their day jobs. It's a move that everyone agrees would smash a ceiling preventing further

06:38progress but which could lead to further imbalances in the domestic league, where most other clubs are

06:43understandably miles away from being able to make players professional. Investing in their homegrown

06:48players and their new academy system which was set up two years ago could be a further boost to the

06:53Faroe Islands national team, who are already creating their own shockwaves, beating Turkey in the Nations

06:58League last year when they took an impressive eight points from six games. They'd of course previously

07:03created headlines during qualifying for Euro 2016 when they defeated 2004 champions Greece home and

07:09away. That loss to the Faroes at home saw Claudio Ranieri sacked, fatefully leaving him free to take

07:16the Leicester City job. And while Keor Klachvik might not be on the verge of doing a Leicester themselves,

07:21they've already been the shock story of European football this summer. It's taken a whole heap of

07:27courage and a talented squad, but they've made history for Faroese football. The club are writing a

07:33story that will be told in Klachvik for generations, and if they get their wish, it's a journey that

07:39won't stop here. If you'd like to read more about the incredible story of Keor Klachvik, you'll find a

07:44full feature on them in this month's issue of 442. Written by Paul Watson and including contributions

07:49from several people connected to the club, it's available now from all good retailers.

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

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