Norway Tippeligaen League Club Profiles

Molde

Molde are the current league champions and have won the title three times in the past four seasons and finished runners-up on seven occasions. They have also won the Norwegian Cup on four occasions including the past two seasons.

Molde have spent most of their existence playing in the lower leagues. They hit the headlines in 1964 when they knocked Fredrikstad out of the Norwegian Cup beating them 3-2 at home. In the 1974 they returned to the top league in Norway and led the table for nine of the 22 rounds. The title race went down to the last match of the season with Molde still in with a chance of winning the title only to see Viking pip them for the championship.

Between 1978 and 1984 Molde were a real yo-yo team with a series of relegations and promotions in successive seasons. In 1982 they reached the Norwegian Cup Final for the first time but lost to Brann and were also relegated but won promotion again the following season. In 1993 they were again relegated and nearly went bankrupt due to financial problems caused by work carried out on their main stand. The club was saved by a pair of local businessmen and the club has been hugely successful ever since.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a major contributor to their success scoring 31 goals in 42 games in 1995 before being sold to Manchester United the following season. 1998 saw them set a record as they went unbeaten in their first 21 league games but could only finish second in the table.

In 2011 they celebrated their centenary year in style by winning the league for the first time. Their manager that season was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They retained their title in 2012 before finishing a disappointing sixth in 2013 though they did win the Norwegian Cup. Solskjaer left the club to join Cardiff in January 2014 but Molde clinched another league title last season winning the title by 11 points from Rosenborg and setting a new points record while also winning the Norwegian Cup.

European Success

1999 saw them compete in the Champions League and they beat CSKA Sofia and Mallorca to reach the group stages. They were drawn against Real Madrid, Porto and Olympiakos. They finished bottom with three points (a win over Olympiakos) but conceded ten goals in their three away games.

They also played in the 2006-07 UEFA Cup losing 2-0 to Glasgow Rangers but again found themselves relegated at the end of the season but being Molde they bounced back right away.

In the 2012-13 and 2013-14 Champions Leagues they lost in the third qualifying round on both occasions. They were eliminated at the same stage in the 2014-15 Europa League.

Famous Players and Managers

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored 33 goals in 42 games for the club and then returned as manager to win two league titles with them
Their top scorer is Jans Fuglset and he once scored a record six goals in a 6-0 win over Stromsgodset. He also managed the club on two occasions.
Uwe Rossler was a caretaker manager in 2010 and saved them from relegation winning six out of eight league games. He has since managed Brentford and Wigan.
Their current manager is Tor Ole Skullerud who took over from Solskjaer last year and won the double in his first season. He had previously managed the Norway Under-21 team.

Rosenborg

Rosenborg have won the league on a record 22 occasions. This includes a period of total domination of Norwegian football as they won the league 13 years in a row between 1992 and 2004. Their last title victory was in 2010. Rosenborg have also won the Norwegian Cup nine times and have played more games in European competition than any other Norwegian side.

They first played in the top division in Norway in 1960 and won the Norwegian Cup the following season. They were relegated in 1963 but won the Norwegian Cup again in 1964. Rosenborg stayed in the second tier until 1966 when they won promotion. The following season they won the Norwegian League title. English manager George Curtis led them to another title two years later. Curtis was considered too defensive and was sacked the following year but in 1971 they won the league and cup double under former player Nils Arne Eggen.

The rest of the 70s wasn't a great time for Rosenborg and in 1977 came bottom of the table winning just one league game. It wasn't until 1985 that they were to win the league again. The club received healthy investment three years later and became a fully professional side. They won the league title three times in the latter part of the 80s but that was nothing compared to what would happen in the 1990s.

From 1992 they won the title for 13 straight years and the Norwegian Cup five times. Further titles were won in 2006,2009 and 2010 but since then, Rosenborg have always finished in the top three but that 23rd league title still eludes them.

European Veterans

Rosenborg first competed in Europe in the Cup Winners Cup in the 1965-66 season losing to Dynamo Kiev in the second round. Their first European Cup season was in 1968-69 losing to Rapid Vienna in the first round.

At one stage Rosenborg qualified for the group stages of the Champions League eight years in a row. This was a record that stood until beaten by Manchester United. In the 1996-97 season they got through the group stage for the first time but lost to Juventus in the quarter finals. They have a good record against Bayern Munich in the Champions League having drawn three of four games played against them.

Famous Players and Managers

Nils Arne Eggen managed the side for 23 years over a period of 40 years.
Odd Iversen scored a record 30 goals in 18 games
Their current manager is Kare Ingebrigtsen who was appointed in 2014 and played for Manchester City in the 1990s.

Stromsgodset

Stromsgodset have won the Norwegian League title on two occasions. They first won the championship in 1970 and again in 2013. They have won the Norwegian Cup on five occasions

They enjoyed their greatest successes in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This included not just the 1970 league title but winning the Norwegian Cup in 1969, 1970 and 1973.

Financial problems hit them in 2006 and they had to be saved by a group of investors. 13 players joined, 15 left and the club won promotion back to the top table of Norwegian football.

Stromsgodset have played in European competitons on nine occasions with little success. In the 1974-75 Cup Winners Cup they played Liverpool in the first round losing 12-0 on aggregate including an 11-0 thrashing at Anfield They won a qualifying round match in the 1998-99 UEFA Cup before losing in the first round to Aston Villa 6-2 on aggregate and reached the third qualifying round of the Europa League in 2013-14