Klaksvik became the first representative of the Faroe Islands to secure participation in the group stage of European competition

Club Klaksvik, whose total application cost is equivalent to the cost of one average player, has done what seems destined to remain the main sensation of the summer in continental football. Following the Hungarian Ferencváros, he knocked out another strong opponent in the Champions League qualification – the Swedish Hacken – and became the first representative of the Faroe Islands to secure participation in the group stage of European competition.

It was one of those rare occasions when European football journalists, including those from ‘big’ publications like The Guardian, who are used to not caring about what goes on in the early stages of European qualification in July or early August, in the disassembly of those who, whatever one may say, are doomed to turn out later, when the strongest join, as extras, were forced to change their habits and devote quite solid reviews in terms of volume to it. The reason was too strong. And the club presented it, denoting the place of which in European football, everyone, of course, cited approximately the same numbers. He is from a country with a population of about 54 thousand people – not enough even for a microdistrict of a large city. And in the very town in which the club is based and which, in fact, gave it its name, there are only 5 thousand inhabitants. The capacity of the home stadium is exactly half of their number. So it’s somehow even strange to call it tiny, although in fact, according to the usual for these experts – well, let’s say, British – standards, it is a real miniature.

Or here’s another figure – € 2.77 million. This is the total cost of Klaksvik’s application according to Transfermarkt. For this amount, this afternoon with fire you will not find a player with at least a minimum experience of playing at the top level. And here it is “sprayed” on a couple of dozen players, the most expensive of which – defender Patrick Da Silva and central midfielder Hallur Hansson are valued at €300,000. And there is also, for example, Swedish goalkeeper Jonathan Johansson, who was assigned a price of €25,000 by Transfermarkt ., probably solely because everyone should have it, even a 31-year-old player, although in reality no one is interested in him and no one will ever buy it. At least, that’s how it seemed until late Tuesday evening.

This application is a list of unremarkable, unknown characters, some of which are legionnaires from Norway, Denmark, Sweden or Serbia that are not in demand at home, and some are their own, local ones. Some people often play for the Faroe Islands national team. But this is so-so advertising, given its status: it’s probably not a “dwarf” anymore, because sometimes it butts with middle peasants like Lithuanians, Macedonians or Kosovo, and last year it managed to defeat the Turks in the League of Nations, but still from full-fledged ” dwarfs” is not far gone.

And knowing all this, what Klaksvik did already really looks worthy of recognition as something special. Ferencváros and Hacken are, on the one hand, clubs that, of course, are no match for the Champions League regulars. On the other hand, no one in particular would be surprised if one of them broke into its group stage. Ferencváros, after all, quite recently, in 2020, visited it. The championships in which they just won gold are an order of magnitude stronger than the Faroese, always supplying talent to the market, including for the Big Five. And if we take the same cost of applications calculated by Transfermarkt, then the difference is simply cosmic: Hecken has €21.3 million, Ferencváros has under €50 million.

In each of these two confrontations, Klaksvik was not just an outsider, but an unconditional, hopeless outsider. But Ferencvaros, after away 0:0, received from him 0:3 at home (and this defeat cost the coaching post in the Hungarian club to the former coach of the Russian national team Stanislav Cherchesov), and Hacken, having played twice with the Faroese opponent in a draw – 0:0 and 3:3, lost to him in the penalty shootout that crowned the second leg in Gothenburg. She made the penny Jonathan Johansson the hero of the week, who almost changed football for a more reliable job as an electrician, and gave the Klaksvik breakthrough a touch of history. A club from the Faroe Islands has never played in the group stage of European competition. And Klaksvik will definitely play in it now. Not the main, perhaps, the European Cup, but some simpler one for sure.

The reform of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) helped, which launched the Conference League in addition to the Champions League and the Europa League. Before the group stage of the European Cup, the number one among those who have overcome two rounds, now the same number. But the losers in the near future are automatically sent to the play-off round of the Europa League – the last one before the formation of quartets. And those who fail in it will immediately migrate to the Conference League group.

In any case, the option for Klaksvik is already fabulous. But now, on a wave of well-deserved euphoria, he probably dreams of not being eliminated from the qualification for the Champions League for as long as possible. Moreover, in the third qualifying round, Norwegian Molde is waiting for him – a club from approximately the same “price niche” as Ferencvaros with Hacken. Plus, the club, for the battles with which the coaching duo Klaksvik of Magne Huset and Daniel Berg Hestad will prepare the team with special enthusiasm and impatience. Huset and Berg are Norwegians. And for Molde, they once played nine hundred matches for two. This is such an intriguing coincidence.

Alexey Dospekhov