Valur (men's football)

Valur

Full name	Knattspyrnufélagið Valur
Nickname(s)	Valsarar Hlíðarendapiltar
Founded	11 May 1911; 113 years ago (1911-05-11)
Ground	Hlíðarendi, Reykjavík
Capacity	1,524
Chairman	E. Börkur Edvardsson
Manager	Srdjan Tufegdzic
League	Besta deild karla
2024	Besta deild karla, 3rd of 12
Website	https://www.valur.is/fotbolti
Home colours Away colours

The Valur men's football team, commonly known as Valur, is the men's football department of the Knattspyrnufélagið Valur multi-sport club. The club is based in Reykjavík, Iceland, and currently plays in the Besta deild karla, the top league of men's football in Iceland. The team plays its home games at Hlíðarendi in Reykjavík. The team's colours are red and white. Valur has spent most of its time in the top-flight of Icelandic football, spending only three seasons outside the top tier. Valur is one of the most successful football clubs in Iceland, with 23 Icelandic championships.

Football arrived in Iceland before the end of the nineteenth century, and as elsewhere, became popular amongst young people. In 1908, a youth group was founded within the YMCA in Reykjavík, led by Reverend Friðrik Friðriksson. The boys of the group were active in a number of indoor and outdoor activities.

By 1911, several football clubs had been founded in Reykjavík, though the sport was still in its infancy in Iceland. On 11 May 1911, six boys founded the YMCA Football Club, changing the name of the club to Val later the same year. The story goes that when these founders of the club were working on fixing their football field at Melunum in Reykjavík, a falcon hovered over their heads and that's when they got the idea to call the club Val. At the inauguration of the first Valsvallar in Melunum in the fall of 1911, Friðrik gave a speech in which he encouraged the boys to continue on the path they had set out on and also reminded them of honesty in play and work and that peace, love, unity, beauty and energy should reign in the work and nothing indecent and ugly should ever flourish. In 1915, Valur participated for the first time in the Icelandic national championship in football, but in addition to them, Fram and KR competed in the tournament. In 1916, a junior division was founded in the association, called Væringjar, for boys in YMCA up to the age of 15 who from that age joined Valur. In 1919, this group of young Valsmen won the so-called fallmeet, becoming the club's first tournament victory.

Valur won its first Icelandic championship in 1930, nineteen years after the club was founded, a long-awaited dream had come true. Reverend Friðrik told the newly crowned champions that a victory would certainly be good, but one should not overestimate or show arrogance. Reverend Friðrik always had various advice for the Valsmen about boyish play and pomp. National championships would be sporadic: in 1933, from 1935 to 1938, in 1940 and from 1942 to 1945.

In March 1984, the Valur football department signed a contract with Ian Ross, a Scotsman who previously had, among other things, played football for Aston Villa and Liverpool but also had a lot of experience as a coach, meaning that Ross would take over the coaching of the men's football team. Ross quickly proved himself as a coach; the team finished second in the league in his first season. Ross led the team to victory in the top tier in football a year later and repeated the feat in 1987.

Valur participated in the Icelandic men's football tournament for the first time in 1915 and, as stated previously, won the Icelandic championship for the first time in 1930. In total, the club has won the Icelandic championship 23 times, the most recent success being in 2020.^[1][2] This makes Valur the second most decorated club in Iceland.

In a reorganization in the fall of 2022, following a disappointing season, Valur appointed Arnar Grétarsson as manager soon after he was sacked as manager of KA Akureyri, after having notable success as manager in the northern capital the Icelandic giants hope to bring stability to their setup. Along with Arnar Grétarsson Valur appointed Sigurður Höskuldsson former manager of Leiknir Reykjavík as assistant manager.

After the 2022/2023 season, Sigurður Höskuldsson and Valur parted ways, with Sigurður taking the manager job at Þór Akureyri. Valur appointed former captain and most capped player Haukur Páll Sigurðsson as assistant manager.

In March 2024 the club signed Icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson on a two-year contract, a move widely regarded as the biggest signing of an Icelandic club. This signing signalled the club's intention to pursue a championship in the 2024 season.

1. Agust 2024 the club and Arnar Grétarsson parted ways and Icelandic Serbian Srdjan Tufegdzic took over on a 3 year contract. Knowing the club well, having been a part of a championship winning coaching team of Valur in the 2020 season.

Valur first competed in Europe at the 1966–67 European Cup Winners' Cup Preliminary Round, drawing 1–1 with Standard Liège but ultimately losing on aggregate 9–2. Since then, the club has participated in European competition twenty times, never advancing beyond the second round of any tournament.

Valur holds the record attendance for a football match in Iceland, with 18,243 spectators in attendance for their match against Benfica in 1968.^[3]

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1966–67	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	Preliminary Round	Standard Liège	1–1	1–8	2–9
1967–68	European Cup	First round	Jeunesse Esch	1–1	3–3	4–4(a)
		Second Round	Vasas	0–6	1–5	1–11
1968–69	European Cup	First round	Benfica	0–0	1–8	1–8
1974–75	UEFA Cup	First round	Portadown	0–0	1–2	1–2
1975–76	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Celtic	0–2	0–7	0–9
1977–78	European Cup	First round	Glentoran	1–0	0–2	1–2
1978–79	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	1. FC Magdeburg	1–1	0–4	1–5
1979–80	European Cup	First round	Hamburg	0–3	1–2	1–5
1981–82	European Cup	First round	Aston Villa	0–2	0–5	0–7
1985–86	UEFA Cup	First round	Nantes	2–1	0–3	2–4
1986–87	European Cup	First round	Juventus	0–4	0–7	0–11
1987–88	UEFA Cup	First round	Wismut Aue	1–1	0–0	1–1(a)
1988–89	European Cup	First round	Monaco	1–0	0–2	1–2
1989–90	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	BFC Dynamo	1–2	1–2	2–4
1991–92	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Sion	0–1	1–1	1–2
1992–93	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Boavista	0–0	0–3	0–3
1993–94	European Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying round	MyPa	3–1	1–0	4–1
		First round	Aberdeen	0–3	0–4	0–7
2006–07	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round	Brøndby IF	0–0	1–3	1–3
2008–09	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	BATE Borisov	0–1	0–2	0–3
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Brøndby IF	1–4	0–6	1–10
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Ventspils	1–0	0–0	1–0
		Second qualifying round	Domžale	1–2	2–3	3–5
2018–19	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	Rosenborg	1–0	1–3	2–3
	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	FC Santa Coloma	3–0	0–1	3–1
		Third qualifying round	Sheriff Tiraspol	2–1	0–1	2–2 (a)
2019–20	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	Maribor	0–3	0–2	0–5
	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	Ludogorets Razgrad	1–1	0–4	1–5
2021–22	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	Dinamo Zagreb	0–2	2–3	2–5
	UEFA Europa Conference League	Second qualifying round	Bodø/Glimt	0–3	0–3	0–6
2024–25	UEFA Conference League	First qualifying round	Vllaznia	2−2	4−0	6–2
		Second qualifying round	St Mirren	0–0	1–4	1–4
2025–26	UEFA Conference League	First qualifying round

As of 16 August 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ISL Frederik Schram 2 DF  ISL Birkir Már Sævarsson 3 DF  ISL Hörður Ingi Gunnarsson 4 DF  ISL Elfar Freyr Helgason 6 MF  ISL Bjarni Mark Antonsson 7 FW  USA Aron Jóhannsson 8 MF  ISL Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 9 FW  DEN Patrick Pedersen 10 MF  ISL Kristinn Freyr Sigurðsson 11 FW  ISL Sigurður Egill Lárusson 12 FW  ISL Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson 14 FW  SWE Albin Skoglund

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 DF  ISL Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson (captain) 16 MF  ISL Gisli Laxdal Unnarsson 17 MF  ISL Lúkas Logi Heimisson 18 MF  ISL Þorsteinn Emil Jónsson 19 MF  ISL Orri Hrafn Kjartansson 20 DF  ISL Orri Sigurður Ómarsson 21 MF  ISL Jakob Franz Pálsson 23 MF  ISL Gylfi Sigurðsson 25 GK  ISL Stefán Þor Ágústsson 31 GK  ISL Ögmundur Kristinsson 33 MF  BRA Helber Josua Catano 71 MF  ISL Ólafur Karl Finsen

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  ISL Hilmar Karlsson (at KH) — DF  ISL Þorsteinn Aron Antonsson (at HK) — DF  ISL Hilmar Starri Hilmasson (at Þróttur Vogum) — DF  ISL Sverrir Þór Kristinsson (at KFA)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ISL Adam Ægir Pálsson (at Perugia) — MF  ISL Eyþór Örn Eyþórsson (at Víkingur Ólafsvík) — MF  ISL Bjarmi Kristinsson (at KH)

• Úrvalsdeild^[4]
  • Champions (23): 1930, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1956, 1966, 1967, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1985, 1987, 2007, 2017, 2018, 2020^[a]
• Icelandic Cup
  • Champions (11): 1965, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2005, 2015, 2016
• Icelandic League Cup
  • Champions (4): 2008, 2011, 2018, 2023
• Icelandic Super Cup
  • Champions (11): 1977, 1979, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2006, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018

• Official website