Time flies, it feels like yesterday that I was writing my Eliteserien PRE-view article, excited for the season to start. I did my best to predict how this season would end up, but as always in football, there are unpredictable twists and turns around every corner! The squads of players that I based my predictions on were not always the same squads that finished the season, with some surprising sales of the Eliteserien’s most dominant players. Teams I thought were showing some promise really underperformed this year, and there were also some unexpectedly high finishes for clubs like Brann, Tromsø, and Strømsgodset! I’ll be going through all of the action from up north this year in my 2023 Eliteserien Review. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy!
Part 1: The Story
Before I can get too far into the finer details, the story of the 2023 season must be shared. Bodø/Glimt are your 2023 Eliteserien champions! I won’t try to hide my joy at this, being a Glimt fan myself, but I will speak without bias here. Through the first half of the season, Bodø/Glimt were flying and looked untouchable. 13 wins, 2 draws and only a single loss coming in Matchweek 12 vs. Strømsgodset through their first 16 matches and boasting a +27 goal differential. Amahl Pellegrino was in fine form again this campaign, producing several goal of the season candidates from his wide variety of strikes this season to lead the way. The scoring was spread out for Glimt however, with Faris tallying 15 goals, and the midfield duo of Albert Grønbaek and Ulrik Saltnes combining for 15 goals between them.
At the midway point of the season, Bodø/Glimt held a 6 point lead over Viking in 2nd place, with Tromsø, Molde, and Brann close behind. The title race would become more intriguing when the European qualifiers began for the clubs competing in them: in Matchweek 16 and 17, the leaders Glimt lost back to back games, after having only lost 1 in their first twelve. These losses were to Tromsø and Viking, who were sitting in 2nd and 3rd place waiting for an opportunity to take the league lead. Viking did just this, taking 1st place from Bodø for the first time all season!
Following their win over Glimt, Viking went on to claim 13 points from their next possible 15 to maintain 1st position going into Matchweek 24, with the two northern teams close by. In Matchweek 25 however, Viking’s title challenge came to a crashing halt vs. Tromsø with a 3-4 loss, thanks to a 94′ winning goal from Yaw Paintsil. This allowed Bodø/Glimt, who were midway through qualifying out of their UEFA Conference League group, to retake top spot, where they never looked back. Viking would not be able to regain their fine form from earlier in the season, going on to lose their next two matches and drop out of the title race, leaving it to be contested between Bodø/Glimt, Tromsø, and Brann.
Tromsø picked up Viking’s momentum, adding a 4-1 win over Molde in their following game to pass Viking, but then had their own title hopes dashed by a 0-1 home loss to Strømsgodset, leaving SK Brann as the final team with a chance to take the title from Bodø/Glimt. With 4 games to play, a shocking draw against Sandefjord for Brann meant that Glimt had a 9 point lead over Brann, and the two teams would play on the penultimate match week of the season in what could have be a title deciding match. It COULD have been a title deciding match, if Bodø dropped points in the 2 games prior. The must win matches for the yellow flash were against Stabaek and Aalesund, the two teams who ended up being automatically relegated in 15th and 16th places. A 4-0 away win at Stabaek set up a home game vs Aalesund with a chance to secure the Eliteserien trophy. The Aalesund keeper, veteran Sten Michael Grytebust, had nearly 2 xG on target prevented in the match and did everything he could to get a result. However, his heroics were not enough, as a Nikolai Hopland own goal was enough for Bodø/Glimt to take a 1-0 win at home and celebrate winning their 3rd title in 4 years in front of the Aspmyra fans. If you’ve only been paying attention to Norwegian football in recent years, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Bodø/Glimt have always been a dominant force. This is most certainly not the case, as Glimt was playing in the 2nd division of Norwegian football as recently as the 2017 season. In 6 years since reaching the Eliteserien, Glimt have earned 3 league titles and finished in 2nd place twice.
The work done by Kjetil Knutsen here cannot be understated, as he has helped take a relatively small club to a domestic powerhouse who can challenge even the best clubs in Europe (don’t forget that the great Jose Mourinho’s worst ever match he managed, in his own opinion, was his 6-1 defeat at Aspmyra to Glimt). Despite losing their best midfielder, Hugo Vetlesen, after 11 matches played to Club Brugge, Bodø/Glimt always looked a strong favorite for this title and were able to avoid any shock defeats to finish the job. I’ve embedded a lovely video from Morten Mella (thank you for this, Morten), showing the scenes of celebration from Bodø/Glimt’s final home game of the Eliteserien season.
Part 2: The Good, The Bad, and the Final Table
Here we can see the final league table from the 2023 Eliteserien. Glimt finished with a 9 point gap over Brann and Tromsø, who could only be separated by goal difference. The top 3 finishers in the Eliteserien are rewarded with UEFA qualification spots: for the champions, a spot in the UCL qualifiers, and for the 2nd and 3rd place teams, a spot in the Conference League qualifiers. The final UEFA qualification spot (Europa League) goes to the winner of the domestic cup, the NM Cupen, or the next highest placed team if the cup winners also won the league. This year’s NM Cupen final was contested between Bodø/Glimt and Molde. A win for Glimt would mean that Brann receives the Europa League qualification spot, and the final UECL qualifying spot would go to 4th place Viking. A win for Molde would salvage what they surely considered to be a disappointing season and reward them with the Europa League qualification spot. In the end, Molde would end up winners on an 89′ goal in a 1-0 fixture, securing themselves a spot in next years Europa League qualifiers.
This result was the final blow to Viking fans’ dreams of Europe after what has to be considered an overachieving season for them, regardless of the heartbreaking finish. Viking were the team to pace Glimt through the majority of the season, only to have their hard work undone with a run of 7 points through their final 8 matches, culminating in a 5-1 loss to Rosenborg at home on the final day of the season to ensure they would finish 4th. For a team that spent more weeks on top of the table than any other club not named Glimt, Viking will feel they deserved more from this season.
Another club that had a more successful season than previously anticipated was Strømsgodset, who turned out to be the giant-killers of the Eliteserien this year, earning them a 7th place finish! Generally considered as more of a “player-development” club within Norway, Strømsgodset showed that they have the ability to win right now. Against this years’ top 5 teams, Strømsgodset scored 11 goals, while only conceding 9 and earning 14 points from a possible 30! Strømsgodset only lost a single home game to the top 5 teams this year, being a 1-0 loss to Tromsø, and earning 10/15 points from these home matches. For a team that didn’t look the strongest on paper, especially considering that their brightest prospect, Tobias Gulliksen, was sold to Bodø/Glimt midseason, Strømsgodset should be very proud of how they represented themselves this season and could look to build on this success with some smart transfers.
Not all clubs had an overachieving season though. Three clubs who finished significantly below where I thought they were capable of are Rosenborg, Odds, and Vålerenga, the latter actually finishing in the relegation playoff place! Often as is the case in a league like the Eliteserien, a club’s best players will receive offers to move on to bigger leagues fairly quickly after arriving in Norway at times. The main reason for Odds mediocre finish was the sale of their starting keeper Leopold Wahlstedt to Blackburn Rovers. Wahlstedt was, in my opinion, the best keeper in the Eliteserien this season before he was sold, and this showed in Odds results. After conceding 19 goals in 17 matches with Wahlstedt in net, Odds went on to concede 25 goals in the remaining 13 matches following Wahlstedt’s departure. That’s an increase in goals conceded per game from 1.12 to 1.92, showing Wahlstedt’s quality and consistency between the sticks.
An honorable mention for underperformance has to go to Molde, included here as they suffered from the same player sales that Odds did, except Molde sold both of their best players. Ola Brynhildsen, Molde’s rapid centre forward who scored 2 goals on Bodø with his team down a man to secure a 2-2 draw against all odds, was sold to FC Midtjylland for 2.5M euros. Sivert Mannsverk, the anchor of Molde’s midfield and a young defensive midfielder with all the potential in the world was picked up by Ajax for a 6M euro fee. Their most consistent CB of last season, Birk Risa, was sold to New York City in MLS for only 1M euros. To top off the (in my opinion) bad transfer business, Molde let their top defensive prospect go to Wolfsburg for free! Anders Børset, a 17 year old defender who can play at CB or LB, looked to have sky-high potential, and could have likely been sold for millions of Euros if they kept him at the club. All of this culminated in a very unimpressive 5th place finish in the Eliteserien, with the NM Cup win being the only positive from Molde’s season. Perhaps we will see them spend some of this money before next season to revamp the squad!
The final two underachievers from this year on my list are Rosenborg and Vålerenga. Rosenborg went into this season having sold two of their best forwards in Casper Tengstedt and Emil Ceide. Reinforcements were minimal, in the form of Canadian Jayden Nelson to replace Ceide, and Ole Selnaes brought in from FC Zurich to bolster midfield. The goalscoring numbers certainly took a hit with the loss of Tengstedt, with Rosenborg’s two main strikers, Ole Christian Saeter and Isak Snaer Thorvaldsson combining for 13 goals in the season. Tied for 2nd place on Rosenborg for goals scored is 16 year old midfielder Sverre Halseth Nypan.
It is both a negative and positive that he is one of Rosenborg’s top scorers. A negative because no club should be relying on a 16 year old midfielder to be your 2nd leading scorer, but a positive because this is a 16 year old midfielder who is the club’s 2nd leading scorer this season! I cannot say enough positives about Sverre Halseth Nypan, he is an incredible player to watch. Possessing a calmness and composure far beyond his age, Nypan looked extremely comfortable playing in the Eliteserien this year, playing in 23 matches and contributing 5 goals and an assist. I don’t believe we’ve seen a player so young seem at ease playing in the Eliteserien since Martin Ødegaard made his debut at 13. Nypan also dribbles with his preferred left foot, and the way he moves on the pitch is drawing more comparisons to Ødegaard than just his young age at debut. While Rosenborg shouldn’t be pleased with a 9th place finish, as one of Norway’s biggest and richest clubs, they should have the resources to rebuild their squad around their young talisman for the next few seasons.
The most shocking result of this season was Vålerenga IF being relegated to the OBOS-ligaen, the 2nd tier of Norwegian football, after finishing 14th in the Eliteserien, and then losing the promotion playoff to Kristiansund in heartbreaking fashion. After securing a 2-0 away win in the first leg, Vålerenga returned home and held their 2 goal lead for 75 minutes, before 76′ and 82′ goals from Kristiansund tied the series on aggregate and forced extra time. After extra time could not find a winner, the promotion playoff was decided on penalties, where every penalty kick was converted until Vålerenga’s final penalty, when Christian Dahle Borchgrevink was unable to convert his spot kick, sending Kristiansund up to the Eliteserien for the 2024 season. I expect an immediate return to the Eliteserien for Vålerenga next year following this unthinkable relegation, but nothing is certain in football!
Part 3: The Top Players
The 2023 Eliteserien player of the season in my opinion, has to be Amahl Pellegrino. In 29 matches, Pellegrino scored 24 goals and created 14 assists, breaking the Bodø/Glimt club record for most goal involvements in a season, set by Philip Zinckernagel in Bodø’s record setting 2020 season (19G + 18A). For context, Glimt scored 103 goals in the 2020 season, and in the 2023 season they scored 78. This means while Zinckernagel was a part of 36% of the team’s total goals, Pellegrino was a part of a whopping 49% of Bodø/Glimt’s goals this year in the Eliteserien. He scored in every way possible too, from taking corner kicks, volleys, even a strike from his own half that caught the keeper out. Pellegrino was pure magic for Bodø yet again, following up his 25G, 10A season last year with another stellar campaign. Enjoy this beautiful first touch and volley to the top-right corner vs Stabaek from earlier this season.
The only player who was able to keep pace with Pellegrino for goals scored was Lillestrøm’s Akor Adams, who unfortunately for Lillestrøm, was sold to Montpellier midway through the season after he had produced 15 goals and 2 assists through 15 games in the Eliteserien. Bard Finne from Brann was the 2nd top goal scorer with 16, and Pellegrino’s teammate Faris Moumbagna was 3rd with 15 goals himself. Other Glimt standouts from this season were Albert Grønbaek and Patrick Berg, who were consistently performing at the level of a top top midfielder in this league. Grønbaek stepped into Hugo Vetlesen’s shoes seamlessly. In his first full season in the Eliteserien, Grønbaek produced 9 goals and 7 assists while being the team’s main threat to progress the ball through midfield, and will be subject to plenty of transfer rumours in the January window ahead of the 2024 season. It is likely that Glimt will not be able to hold on to the talented young Dane for much longer, with interest from clubs such as Leicester City in the EFL Championship, and Charlotte FC in the MLS on a potential 8M euro move.
As previously mentioned with Sverre Halseth Nypan, this was a year for breakout talents! Odds found themselves an exciting young winger in Faniel Tewelde, who only turned 17 years old in September and had the quality to play 20 matches for Odds this season. Tewelde and Nypan are by far the most advanced players of their age in the Eliteserien right now. Sverre Halseth Nypan looks every bit a successor to Martin Ødegaard in the national team, receiving his first U18’s callup this year, while Tewelde has played 11 matches for Norway’s U17’s this year and will soon follow Nypan.
Part 4: Conclusion
In the end, the 2023 Eliteserien title was contested mostly by 4 clubs: Bodø/Glimt, Viking, Tromsø, and Brann. Viking were the 2nd best club in Norway for the first half of the season, had their best form from Matchweeks 18 to 25 to lead the Eliteserien table during that period, before falling off to a 4th place finish. Tromsø and Brann did not look like much threat early on in the season due to Glimt’s impressive points pace, but the mid-season struggles due to Conference League fixture congestion lead to Glimt dropping points and making the title race more intriguing. The league was decided on Matchweek 28, when Bodø/Glimt won 1-0 at Aspmyra in front of their fans, and celebrated a historic 3rd title. Despite having to rebuild the squad nearly every year, Kjetil Knutsen has proven himself a top manager with Bodø, and if he isn’t lured away by the excitement of bigger leagues, the sky is the limit for this “village team” from northern Norway. I’ll be back soon with more football content from other areas of the world as the Norwegian domestic game takes a break, but will be sure to bring you all of the Eliteserien transfers and predictions ahead of the 2024 season. Thank you to everyone who has ready any of my content covering the Eliteserien this year, I truly appreciate it and will look to continue providing better analysis and insights into this wonderful league.
Until next time,
LM
futbird 