Bodo/Glimt: The €1.7m Champions League miracle that money can’t explain

Robin Bairner

• 25 Feb 2026 13:55 GMT
• 4 min read

Analysis

Bodo/Glimt will play in the last 16 of the Champions League after spectacularly defeating Inter Milan 5-2 on aggregate in a tie that was supposed to be an enormous mismatch in the other direction.

The success of the Norwegian side is remarkable, not just for the achievement in itself, but also due to the manner in which it came about. This was not a team that parked the bus. They faced spells of pressure, yes, but they were ruthlessly efficient where their opponents struggled.

All this has been achieved with a starting XI constructed for just €1.7 million – that’s less than the €2m prize money for winning a single game in the Champions League.

Bodo might only have won two games in the group stages – Manchester City at home and Atletico Madrid at home – but they have already recouped the cost of their investment many times over thanks to this historic European run.

Bodo/Glimt’s San Siro side constructed for €1.7m

In the starting XI that faced Inter at San Siro, five were signed on free transfers.

Of the half dozen who were signed for fees, which totalled €13.5m, three were returning to the club. Patrick Berg, Hakon Evjen and Jens Petter Hauge had previously shone in Bodo’s exploits from earlier seasons that saw them reach the Conference League quarter-finals in 2021/22, the knockout phase in 2023/24 and the semi-finals of the Europa League last term.

This trio accounted for €10.5m of their outlay, yet they had initially been sold for €11.8m, meaning they made a profit of €1.3m on these returning stars.

Odin Bjortuft, Ole Didrik Blomberg and Kasper Hogh, meanwhile, arrived for a sum total of just €3m. Hence, the squad was constructed for just €1.7m.

The total value of Bodo/Glimt's team sits at just €53.4m – a figure less than 122 individual players based on FootballTransfers’ Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) algorithm.

The total budget for the year, meanwhile, sits at just €6m – a figure dwarfed by Inter star Lautaro Martinez’s €16.7m annual salary.

Victory should have been impossible. They proved it wasn't.

Kjetil Knutsen: The secret to Bodo/Glimt’s success

While it may be tempting to think of Bodo/Glimt as a side that has thrived due to their transfer model, the failure of their leading stars to go on and establish themselves at other clubs after earning their big moves away from the Arctic Circle helps show that it’s more about manager Kjetil Knutsen finding players who best suit his system.

Knutsen preaches a high-intensity style of football that is reliant on high energy. This starts on the training ground, where players are expected to maintain 100% focus and intensity throughout sessions that can be punishing. During 11 vs. 11 games, for instance, a clock runs down from four seconds when the time the ball goes out; if it’s not back in by the time it hits zero, the other side gets possession.

Indeed, it is perhaps telling that Bodo/Glimt’s Champions League revival began after their domestic season ended. When the Norwegian league shut down for the winter, they were sitting on two points from five games. With just Europe to focus on, they have drawn in Dortmund before going on an incredible four-match winning run.

The X-factor

That’s not to say, though, that recruitment is ignored. Indeed, it’s a vital component of Bodo/Glimt being able to compete at the highest level.

Former assistant coach Morten Kalvenes told The Athletic: “Each player we sign has an X-factor. Does this player have the specific X-factor that we are looking for? That we can build his development around that, and find a position in the team where we can really use it?”

For Knutsen, it’s about finding a player with a particular quality that fits in his system and exploiting it to the maximum.

Bodo/Glimt are a side that have been carefully and smartly crafted. In an era in which success is supposed to be bought, they have shown that even the biggest financial divides can still be bridged with intensity, identity and ruthless recruitment.