About

Molde Fotballklubb is a football club from Molde, Norway, that currently plays in the Tippeligaen, the Norwegian top division. Founded on 19 June 1911, Molde was originally known as International. Molde are three-time league champions (2011, 2012, 2014) and four-time Norwegian Cup winners (1994, 2005, 2013, 2014), and have finished 2nd in the league a further seven times. Molde is one of only two Norwegian clubs to have participated in the UEFA Champions League. Its home matches are played at Aker Stadion, which has a maximum capacity of 11,800. The stadium was inaugurated in 1998, and was a gift from the local businessmen Kjell Inge Røkke and Bjørn Rune Gjelsten. The club was formerly based at Molde stadion, which hosted the club's record attendance of 14,615. Molde's supporter club is called Tornekrattet ("Thorn bush", a reference to the city's nickname "The Town of Roses") and were started after the 1994 Cup Final victory. Until the beginning of the 1970s, the club mainly played in local lower division leagues, except for a short visit in the Hovedserien in the 1957–58 season. In 1974 Molde was back in the top division and finished second in the league, and have since then become one of Norway's leading clubs and generally stayed in the top division. Molde also finished second in the league in 1987, when the club lost the championship to Moss in the decisive match of the season. During the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, Molde was the second best team in Norway (behind 13-times in a row champions Rosenborg), with league silver medals in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2002 and cup championship in 1994 and 2005, and the participation in the Champions League in the 1999–2000 season, when Real Madrid, Porto and Olympiacos visited Molde. The club was the first professional club of former Manchester United player Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and in January 2011 he returned to manage the club. In his first season as manager, which also was the club's centenary season, Molde won the league championship for the first time. The next season Solskjær and Molde retained the championship. Today the club has approximately 900 members and around 55 teams in three departments.