Cliff Notes – Vålerenga’s remarkable UWCL story building hope for women’s football
- Vålerenga’s growth in women’s football is marked by their consecutive qualifications for the UWCL group stage, showcasing their competitive potential against larger clubs.
- The club’s strategic focus on player development and recruitment aims to position Vålerenga as a stepping stone for aspiring athletes, despite the financial challenges posed by bigger teams.
- The passionate support from the “Østblokka” fan section highlights the community’s commitment, as Vålerenga seeks to elevate its profile in women’s football amidst increasing competition.
Vålerenga’s remarkable UWCL story building hope for women’s football
Beth LindopNov 21, 2025, 11:00 AM
CloseBased in Liverpool, Beth Lindop is ESPN’s Liverpool correspondent and also covers the WSL and UWCL.
OSLO, Norway — When Karina Saevik steered home the opening goal for Norwegian minnows Vålerenga in their 2-2 draw at home to St. Pölten in the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) on Wednesday night, Agnes Viljugrein wasn’t even watching.
Instead, Viljugrein (who, by day, is a member of Norwegian parliament) was busy fulfilling her duties as Vålerenga’s ‘capo’; the leader of the “Østblokka” — the dedicated section of fans who work hard to generate an atmosphere from the first whistle to the last. For 90 minutes, the ‘capo’ is responsible for directing songs, cheers and drumbeats, and therefore spends the majority of the game with their back to the pitch, relying only on the facial expressions of fellow supporters to tell the story of the action.
“Until a few years ago, we didn’t even need somebody to do that job,” Viljugrein (pictured, below) told ESPN. “There wasn’t even a point because there was barely anyone watching the games. The size we are at now is bigger than we have ever been. We’re growing and building a community that really follows the women’s team.”
That growth is also reflected on the pitch, with Vålerenga having now qualified for the UWCL’s group stage/league phase for two successive seasons. At a time when the financial might of some of Europe’s biggest clubs is making the women’s game more competitive than ever, Vålerenga are proving they can hold their own and currently sit just outside the Champions League playoff places with a genuine chance of reaching the knockout stages.
“It’s been a very strategic goal for us to qualify for the league phase,” Vålerenga CEO Harriet Rudd told ESPN. “I came here in 2021 and that was our main goal from the start. It’s a milestone for us and financially it’s also very important. Of course, the financial gain isn’t that large and the cost is quite big as well. But I think strategically and for the future development of the club, it’s super important.
“We have to know where we are in the hierarchy of football and have a very clear strategy that we want younger players and players who want to develop. Players who are ambitious can come here and have this as a stepping stone, a place to educate themselves and gain experience in order to be able to take the next step. We have to make sure that the environment around the players enables them to do that. So the facilities, everything around training and matches is key.”
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Helping Rudd to shape the evolving landscape at Vålerenga is sporting director Steinar Pedersen, who joined the club in 2022 after enjoying a professional playing career that included a spell with Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund. In 2025 alone, four players in the women’s game have been transferred for fees upwards of $1 million (with the world record broken each time), but it is up to Pedersen to target quality players for a fraction of that price.
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“In terms of recruitment, European competition is really important,” he said. “The level the Norwegian league has reached traditionally has been alright, but still we have a lot of things to do. Few clubs really meet the requirements and standards of what we are facing in these competitions.
“We know players are coming to Norway to use Vålerenga as a stepping stone into bigger leagues, and we have to use that, combined with producing young talent that’s already in the country. We need to be a club where the future star players can develop.”
This year marks the beginning of a seismic revamp of the UWCL, with the number of teams competing in the league phase expanding from 16 to 18. From 2025 to 2027, participating clubs will benefit from a combined total of €18.2 million in prize money, with that figure set to increase to €24.1 million from 2027 to 2030.
For clubs like Vålerenga, receiving a share of that money could be hugely influential shaping the future of their women’s team, and Pedersen is always keen to collaborate with his European counterparts to ensure resources are being used in the most efficient and effective way.
“We have been fortunate enough to meet with those big clubs and to sit down and talk with them,” he said. “The differences in resources are very big, but there is a career path here for players that wasn’t there earlier. We need to educate them in order to meet the standards of higher level football. Of course, every young player dreams of playing for Arsenal or Barcelona, but it takes a lot of hard work to get there.”
Someone who knows firsthand how much hard work it requires to carve out a professional career is Vålerenga midfielder Olaug Tvedten (pictured, left), who joined the club from fellow Norwegian side Avaldsnes in 2021. On Tuesday, it was her strike from distance that put the hosts 2-0 up against Switzerland’s St. Pölten, before goals from Kess Elmore and Jennifer Klein earned the visitors a point at the Intility Arena.
While the result was a frustrating one in the context of Vålerenga’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages, Tvedten acknowledged that the club’s continued evolution is something to be proud of.
“We’ve had a very cool journey to becoming a top club in Norway,” she said. “The last few seasons, we’ve really had a plan, particularly in terms of competing in Europe. We’ve shown we can win games at that level and that we are continuing to develop. We’re not from a top-five European league so we know that players come here to progress. It’s a very good environment to do that, and we’re able to work towards winning here in Norway and performing in the Champions League also.”
Under manager Nils Lexerød, Vålerenga have won two Norwegian Toppserien titles in the past three seasons, also winning the Norwegian Women’s Cup in 2024. This term, the club reached another milestone, defying expectations to secure their first-ever Champions League away win with a 1-0 victory over Italian giants AS Roma earlier this month.
“That’s the interesting part of football,” Pedersen said. “There’s always a chance of producing these kind of results when facing opponents that are bigger than you. For us going into the game in Rome, we didn’t see ourselves as big underdogs because we know the quality of what we do.
“Of course, the bigger nations have big brands behind them like Barcelona, Roma, Bayern Munich — all the big names that invest a lot in order to bring their women’s team forward and to be able to be competitive in these kind of tournaments. For us, it is about getting a lot of good quality and results out of smaller budgets, and we have to find our way in order to produce those results.”
While some of Vålerenga’s European rivals have the benefit of a readymade global fanbase to rely on, the unrelenting support of the “Østblokka” (pictured above) is something that sets the club apart.
“When I started to become a football fan, I realized going to a match was like coming home,” Viljugrein said. “The songs, the people — I recognized the lot of them as neighbors. The community just felt right for me and I realized this is exactly what I needed in my life.
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“The only thing I’m worried about is that the growth in women’s sports, in football especially, is happening so fast that I don’t know if Norway is going to keep up. We come from a background with a very equal society but now I’m worried that there’s so much money in football and there are so many men’s clubs competing in the same markets as the women.”
Indeed, there is no question that Vålerenga have a fight on their hands when competing for support — both commercially and in terms of fan numbers — against teams backed by global juggernauts. The growing popularity of the women’s game has seen record crowds drawn to Champions League fixtures in recent years, with three-time winners Barcelona having twice attracted more than 90,000 fans to Camp Nou and holders Arsenal regularly welcoming tens of thousands to Emirates Stadium.
By contrast, just 409 supporters braved the biting cold to watch Vålerenga take on St. Pölten in Oslo (although 3,500 fans did turn out for last month’s clash with VfL Wolfsburg) but, while there is obvious room for growth, the feeling inside the club is that the task at hand is more exciting than daunting.
“I think that’s mostly just fun,” Rudd said. “It’s great to be able to compete with the big brands within football. The players think it’s great, both because of the attention that it brings, but also being able to challenge themselves in that way. When you reach a milestone like the win over Roma, then you know that you can take all these steps.”
For Vålerenga, the next milestone in their sights is progression to the Champions League quarterfinals, with the newly introduced knockout phase playoffs offering clubs outside the traditional elite a more viable chance of reaching the last eight.
The next two fixtures — at home to Paris FC and away to Bayern — will not be easy, however Lexerød’s side have shown that they are capable of going toe-to-toe with anyone on their day.
“It would be amazing to qualify but I don’t dare to dream about it yet,” Viljugrein said. “Even if we qualified, I’m not sure if Norwegian society would understand how big that really is for us. I hope that, if it really happens, we can show everybody what a big support culture of a women’s team actually can be, and show we’re big — not just on the pitch, but also off the field.”
That this season’s UWCL final is set to be held in Oslo — at the nearby Ullevaal Stadion; home of the national team — means the eyes of Europe will be focused on Norway next May.
For now, the prospect of Vålerenga reaching that showpiece fixture is inconceivable, but the club’s growth over the past few years has at least allowed fans to dream they could one day scale even greater heights. That, in itself, feels like a win.
– Photo credits: Ane Frøsaker / Grabthemomentphoto (unless otherwise stated)
