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It all started at Rosenborg which is a central residential area in Trondheim, Norway. Some boys decided to start their own football club, and the name they selected was “Odd”. They chose this strange name to English ears because of the leading football club at that time - “Odd Skien”. In 1927, the name was changed to “Rosenborg Ballklub”. Four years later, in 1931, Rosenborg played in the A-league for the first time. In 1933 Rosenborg qualified for the Norwegian Cup.
Odd (later Rosenborg) - Frem 2-0, Tempebanen 1923.
After the Second World War, Rosenborg grew. Lerkendal Stadium was opened in 1947, with provisional stands and dressing rooms. Then, in 1960 Rosenborg took a step up to the absolute top of Norwegian Football by defeating Odd Skien in the Norwegian Cup Final. From 1961 to 1963 Lerkendal had a permanent stand and dressing rooms (replaced by the new Bygger’n stand in 2002). In 1964, Rosenborg took its second cup trophy home to Trondheim. Rosenborg played in the European Cup for the first time in 1965.
Now Rosenborg really started to get a grip on things. 1967 was the first year the club played in the first division, and ended the debut season by winning the league title! In the next season, Rosenborg-legend Nils Arne Eggen was awarded the “Player of The Year”-award and another legend, Odd Iversen became the league’s top scorer by scoring 30 goals in one season (18 matches). The same year Lerkendal got floodlights and Rosenborg played its first match in the Champions Cup against Rapid Wien. Rosenborg won another league title in 1969.
1971: The Double for the first time. Cup final lineup: back from left: Geir Karlsen, Jan Christiansen, Knut Jenssen, Bjørn Low, Erling Næss and Kåre Rønnes. Front, from left: Erling Meirik, Arne Hanssen, Bjørn Wirkola, Tore Lindseth and Terje Mørkved.
In 1971, Nils Arne Eggen started to work in a new position he later would gain a lot of respect for. He became the head coach of Rosenborg and in the same year Rosenborg took The Double. The next years were not as great as the past few years. In 1974, Rosenborg suffered its greatest loss so far, when Hibernian won 9-1.
But it was not until 1977 – by the way the same year as keeper-legend Ola By Rise got his debut – things were really bad and Rosenborg was relegated to the 2nd division.
In 1978, “Brakka”, an old German coal store from the 2nd World War became Rosenborg’s new clubhouse and Nils Arne Eggen returned to be Rosenborg’s head coach. With Eggen back in charge, Rosenborg was up in the top division the following season.
After a long career as a tremendous goal scorer, Rosenborg’s legendary goal-getter Odd Iversen walked off the pitch for the last time. He is still remembered by young and old as one of the greatest profiles in Rosenborg’s history. During the next few seasons, Rosenborg was in the middle of the table, but Sverre Brandhaug became the top goal scorer in Norway in 1984. And in the following year, Rosenborg won the league championship in the last match of the season, home against Lillestrøm. The match gathered 28 569 spectators at Lerkendal, which is still the all-time attendance record.
1988: League- and Norwegian Cup winners.
Nils Arne Eggen had been coaching Moss FK and helped them win the league championship in 1987. He came back to Trondheim in 1988 and this marked the start of a new great era in the history of Rosenborg Ballklub. Legends Jan Ivar “Mini” Jacobsen, Ørjan Berg and Kåre Ingebrigtsen all got their debut for Rosenborg the same year. 1988 ended with The Double. When the team got back from the cup finale, thousands of supporters gathered outside Hotel Britannia in the centre of Trondheim to cheer the players.
Success after success followed. Rosenborg took The Double in 1990 and in 1992 and the league title in 1993 and 1994. Nils Arne Eggen and Rosenborg again took The Double in 1995, and played for the first time in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. I the same year the international press described Lerkendal stadium as “antiquarian”.
Rosenborg kept up its head of steam and took the league title every year from 1996 to 2002. (Trond Sollied was the head coach in 1998), and participated in UEFA Champions League every season. Rosenborg had their record league victory when Brann was hammered 10-0 at Lerkendal in 1996. In the same year the old north stand had to go, and the new Adidas stand was build. Rosenborg took The Double again in 1999.
Lerkendal stadium as we like to see it, bathed in floodlight.
The upgrade of Lerkendal stadium started in 2000 and in the autumn of 2002 Rosenborg could welcome spectators to a top modern Lerkendal stadium. Nils Arne Eggen retired as head coach the same autumn, together with legend Bent Skammelsrud who played his last match for Rosenborg against Lyon at Lerkendal. The following ceremony will stand forever as a milestone in Rosenborg’s history: for 30 minutes, over 20 000 supporters stood cheering Norwegian football’s number ones.
Åge Hareide became head coach after Eggen. Together with the players he followed the recipe of recent years, and brought home Rosenborg’s 12th consecutive league title. He also brought Rosenborg all the way to the Cup finale, where The Double was secured against Bodø/Glimt. Hareide left the job for an offer to become the Norwegian team coach of Norway in the autumn of 2003, and Rosenborg then had to look for another head coach. Rosenborg choose the former RBK goalie Ola By Rise as new head coach. He had many years of playing for Rosenborg, and was the player with most games for the club.
The highlight of 2004 came in the last league match at Lerkendal. Rosenborg headed the Tippeligaen, but only by more scored goals then the number two, Vålerenga. Which team would become title holder was not settled until both matches were finished. Rosenborg once again became league champions. At the end of a tough and even season – that also ended in participation in the UEFA Champions League – Rosenborg and Ola By Rise decided to end the coaching agreement.
Ola By Rise’s assistant coach, Per Joar Hansen stepped up and took the responsibility as head coach the next season, something that proved to be a tough task as Rosenborg had a difficult start to the season and half way through was number eight in the league table, 14 points behind Start at the top of the table. After a tough loss against Lillestrøm on 7th August, Per Joar Hansen decided to withdraw from the position as head coach. Per Mathias Høgmo was introduced as the new head coach the next day. He immediately started the work of getting Rosenborg back to the former shape.
Høgmo had a tough job ahead. Rosenborg was threatened by relegation, but Høgmo managed to turn the poor results around, and Rosenborg ended as number seven in 2005. Per Mathias Høgmo did a tremendous amount of work both on and of the pitch during the early months of 2006, but when results did not tally with expectations the job became tough for the new coach.
In the summer of 2006, Rosenborg was 10 points behind Brann and Høgmo decided to take a leave of absence due to the heavy work load. Assistant coach Knut Tørum stepped up as head coach, and managed with a minor amount of changes to bring Rosenborg into a winning streak. Rosenborg won all of the next seven matches and passed the leader Brann just before the two rivals met in Bergen. With Sapara’s great match-winning free kick in Bergen, Rosenborg had only a theoretical possibility of not taking the league title. Back in Trondheim, Rosenborg became champions with a 4-1 win over Viking, the ninth consecutive win, and the league title was back in Trondheim! It was also 20th league title in the history of Rosenborg.
With the fantastic and victourious autumn fresh in memory Knut Tørum took over the permanently control from Høgmo, who went on to work for the Norwegian Football Accosiation. But Tørum would, like his predecessor have a difficult spring season. Half way trough the season Rosenborg was down on a sixth place with nine points up to Stabæk who had the first place. Rosenborg especially had problems on away grounds, but still managed to qualify for Champions League in a convincing manner, with the 10-2 over Astana and 5-0 over Tampere in the doble legged qualifying rounds.
Rosenborg also played great football in the UEFA Champions League. Rosenborg got points in the 1-1-match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and 2-0 at home against the strong Spanish side Valencia. But the good results in the domestic series didn't come, and Knut Tørum had to leave as coach after the impressive victory against Valencia.
Trond Henriksen took control and led the team to a sensational 2-0 win away in Valencia in the next Champions League match. Also in the league ended good, and Rosenborg ended fifth i The Tippeliga. Rosenborg also came close to advancing in the UEFA Champions League, but with a defeat away against Schalke04 Rosenborg had to play in the UEFA Cup after New Year.
