The Soccer Team That Lives in Perpetual Darkness (Joshua Robinson, Feb. 12, 2025, WSJ)
The thing about playing for a professional soccer team located north of the Arctic Circle is that you have no choice but to accept a few cold truths.For much of the year, it’s going to be frigid. It’s going to be windy. And it’s going to be dark.
That’s all part of the deal when you sign for Bodo/Glimt, the unlikely upstart that has won four of the past five Norwegian championships. The club is based in the small town of Bodo, on the skinny northern stretch of the country, 67 degrees above the equator and a 10-hour drive from any sizable city. For the past few months, it has sat in near permanent darkness.
Bodo/Glimt is so far north that even other Norwegians think it’s a little too remote. But to the club’s players, simply existing there is the ultimate home advantage.
“I see it in the eyes of opponents when they come to Bodo,” central defender Jostein Gundersen says. “To be honest, we also think it’s really cold—it’s not like we don’t feel it. But we know it’s much worse for them. So we hope for it to be a little bit cold, and windy, and dark and snowy.”