When Viking drew with Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League in Stavanger, few outside Norway had fully appreciated the scale of what was unfolding. A club that once lost 5-0 in the Norwegian second tier — in front of just 274 spectators — had just held the reigning Bundesliga champions to a draw on European football's grandest stage.

For chief executive Eirik Bjorno, the significance crystallised with the first goal. "That was the moment," he tells Sky Sports. "You are preparing for wave after wave, maybe having a counter-attack or two, and then you score from the first corner."

Sporting director Erik Nevland, a former Norway international who once played for Manchester United and Fulham in England before returning to his hometown club, was more moved by the second goal. "You can always score early," he says. "But that was something that we had never dreamed of. It was crazy. More than we could expect. It was just a night for the history books."

A moment that made headlines across Europe

The third goal sealed a remarkable draw. Bayern had clawed back a three-goal lead of their own, but Michael Olise was sent off — and Viking capitalised. The night even generated controversy beyond the result: Bayern board member Max Eberl called Viking captain Zlatko Tripic a "scumbag" after Tripic's involvement in Olise's red card.

Nevland's response was good-humoured. "But he is our scumbag," he says, laughing. "We love him."

"It was the biggest game in our club's history," says Bjorno. "The most important learning is that we can actually compete. We can actually cope with the tempo."

Rock bottom: a 5-0 defeat in front of 274 fans

To fully grasp the journey, you need to return to June 2018. Viking, playing in the Norwegian second tier, were beaten 5-0 by Nest-Sotra — a club that no longer exists. They were four goals down before half-time. The crowd numbered 274.

"That was the absolute low point," says Bjorno. "It looked like we would not go up but we turned it around and got promoted by a point." Nevland is equally candid about what forced the transformation. "We realised that we were bad. Something needed to change."

Building a winning culture

The road back was built on a clear philosophy: homegrown talent, continuity of leadership, and a passionate connection to the city of Stavanger. Nevland, who has been associated with Viking since the age of seven — his mother even worked for the club — embodies that ethos entirely.

"I have dreamed about this since I was five years old," he says. "I played for the club from the age of seven and I never experienced this as a player. It is kind of a dream to win the league and to now represent Viking in the Champions League. This is my hometown club and it means everything. It is the proudest time of my life."

In 2025, Viking clinched the Norwegian title for the first time in 34 years. The club then secured UEFA Champions League football — and the financial transformation that comes with it.

Joint coaches and doing things differently

One of the most distinctive features of Viking's setup is their joint head-coaching arrangement. Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim, a long-serving former player, shares the role with Morten Jensen, who was also at the club as a teenager. It is unconventional, but Bjorno makes no apologies for it.

"Regardless of what people think or what the natural thing to do is," he says, "we need to ask ourselves what the best decision is for Viking. We genuinely thought it would make us better." Nevland goes further: "It was bold to do it that way. It was a gamble. But we were pretty sure we had to do something different to everyone else. It worked. Now, we almost cannot see another solution."

Sustaining the success

Domestically, Viking are level on points with Bodo/Glimt with seven games of the Norwegian season remaining, battling to retain their title for the first time in over 50 years. In Europe, trips to Aston Villa, Atletico Madrid, and Napoli lie ahead — a fixture list that would have seemed unthinkable from the depths of 2018.

The club intends to invest their UEFA Champions League revenues wisely. "We will definitely look at our facilities, our training ground, our stadium," says Bjorno. "We want Viking to be strong 100 years from now."

Nevland sounds a note of caution too. "The biggest danger in football is that you lose yourself very quickly because you are looking for success all the time. There are a lot of examples of that happening at bigger clubs." Viking, for now, know exactly who they are — and that, as much as anything, may be their greatest strength.