Valur (men's football)

Early beginnings

In 1911, football was still in its infancy as a sport in Iceland. football arrived here freely before the turn of the century, and like everywhere else, it captivated the minds of young people. In 1908, a youth department was founded within the YMCA in Reykjavík, and Reverend Friðrik Friðriksson was the leader of the department and enjoyed unquestioned respect. The boys not only attended meetings at the YMCA with priest Friðriki, a board club was founded, a band was active and much more.

At this time, the YMCA boys had an idea to start a fottball club, but several such clubs had already been founded in Reykjavík. It was then on May 11, 1911 that a meeting was held in the YMCA reading room where six boys founded the YMCA Football Club, but the name of the club was already changed to Val in the same year. The story goes that when these founders of the club were working on fixing their football field at Melunum in Reykjavík, a falcon hovered over their heads and that's when they got the idea to call the club Val. At the inauguration of the first Valsvallar in Melunum in the fall of 1911, priest Friðrik gave a speech in which he encouraged the boys to continue on the path they had set out on and also reminded them of honesty in play and work and that peace, love, unity, beauty and energy should reign in the work and nothing indecent and ugly should ever flourish. In 1915, Valur participated for the first time in the Icelandic national championship in football, but in addition to them, Fram and KR competed in the tournament. In 1916, a junior division was founded in the association, called Væringjar, for boys in YMCA up to the age of 15 who from that age joined Valur. In 1919, this group of young Valsmen won the so-called fallmeet, and it was the club's first tournament victory.

The first championship titles

Valur won its first Icelandic championship in 1930, nineteen years after the club was founded. A long-awaited dream had come true, but Reverend Friðrik told the newly crowned champions that a victory would certainly be good, but one should not overestimate or show arrogance, but Reverend Friðrik always had various advice for the Valsmen, i.a. about boyish play and pomp. The club didn't win their next national championship until 1933 and then four years in a row from 1935-1938, again in 1940 and then again four years in a row from 1942-1945.

National champions under the management of Ian Ross

In March of 1984, the Valur football department signed a contract with Ian Ross, a Scotsman who previously had, among other things, played football for Aston Villa and Liverpool but also had a lot of experience as a coach, meaning that Ross would take over the coaching of the men's football team. Ross quickly proved himself as a coach, but the team finished second in the league in his first season. Ross led the team to victory in the top tier in football a year later and repeated the feat in 1987.