Vålerenga FotballFor 104 years Vålerenga Fotball was a big club without a home of its own. Founded in 1913, it played its home matches in Oslo at Bislett and Ullevaal, borrowing stadiums that were built for athletics or for the national team. In 2008 the city council transferred land at Valle Hovin in the club's home district for the symbolic sum of one krone, and the club's own stadium opened there on 9 September 2017. The first match, a 1–2 defeat against Sarpsborg 08 on 10 September, drew 17,011 spectators, which remains the stadium record. The ground now holds 16,555, and the organised supporters' group Klanen occupies the south stand.
The club began on 29 July 1913 as Idrettslaget Spring, founded by a group of teenage factory workers in the Vålerenga district of eastern Oslo. A year later it was renamed Vålerengens Idrettsforening. Its supporters call it Enga, and it is also known as the Royal Blues, after the blue shirts with red trim and white shorts. Vålerenga is the largest football club in Oslo, and in 1989 it became the first Norwegian multi-sport alliance club, with football and ice hockey as its best-known sections.
The club has won the Norwegian league five times: in 1965, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 2005. The 1965 title was the first, and the 1980s were the golden age. The Swedish coach Gunder Bengtsson led the team to the championships of 1983 and 1984, and in 1985 it finished third. The most recent title, in 2005, was won narrowly. Vålerenga finished with 46 points from 26 matches, with 13 wins, 7 draws and 6 defeats, one point ahead of Start. The year before it had finished second to Rosenborg, level on points and goal difference but with fewer goals scored. The era was led by Kjetil Rekdal, and the club also took bronze in 2006 and again in 2020.
In the Norwegian Cup Vålerenga has won four trophies, in 1980, 1997, 2002 and 2008. The first came with a 4–1 win over Lillestrøm in 1980, with players such as Tom Jacobsen and Vidar Davidsen. The club lost the finals of 1983 (0–2 to Moss) and 1985 (1–4 to Lillestrøm). The 1997 cup was part of a remarkable season: Vålerenga also won the First Division and returned to the top flight. It beat Strømsgodset 4–2 in the final at Ullevaal, with goals from Kjell Roar Kaasa, Espen Haug, Espen Musæus and Bjørn Arild Levernes, and the young John Carew was in the starting line-up. In 2002 Levernes scored again, after five minutes, for a 1–0 win over Odd, with Rekdal as playing coach. In 2008 Vålerenga beat Stabæk 4–1.
The cup win of 1997 led to the club's best European run. In the 1998/99 Cup Winners' Cup it went through against Rapid București on away goals after a 2–2 draw in Romania and a 0–0 draw in Oslo. Against Beşiktaş it won the first leg 1–0 at home, then trailed 3–0 at half-time in Istanbul on 5 November 1998 but came back to draw 3–3 and win 4–3 on aggregate. In the quarter-finals Chelsea won 3–0 in London and 3–2 in Oslo, and the English club went through 6–2. Vålerenga came close to the Champions League group stage in 2005/06. After beating Haka 5–1 on aggregate, it drew 1–1 over two legs with Club Brugge, winning 1–0 at home and losing 1–0 after extra time in Belgium, and went out 4–3 on penalties. It then lost to Steaua in the UEFA Cup.
The club's history has not been free of crises. It was saved from bankruptcy in 1987 and relegated in 1990 and 1996, and the 1997 double was the answer to the second of those falls. In 1998, the club's first season back in the top flight after the double, it was bottom of the table in the summer, but Egil Olsen joined as sports director and the team finished seventh. In 2023 Vålerenga was relegated again, but it won the OBOS-ligaen in 2024 with 69 points and a goal difference of +51. In 2025, with Geir Bakke as manager, it finished sixth in its first season back in the Eliteserien.