'Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur', (
Icelandic for "Reykjavík Football Club"), for short 'KR' or 'KR Reykjavík', is an
Icelandic
athletic club based in the capital,
Reykjavík. KR is the oldest and most successful club in Icelandic football and has won the Icelandic league four times in the last seven years.
History
KR was established on
February 16 1899, making it the oldest of its kind in Iceland. KR was the only football club in Reykjavík for a decade but as soon as other clubs were established there were plans for competitions. KR won the inaugural championship in
1912 after a play-off with
Fram.
After winning the title the club chose to wear the colors of the English champions of that year, whoever they might be, and have since then worn the black and white stripes of
Newcastle United. They won the first title after the Icelandic league was divided into two division in
1955, and in
1959 when the 1st Division was played on a home-and-away basis for the first time. KR also won the first Cup competition in
1960. KR was the first Icelandic club to play in European competition, facing
Liverpool in 1964 (The game was also Liverpool's first European game). KR’s women's team was also the first Icelandic contender in Europe, entering the inaugural European Competition in 2001.
Recent success has made decades of waiting for major trophies look like the distant past. When KR won their twentieth title in
1968, it was regarded as yet another title. No one could have foreseen that the club would have to wait for 31 years until its next success. Relegation to the Second Division in
1977 and heart-breaking near misses in 1990, 1996 and 1998, when KR lost out in the title race on the final day, only seemed to strengthen the solidarity within the club.
KR heimilið (The KR home), the housing of KR.
In KR’s centenary year in 1999 the men's team ended its long quest for glory in the most spectacular manner. The team had not won the league title for 31 years but nothing could stop them that year. They clinched the title with a 4-0 win over Víkingur in the penultimate round and then beat
ÍA 3-1 in the cup final in front of a capacity crowd at the national stadium. The women's team was equally successful, winning the league and the cup, and KR celebrated its centenary year with an unprecedented double-double.
In total, the men's team has won the league title 24 times and the cup ten times and during the last decade the women's team has won six league titles and twice won the cup. The men's team has three times won the double, in 1961, 1963 and in 1999.
After the season of 2006, KR introduced their new jerseys for the year of 2007. They will be playing in Nike jerseys.
Jersey
KR play, as previously stated, in the black and white stripes of
Newcastle United. The current sponsor of KR is the oil company
Shell. The company is well known in Iceland. Above the club badge on the shirt, although not featured in sold shirts, there are four
stars. Each star represents 5 league titles. KR currently have 24 titles and only need one more title if they want to add one more star above the badge. On October 20 2006, KR introduced a new deal with sport equipment manufacturer
Nike and will KR wear products from
Nike for the 2007 season.
The KR shorts are all-black and only carry the logo of
Shell and the squad number of the player.
The KR socks are all-black and are without a club badge
Sports played
Besides
football (soccer), which is the original sport for which the club was founded, KR today also practices
basketball,
badminton,
table tennis,
bowling,
darts,
team handball,
skiing, Icelandic wrestling and
swimming.
Grounds
KR has been playing at their own ground, ''KR-völlur'' in the west-end of Reykjavík, since 1984, having previously played at the national stadium ''(Laugardalsvöllur)'' and the old municipal stadium ''(Melavöllur)''. KR has had the highest attendances for the last nine years. Only 376 attended the first match at KR-völlur in 1984 but in the centenary year an average crowd of 2,501 saw KR’s home matches. KR lost the attendance record to FH's stadium, Kaplakriki in the year of 2005 but has retained the record attendance, according to recent attending numbers. These may not be the attendances seen at
Old Trafford but not many clubs get close to 1% of the nation to their home matches!
Current team squad
''Provisional as of
July 13th''
Transfers 2006-2007
'In'
'Out'
Starting line-up and formation
★ 4-4-2 formation
Their most common starting line up during the 2006 season was the following:
Selected former players
Fixtures 2007
Club Honours
★ '
Icelandic Championships: 24'
★
★ 1912, 1919, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1941, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1955, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1968,
1999, 2000, 2002, 2003
★ '
Icelandic Cups: 10'
★
★ 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1994, 1995, 1999
★ '
Icelandic League Cups: 3'
★
★ 2001, 1998, 2005
Famous Supporters
Bubbi Morthens at a KR game
Amongst famous supporters of KR there are: Björgólfur Guðmundsson,
Björgólfur Thor,
Bubbi Morthens, Gísli Marteinn Baldursson,
Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Bogi Ágústsson, Þröstur Emilsson, Mörður Árnason, Egill Helgason, Haukur Hólm,
Geir Haarde, Óli Björn Kárason, Gunnar Smári Egilsson and Bjarni Felixson.
External links
★
Official Website
★
Official Website (Soccer Section)
★
Adobe Illustrator (.ai) version of the logo
★
Icelandic Supporter Website
1. http://fotbolti.net/fullStory.php?id=47271
2. http://fotbolti.net/fullStory.php?id=47271
3. http://fotbolti.net/fullStory.php?id=47271
4. http://fotbolti.net/fullStory.php?id=47271
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
