By Zach Lowy
Having made it through qualifying for Europe’s premier competition for the first time, Bodø/Glimt have already eliminated Scudetto favorites Inter, and now they will look to do the same against back-to-back Liga Portugal champions: Sporting CP. If they want to get past Sporting, they will need Jens Petter Hauge to be at his best.
Born in Bodø, Hauge was hooked on football early on and after joining Bodø/Glimt at the age of 12, he rose through the ranks before finally signing a professional contract on 12 April 2016. A day later, he came off the bench in the 64th minute and scored a hat-trick on his senior debut, leading them to a 6–0 cup win over IK Start.
“Of course, it was a really special day for me and a fantastic start to my professional career,” Hauge said in an exclusive interview with FotMob. “I hadn’t trained much with the first team before; a few days earlier I signed my first professional contract and they took me away for the first round of the Cup. I had no hope of getting minutes, but when the coach signed me I was very happy to have scored three goals at the end of the match. It was a special day for me and I will never forget that day.”
Hauge quickly made an impression on the team, becoming the club’s youngest goalscorer in the Eliteserien and watching the club suffer relegation to the second tier. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Hauge, who scored two goals and recorded 13 assists in 2017 to lead The super team to promotion.
After being loaned to second division side Aalesunds FK, Hauge came back strong in 2019 scoring 9 goals and 3 assists in 29 appearances in all competitions. He did even better in 2020, scoring 14 goals and 10 assists in 18 league matches and receiving the Eliteserien Young Player of the Year award. And after finding the back of the net against AC Milan, Hauge left his hometown and joined Milan for 5 million euros. Unfortunately for him, Hauge was unable to make his presence felt at the Rossoneri and eventually left after a year and joined Eintracht Frankfurt, where he won the UEFA Europa League title and enjoyed success under current Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner.
“German football is amazing: they have the best fan atmosphere and the most full stadiums in the world… even in 2. Bundesliga you will see teams filling their stadiums with 80,000 fans. The fans and culture were incredible, Eintracht itself is a really well run club and a great place to be, and the memories of the 2021/22 Europa League trophy are really special to me. [Glasner] Maybe that’s the main reason why I went to Frankfurt because I really liked his identity, the way he talks and understands football… he’s a top coach. I also had the pleasure of seeing him again when Bodø played Crystal Palace in a friendly, so it was nice to see him again. We also exchange a few messages from time to time, just to catch up. He was a really good coach, and the way he prepared our matches and the game plans… it was really exciting and interesting to see how hard he worked and how much he put into it.
After an unnecessary loan spell at Gent, Hauge found himself deprived of playing time upon his return to Eintracht. That’s why he decided to return to Bodø/Glimt in January 2024, quickly making a name for himself by assisting in their first two matches against Ajax. While in Italy, Germany and Belgium, Bodø/Glimt had won the first, second and third league titles in their entire history, and with Hauge delivering the goods in attack, they were able to win their fourth championship in 2024.
And although Bodø missed out on the 2025 Eliteserien title against Viking FK on the final day of the campaign, they managed to make progress on the continental front. After finishing ninth in the Europa League league stage, Bodø cruised past Twente, Olympiacos and Lazio, before losing to eventual champions Tottenham Hotspur in the semi-final. Hauge has proven his worth against a number of teams from Europe’s top divisions, and while he is more than comfortable at his boyhood club, he is not ruling out a return abroad.
“I think I’m in the best shape of my life right now. I think the next two or three years will be where I’m in my best physical shape, where I’m mature and my fitness is at peak performance. Hopefully that translates into good years and finding the time to go out again and try my hand in a top five league again, because that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I just have to keep working hard and playing my part. game, because my game is pretty good. Maybe I always wanted to do To be a little more consistent – I think that’s what all coaches and managers want when they sign new players – they want to make sure the player is at a good overall level. Of course, every player goes through ups and downs, but if I can make my rest periods less frequent and my best periods more often, that would help a lot of teams.
He may live in the Arctic Circle, but Jens Petter Hauge’s form is hot. He has scored four goals and registered one assist in his last five Champions League matches, and at 26 years old, there is reason to believe he will only continue to warm up. And if he can continue to lead the charge in the historic Bodø/Glimt European race, then he could very well land his first call-up to Norway since March 2025 and earn a place on Norway’s squad for the next World Cup.
“One of the most beautiful things about football is that no matter how big the city you come from or how cold it is here in the winter, when the referee blows the whistle, it’s 11 versus 11. Anything can happen if we believe in ourselves and trust the people around us. It’s incredible and really inspiring for other Norwegian clubs to see that it’s possible.”
(Cover image from IMAGO)
You can follow every Bodø/Glimt match with FotMob – with in-depth statistical coverage including xG, shot maps and player ratings. Download the free app here.
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
