Idrottsklubben Sirius, more commonly known as IK Sirius or Sirius, is a Swedish professional

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

located in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. The club is affiliated to the

Upplands Fotbollförbund The Upplands Fotbollförbund (Uppland Football Association) is one of the 24 district organisations of the Swedish Football Association. It administers lower tier football in the historical province of Uppland. Background Upplands Fotbollförb ...

History

Founding

The sports club that became IK Sirius was founded on 9 August 1907, and got its current name on 5 April 1908 after having been discussing Svartbäckens IK and IK Spurt. At the time, several sports club existed in the city of

: IFK Uppsala, IF Thor, IF Heimdal, and Upsala IF. The sports club was founded for

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

, and took up

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in 1908. The first success came in 1924 when they reached the Svenska Mästerskapet final (not to be confused with

Svenska Serien Svenska Serien (literally, "The Swedish Series", also Svenska Fotbollserien, "The Swedish Football Series") was the highest league in Swedish football and was played since 1910–1917, 1920–1921, and 1922–1924. It was then replace ...

, which never acquired an official status of deciding the Swedish Champions). In the final, they were trounced 5–0 by Fässbergs IF.

The Allsvenskan years

The club spent the next forty years in lower division anonymity, before favourable economic circumstances enabled them to gain promotion to

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

in 1968, although they were relegated after just one season. The high point was arguably in the years 1973–1974, when the club again gained promotion to the highest league and its squad contained a number of high-profile players, such as Roland Grip, then a member of the Swedish national team.

Obscurity and comeback

After the club's relegation from

in 1974, the club played in the second division until they plummeted to fourth division level following a couple of hard years in the beginning of the 1980s. The 1990s were mostly spent at a second tier level, i.e. the old Division 1, corresponding to the modern

Superettan Superettan (; ) is an association football league and the second highest league in the Swedish football league system, league system of Swedish football, Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and rel ...

. The club then played the first five years of the 21st century in Division 2, before returning to Division 1 in 2006 (although still playing at a third tier level). With new manager

Magnus Pehrsson Karl Magnus Pehrsson (born 25 May 1976) is a Swedish Association football, football manager and former professional player who is the Director of Football at Spanish club Vélez CF. Club career Pehrsson started his career in IFK Lidingö. He p ...

and prodigal son and goal-getter Olle Kullinger (starting his career with IF VP and later also having played with Enköpings SK,

Halmstads BK Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad () or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish professional Association football, football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club, formed 7 February 1914 and app ...

and

IF Brommapojkarna Idrottsföreningen Brommapojkarna, more commonly known as Brommapojkarna (meaning ''the Bromma boys'') or simply BP, is a Swedish association football, football club based in the borough of Bromma, in the western parts of Stockholm municipality ...

in Superettan and Allsvenskan) bearing the captaincy, the club finished the season in second place, which meant they had to qualify to gain promotion to Superettan. IK Sirius played the first leg at home against

Väsby United Athletic Football Club Eskilstuna, also known as AFC Eskilstuna or simply AFC, is a Swedish professional football club based in Eskilstuna. The club has previously been known under the names FC Café Opera and Väsby United before switching owne ...

on 25 October. Due to some seriously poor defending, Väsby were able to go 1–0 up just before the half-time break. Sirius recovered slightly in the second period, and were able to equalise in the 83rd minute. In the second leg, in front of about 1000 travelling fans, Sirius were completely dominant but also rather wasteful with their chances. They managed, however to break the deadlock in the 73rd minute, Olle Kullinger managing to knock a rebound past the Väsby keeper. With the aggregate score of 2–1, Sirius celebrated their 100th anniversary in the Superettan, which their fans thought was reprehensible and awful.

The first spell in Superettan

resigned as manager and Pär Millqvist was appointed and brought in Gary Sundgren as his assistant manager. After a strong first half of the season the club finished 7th in

2007. The team struggled through most of the 2008-season but finally finished 12th and avoided relegation. Millqvist and Sundgren was sacked after the first six games and youth-team coaches Johan Mattsson and Andreas Brännström led the team for the rest of the season. In preparation for the 2009 season they appointed Jens T Andersson from Väsby and AIK as new manager. Like the season before they struggled in the bottom of the league and with just five games left to play of the season Jens T Andersson resigned as manager due to the lack of good results. Assistant coach Andreas Brännström was once again hired as new head manager but this time he could not save the team from degradation. In 2010 IK Sirius played in the third tier Division 1 Norra and finished 2nd in the table 5 points behind rivals Västerås SK and as a result they went through to the Superettan play-offs, where they went head-to-head with Jönköpings Södra. After a 0–1 defeat at home they lost the away game with 3–0 and faced another season in Division 1 Norra. 2011 the team was voted by all the managers of the league as favourites to win but failed to live up to the expectations. They finished 3rd in Division 1 Norra, just 2 points from finishing first and goal-difference kept them from the second spot which leads to Superettan play-offs. As a result, coach Andreas Brännström and his assistant

Antonio Andric Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ...

was forced to leave the club after the season.

Promotion to Allsvenskan with Kim Bergstrand and Thomas Lagerlöf (2012–2018)

On 17 November 2012 the club announced that the ex-

Brommapojkarna Idrottsföreningen Brommapojkarna, more commonly known as Brommapojkarna (meaning ''the Bromma boys'') or simply BP, is a Swedish football club based in the borough of Bromma, in the western parts of Stockholm municipality. Brommapojkarna is th ...

manager

Kim Bergstrand Kim Hilding Bergstrand (born 18 April 1968) is a Swedish association football, football coach. Career Playing career Bergstrand played for AIK Fotboll, AIK, Hammarby Fotboll, Hammarby IF, Nacka FF and IF Brommapojkarna. He became List of S ...

had been appointed as the new head coach. Soon thereafter Thomas Lagerlöf (ex-Väsby) was appointed as assistant manager. In 2012 the team were once again the favourites to win the Division 1 Norra, and led the league by five points with three games left. A 0–1 home defeat to Vasalund and a 1–0 away win at

Enköping Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018. Geography Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of Stockholm. A comparably large number of S ...

set the team up for an all-decisive match against second-placed

Östersunds FK Östersunds Fotbollsklubb, commonly known simply as Östersunds FK, Östersund () or (especially locally) ÖFK, is a Swedish professional Association football, football club located in Östersund, Sweden, that plays in the Swedish second tier, S ...

. Sirius needed a draw to win the league, but lost at home 0–1 and ended up third, also behind BK Forward. The 2013 season began with an unexpected success in the Swedish Cup, as Sirius defeated reigning Swedish champions

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

to win their group and advance to the quarterfinals, where they were knocked out away to Öster, 1–2. The team had been bolstered by the signing of several experienced players, including former Djurgården, Molde and Sweden midfielder Johan Arneng. This time all the pieces fell into place as the team won the Division 1 Norra handily, securing promotion to

with five games still in hand, and ending the season undefeated. The 2014 season again began with Cup success, as Allsvenskan teams Djurgården and Halmstad were dispatched in the group stages, setting up a quarterfinal with

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

. At

Ullevi Ullevi, sometimes known as Nya Ullevi (, ''New Ullevi''), is a multi-purpose stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was built for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but since then has also hosted the World Allround Speed Skating Championships six times; the ...

, Moses Ogbu's 29th-minute header gave Sirius the win. In front of a sold-out Studenternas, Sirius faced Elfsborg in the semi-final. This time, Elfsborg got their revenge for last year's defeat, winning 4–1. The 2014 Superettan season began well for Sirius, with a 5–1 win away to former Allsvenskan outfit Syrianska. Two somewhat surprising home defeats to Huskvarna and Varberg followed, and the team settled into a habit of playing well away but struggling at home. In the end, however, Sirius enjoyed a successful return to Superettan, finishing in sixth place, after a season that included wins against both the two directly promoted teams, Hammarby and

GIF Sundsvall Gymnastik- och Idrottsföreningen Sundsvall, more commonly known as GIF Sundsvall (), Giffarna or simply Sundsvall, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Sundsvall. The club is affiliated with Medelpads Fotbollf� ...

. On 24 October 2016, Sirius defeated Halmstads BK 1–0 to gain promotion to the

for the first time in 42 years (since the 1974 season). After the 2018 season, Bergstrand and Lagerlöf left to join

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

Season-to-season

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Notable players

The following players are either listed on the official IK Sirius website or have represented their national team. * Hans Mild * Hans Selander * Hasse Nilsson *

Henrik Östlin Henrik is a male given name of Germanic origin, primarily used in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. In Poland, the name is spelt Henryk but pronounced similarly. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Heiki (Estoni ...

* Klebér Saarenpää *

Leif Eriksson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of Ice ...

* Morgan Hedlund * Ola Andersson * Roland Grip * Freddie Hill *

Sigge Parling Sigvard Emanuel "Sigge" Parling (26 March 1930 – 17 September 2016) was a Swedish footballer. He also played ice hockey and bandy. During his career he played for Djurgårdens IF (1949–1960), IK Sirius (1960–1963) and Gefle IF (1963–1965 ...

* Kjell Johansson * Per Hansson * Darren Foreman *

Golli Hashempour Golli may refer to: * Goli, Iran (disambiguation), several villages also spelled as "Golli" * Golli myelin basic protein (Golli-MBP; or "golli"), an expression of MBP, myelin basic protein * Ramesh Golli, a sprint kayaker for India at the 2014 Asia ...

* Jano Alicata * Vadym Yevtushenko

Management

Technical staff

Managerial history

* Sid Huntley (1972) * Alan Ball Sr. (1974–1976) * Kjell Jonevret (1998–1999) *

(2006) * Pär Millqvist (2007–2008) * Andreas Brännström (2009–2011) *

& Thomas Lagerlöf (2012–2018) * Henrik Rydström & Mirza Jelečak (2019) * Henrik Rydström (2020) * Daniel Bäckström (2021–2022) * Christer Mattiasson (2023–2024) * Andreas Engelmark (2025–)

Attendances

In recent seasons IK Sirius FK have had the following average attendances:

Honours

Cup

* Svenska Mästerskapet: ** ''Runners-up (1):'' 1924

League

: ** Winners (1):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* Division 1 Norra: ** Winners (1):

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

** ''Runners-up (2):'' 2006, 2010 * Division 2 Östra Svealand: ** Winners (1):

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Footnotes

References

External links

IK Sirius
nbsp;– official site (archived 17 April 2017)
Västra Sidan
nbsp;– supporter site {{DEFAULTSORT:Sirius IK Football clubs in Uppsala County Allsvenskan clubs Association football clubs established in 1908 1908 establishments in Sweden Sports clubs and teams in Uppsala IK Sirius 20th-century establishments in Uppsala County