Randers FC () is a professional

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 ...

club based in

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().East Jutland, that plays in the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

, the top flight of the

Danish football league system The Danish football league system, also known as the football league pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league structure for association football in Denmark, in which all divisions are bound together by the principle of promotio ...

. Founded on 1 January 2003, the club builds upon the license of

Randers Freja Randers Sportsklub Freja (often abbreviated Randers Freja) is a Danish sport club with teams in athletics, handball, table tennis and football. History Randers Freja was founded in 1898, and was accepted into the Jydsk Boldspil-Union, JBU i ...

, a former three-time

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

winning team. the club had won the

twice in its history. Randers plays its matches at the 10,300-capacity Cepheus Park Randers.

History

The club was formed on 1 January 2003, as a collaboration between six local Randers-clubs; Dronningborg Boldklub (founded 1928), Hornbæk Sportsforening (founded 1945), Kristrup Boldklub (founded

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

(founded

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

), Randers KFUM (founded

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its ow ...

) and Vorup Frederiksberg Boldklub (founded 1930), continuing Randers Freja's (at the time) 1st division-team.

First years and Cup success

In the first season as a newly created club, Randers ended in fourth place in the Viasat Sport Division with 51 points. The captain of the Denmark national team which won

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having been inv ...

Lars Olsen Lars Christian Olsen (born 2 February 1961) is a Danish former footballer and current manager, who was most recently the manager of Esbjerg fB in the Danish Superliga. He started his coaching career with Randers in 2003, guiding them to promot ...

, was coach of the team. The following year, the team ended in second place with 66 points and was promoted to the country's best league, the SAS Liga. With only 24 points in 2004–05 season in the SAS Liga, Randers finished in last place. In the 2005–06 season, however, Randers redeemed itself, securing promotion back to the SAS League with 61 points while also winning the

with a 1–0 victory over

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...

in the final at

Parken Stadium Parken, currently known as Parken - Connected by 3 for sponsorship reasons, and as Telia Parken (2014–2020), is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (''Inner Østerbro'') district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from ...

on 11 May 2006. Randers was the first team since 1974 who managed to win the Danish Cup although playing in the second-highest league in Denmark. In mid-

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, the club brought in former Denmark national team midfielder

Stig Tøfting Stig Tøfting (born 14 August 1969), commonly known as Tøffe, is a former Danish professional footballer and assistant coach, who most recently was the assistant of Erik Rasmussen at AGF. Tøfting was a hard-hitting combative defensive midfi ...

on a free transfer, after AGF, his childhood-club, refused to let him play (even for free) due to his violent background with several sentences. Tøfting was appointed Assistant Coach in November 2006. In the 2006–07 season, Randers finished in eighth place with 38 points, as well as participation in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

the season before, where the club met ÍA of Iceland,

FBK Kaunas Kauno futbolo ir beisbolo klubas, commonly known as FBK Kaunas, was a Lithuanian football club from the city of Kaunas. History Banga Kaunas (1960–1993) The roots of the club can be traced back to 1960 when Banga Kaunas was founded and they p ...

of Lithuania and major club Fenerbahçe from Turkey. Before the start of the 2007–08 season, Randers signed former

England national team Team England usually refers to the name under which athletes representing Commonwealth Games England compete. England team or Team England may refer to: *Commonwealth Games England *England national football team *England cricket team *England nat ...

player

Colin Todd Colin Todd (born 12 December 1948) is an English football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Esbjerg fB. As a player, he made more than 600 appearances in the Football League, playing as a defender for Sunderland, ...

as its new manager. Randers started the season in great fashion, winning its first four matches (most notably a 5–0 win against

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but curr ...

). In the second half of the 2007–08 season, Randers continued to improve in the Danish league. With new signings

Marc Nygaard Marc Stephen Griffith Nygaard (born 1 September 1976) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Nygaard started his professional career in SC Heerenveen in 1995. He stayed with Heerenveen until 1997. He wa ...

and Søren Berg, expectations grew as the season progressed, and Randers ultimately finished in sixth place following a 2–1 win against

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a Danish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Brøndbyvester. Brøndby IF denotes the professional football section of Brøndbyernes ...

in the final matchday of the season. The 2008–09 season started in promising fashion for the club, recording a 3–1 win against the local rivals AGF. Randers continued its solid start with a 1–1 a draw with

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. In the third round, Randers was to play Brøndby away; the club had never defeated Brøndby away before. Randers won 0–3 following goals from Carsten Fredgaard, Bédi Buval and Tidiane Sane. After the five first rounds, Randers was still undefeated, though at the winter break Randers was placed mid-table.

Up and down years

On 4 November 2008 Randers announced that former Danish international John "Faxe" Jensen would become its new manager from 1 July following the ending of Colin Todd's contract. Todd, however, expressed his frustration about how Randers had dealt with the situation and openly criticised the club for putting him in a difficult situation. Jensen ended up taking the place as manager six months before schedule due to the club having reached an agreement with the then present manager Todd. Jensen was officially announced new manager on 5 January. He started his time in Randers in great fashion, winning the first league game of the season against local rivals AGF 2–1. However, the club failed to sustain the winning form when they went to draw against

Vejle BK Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six ...

and thereafter lost the following three games to the top three sides OB, Copenhagen and BIF. The team's losing streak culminated in a 1–6 to Nordsjælland. The club, however, responded well to the losing streak and won the next five games, ironically setting a new club winning streak. The season ended with a 3–3 draw away against Danish champions Copenhagen and a fifth-place finish, it highest league rank in club history.

claimed the golden boot for 16 goals during the season.

Morten Nordstrand Morten Nordstrand Nielsen (; born 8 June 1983) is a Danish former professional footballer, who played as a striker. He is currently the assistant coach of F.C. Copenhagen U17. He has played eight times for the Denmark national football team. ...

was later credited for a goal on penalty in the final match, and also had a goal tally of 16, but Nygaard was awarded the title as he was the first to reach the 16 goals. Randers and Faxe decided that Tøfting was not the right choice as assistant manager, and, on 1 May 2009, the club announced that Tøfting's contract would not be extended. On 2 June, the club announced that two of Jensen's colleagues from the Euro 1992-winning Danish side –

Henrik Larsen Henrik Larsen (born 17 May 1966), nicknamed ''Store Larsen'' (''Big Larsen''), is a Danish Association football, football manager and former professional player who played as a midfielder. He was last the manager of Lyngby Boldklub. He was the ...

and

Flemming Povlsen Flemming Søgaard Povlsen (born 3 December 1966) is a Danish football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a striker. Born in Aarhus and a youth product of Viby IF, Povlsen also played in The Netherlands, Spain and Germany, u ...

– as its new assistant managers; Larsen was named first assistant manager while Povlsen as assistant focused on the club's attack. However, after a catastrophic start to the 2009–10 season with only 2 points earned from 11 league games, Jensen and his assistants were released from their contracts.

Ove Christensen Ove Christensen (born 26 March 1950) is a Danish Association football, football manager who is currently the director of football of Denmark Series, Danish fourth tier club Silkeborg KFUM. He has managed a number of Danish Superliga clubs, and wo ...

was appointed new head coach for Randers for the remainder of the 2009–10 season. He was given the objective to save Randers from relegation, although Randers was projected to be relegated at the winter break by the media and experts. However, a historic comeback with 16 games without defeat meant that its topflight status was to be decided on the final day of the season. A loss to Brøndby would mean that if AGF won its game against OB, the best team of the spring season would be relegated. OB won 0–3 and Randers lost its first match in the second half of the season 1–3, ensuring Randers kept their top-flight status.

Yura Movsisyan Yura Movsisyan (; born August 2, 1987) is an Armenian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. Most notably, Movsisyan played for FC Spartak Moscow, Spartak Moscow in the Russi ...

was arguably the key in Randers' survival, as he scored 7 goals in 13 games. When Ove Christensen arrived, he gave the squad an overhaul and nine players were released or sold in the winter break of 2009–10 season. He also made several signings:

Anders Egholm Anders Høyen Egholm (born 15 May 1983) is a retired Danish professional football defender. Career On 6 November 2009, the central defender, with a contract expiring within the end of November 2009 with Danish side of SønderjyskE, signed an ...

from

SønderjyskE SønderjyskE is a Denmark, Danish sport corporation. They have a Football (soccer), football team (SønderjyskE Fodbold, based in Haderslev), two team handball, handball teams (SønderjyskE Håndbold, one male based in Sønderborg, one female bas ...

, Morten Karlsen from Nordsjælland and Søren Jensen on loan from

Odd Grenland Odds Ballklubb, commonly known as Odd, is a Norwegian professional football club from Skien. Originally the football section of a multi-sports club, founded in 1894 nine years after the club's founding. Most sports other than football and gymnast ...

. Christensen signed a new one-year contract as head coach on 17 May 2010. In the following season, however, Christensen could not follow up on the success and was fired after a loss to Brøndby. Peter Elstrup and Allan Kuhn were Brough in as caretakers but could not prevent Randers' relegation at the end of the season. Michael Hemmingsen was named new head coach with the first task to bring Randers back to the Superliga. With Hemmingsen as head coach, Randers ended the 2011–12 season in second place in the Danish 1st division, thereby earning promotion back to the Superliga.

League success and Europa League qualification

Despite having earned promotion to the

, Hemmingsen was replaced as head coach by former Randers coach

, who returned to the club following his coaching spell from 2007 to 2009. Randers did well in its first season after being promoted, ending its 2012–13 league campaign in third place, the club's best ever league finish. The team also reached the final in the Danish Cup, but lost 1–0 to Esbjerg. Nonetheless, the league result meant that Randers was to participate in the UEFA Europa League. It entered the tournament in the third round of qualifying, where it met

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

. Randers, however, lost the home match 2–0 and the away match 2–0, thus failing to qualify for the group stage. During the 2020–21 season, Randers achieved a significant milestone in their history by securing a place in the championship playoffs of the Danish Superliga via a fifth-place finish in the regular season. Moreover, the club claimed victory in the

after defeating

4–0 in the final at Ceres Park in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

, with goals from Erik Marxen, Simon Piesinger, and a brace by Mathias Greve. This triumph earned them the opportunity to participate in European competition in the 2021–22 season. Although they narrowly missed out on a place in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

after losing to

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

in the playoffs, they qualified for the inaugural

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

group stage. They finished second in their group after competing against

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

from the Netherlands,

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

from Romania, and Jablonec from the Czech Republic. This result secured their progression to the knockout stage, where they faced English powerhouse

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, which included Denmark national team captain

Kasper Schmeichel Kasper Peter Schmeichel (born 5 November 1986) is a Danish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Scottish Premiership club Celtic F.C., Celtic and the Denmark national footb ...

. Despite their best efforts, they were eliminated from the competition, thus concluding their European journey.

European record

During the 2006–07 season, Randers managed to qualify for the

as Danish Cup winners. During the 2009–10 season, the club was invited to participate in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

due to its second place in the Danish league Fair Play ranking – behind 2008–09 champions Copenhagen, which claimed Denmark's

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

spot. During the 2010–11 season, the club participated in the

due to its second-place finish in the Danish league Fair Play ranking – behind 2009–10 champions Copenhagen, which again claimed the Champions League spot.

Stadium

Randers Stadium

Randers Stadium Randers Stadium (), known as Cepheus Park Randers for sponsorship reasons (formerly BioNutria Park Randers, Essex Park Randers and AutoC Park Randers) is a football stadium, located in Randers, Denmark. It is the home ground of Randers FC. Rebui ...

was founded in 1961. It was built to hold 18,000 spectators and in 1969 a record of 16,500 people attended the

loss against

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English language, English, is a German professional association football, football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 ...

2012 rebuild

The stadium was rebuilt in 2012 and renamed AutoC Park with a capacity of 10,300 spectators. It was built by C. F. Møller Architects and is established on the former Randers Stadium site. On 22 September 2015, it was announced that local company BioNutria had bought the name rights of the stadium until 31 October 2018. On 14 November 2018, it was announced that Cepheus group had bought the name rights of the stadium for 3 years. The new stadium attendance record after the stadium was rebuilt, is 9,947, set against

Aarhus GF Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ) is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country where gymnastics and fencing were featured as its main sports. How ...

on 6 October 2019

Supporters

The largest supporter group is Nordtribunen (i.e. ''The North Tribune''), however there are more factions within the fandom of Randers.

Honours

**Third place:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

**Winners: 2005–06,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

**Runners-up:

* UEFA Fair Play League **Winners: 2009, 2010

Records

Most games played: 223 Mads Fenger Most goals: 41 Ronnie Schwartz Biggest league win: 5–0 Randers – AAB (in 2007) Biggest league loss: 1–6 Randers – Nordsjælland (in 2009),

– Randers FC (in 2012) Highest attendance(home): 11,824 Randers – Brøndby Longest run without defeat: 16 (29 November 2009 – 5 May 2010) Longest winning streak: 5 (13 April 2010 – 3 May 2010) Longest run without a win: 18 (31 May 2009 – 29 November 2009)

Players

Squad

Youth players in use 2024-25

Out on loan

Managers

(1 Jan 2003 – 24 Jan 2007) *

(1 July 2007 – 5 Jan 2009) * John "Faxe" Jensen (5 Jan 2009 – 6 Oct 2009) *

(7 Oct 2009 – 26 Apr 2011) * Peter Elstrup ''(interim)'' (27 Apr 2011 – 30 June 2011) * Michael Hemmingsen (1 July 2011 – 5 July 2012) *

(5 July 2012 – 30 June 2016) *

Ólafur Kristjánsson Ólafur Helgi Kristjánsson (born 20 May 1968) is an Icelandic Association football, football manager and former player, who most recently managed Danish club Esbjerg fB. Playing career Kristjánsson started his playing career at FH Hafnarfjör ...

(1 July 2016 – 5 Oct 2017) *

Ricardo Moniz Ricardo Moniz (born 17 June 1964) is a Dutch football manager and former player who is the head coach of Slovak club Trenčín. Playing career Moniz played for RKC Waalwijk, HFC Haarlem, Helmond Sport and Eindhoven. Coaching career Moniz was ...

(8 Oct 2017 – 26 Jan 2018) * Rasmus Bertelsen (26 Jan 2018 – 30 June 2018) * Thomas Thomasberg (1 July 2018 – 23 March 2023) * Rasmus Bertelsen (23 March 2023 – )

Staff

Management Team

Shirt sponsors

2003 – 2005–06:

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

2006–07 – 2009–10:

Umbro Umbro is an English sports equipment manufacturer founded in 1924 in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and based in Manchester. They specialise in football and rugby sportswear featuring their ''Double Diamond'' logo. Umbro products are sold in over 100 c ...

2010–11 – 2012–13: H2O 2013–14 – 2014–15:

Warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

2015–16 – Puma

League statistics

References

External links

*
News about Randers FC

Statistics site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Randers Fc Football clubs in Denmark Association football clubs established in 2003 Randers 2003 establishments in Denmark Sport in the Central Denmark Region Sport in Randers