Read below to find out who this club is – his favourite of the ten

I had a very pleasant surprise reading through Facebook this morning when I cam across a young Norwegian who has really got the groundhopping bug BIG style and is doing it with a clarity and focus that I fear I cannot match. I introduced myself and once he had got over the surprise of finding a Brit who could read Norwegian, I started asking him about his hopping and was delighted to find he has an excellent blog . I spent the next hour reading about his tour of “Verdens 10 eldste fotballklubber” which is “The Worlds 10 Oldest Football Clubs.” On the basis that the inspiration for TheShirt2010 was another Norwegian, Bjørn Heidenstrøm, it would seem wrong not to spotlight Erik’s excellent voyage of discovery in true Scandinavian fashion following in the footsteps of Thor Heyerdahl, Leif Erikson, Naddodd, Garðar Svavarsson, and Flóki Vilgerðarson ……and Bjørn. Unlike the others he was travelling reasonably comfortably with WiFi, Netflix, electric toothbrush inter alia.

He has kindly said that I can spotlight his blog which not only studies the 10 Oldest Club but has an eclectic range of articles on subjects as different as Glasgow pubs, Alderney, Herm and Sark, cider festivals in Trondheim and his beloved RBK. I guarantee that they are well worth a read and fortunately Google trans is truly excellent on Norwegian to English translation. That is partly because the two languages come from deep down in the Proto European language tree. There is reason to argue that apart from Friesian, Norwegian is the nearest language to English. Where this helps in translation is especially the syntax, the word order which is almost identical to English. There is little in the way of declensions and the verb conjugation is a dream compared to, say, Spanish. So, if you add it to your favourite translation app you should follow it comfortably without missing any of the meaning or message. TRANSLATE HERE

Yes, he spent his holidays bouncing around England, Scotland and Wales personally visiting these 10 clubs. As he says, he imagines that most will not have even heard of half of them, never mind visited them.

1. Sheffield FC (grunnlagt 24. oktober 1857)
2. Hallam FC (grunnlagt i september 1860)
3. Cray Wanderers FC (grunnlagt i 1860)
4. Notts County FC (grunnlagt 25. november 1862)
5. Stoke City FC (grunnlagt i 1863)
6. Wrexham AFC (grunnlagt 4. oktober 1864)
7. Brigg Town (grunnlagt i 1864)
8. Nottingham Forest FC (grunnlagt 1. oktober 1865)
9. Queen’s Park FC (grunnlagt 9. juli 1867)
10. Sheffield Wednesday FC (grunnlagt 4. september 1867)

He also shows his proficiency with a camera with a hundred plus great images and takes time to describe the history of the clubs. I must shamefully admit to not having being been to three of them, whilst four were visited during the SHIRT2010 TOUR and I have been to Wrexham , Queens Park and Sheffield separately.

He speaks especially highly of his reception at Cray Wanderers below and Brigg Town (above) and makes the very valid comment that he thinks that many of these non-league club seldom if ever get visited by international visitors. He jokes that he believes he is the only one on Fosen, probably in the whole of Trøndelag and maybe in the whole of Norway who has visited them. Now there is a challenge, Anders and Bjørn

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