Norrköping W

Founding and early years

IFK Norrköping was founded in 1897 by a group of teenage boys. They were inspired by what they had read in the youth newspaper Kamraten about the formation of the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna group of sports clubs around the country and decided to create their own in Norrköping. The first years of the club was mainly dedicated to ice skating and athletics but in 1902 they fielded their first ever football team.

During the 1910s and 1920s Norrköping took part in all the seasons of the Svenska Serien league which was the first national football league in Sweden before the Swedish football league system was established with Allsvenskan as its top tier. Their best result came in the very first edition where they finished in fourth place.

When Allsvenskan started in 1924 they were again part of the very first season of Swedens new top league. They would stay there until the 1929–30 Allsvenskan season when they were relegated to the second tier where they would spend most of the 1930s.

The golden era

After returning to top flight football in the 1940s the club saw the start of their golden era. A key component to their success was their strategy of scouting and recruiting players from small clubs across the entire country instead of just locally which was the norm at the time.

During the 1940s the club became swedish champions four times followed by another six titles during the 1950s and 1960s. They also won three Svenska Cupen titles during this period and participated in european tournaments such as the European Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup where they played against teams like S.L. Benfica, AC Milan and FC Schalke 04.

Recent years

On 31 October 2015, IFK Norrköping won its 13th championship title after defeating the defending champions Malmö FF with 2–0 away at Swedbank Stadion in Malmö in the last round of 2015 Allsvenskan. On 8 November that same year IFK Norrköping won the last ever edition of Svenska Supercupen, beating Svenska Cupen winners IFK Göteborg 3–0.