The Valur men's football team, commonly known as Valur, is the men's football department of the Knattspyrnufélagið Valur multi-sport club. The club is based in Reykjavík, Iceland, and currently plays in the Besta deild karla, the top league of men's football in Iceland. The team plays it´s home games at Hlíðarendi in Reykjavík. The team's colours are red and white. Valur has spent most of its time in the top-flight of Icelandic football, spending only three seasons outside the top tier. Valur is one of the most successful football clubs in Iceland, with 23 Icelandic championships.

In 1911, football was still in its infancy as a sport in Iceland. football arrived here freely before the turn of the century, and like everywhere else, it captivated the minds of young people. In 1908, a youth department was founded within the YMCA in Reykjavík, and Reverend Friðrik Friðriksson was the leader of the department and enjoyed unquestioned respect. The boys not only attended meetings at the YMCA with priest Friðriki, a board club was founded, a band was active and much more.

At this time, the YMCA boys had an idea to start a fottball club, but several such clubs had already been founded in Reykjavík. It was then on May 11, 1911 that a meeting was held in the YMCA reading room where six boys founded the YMCA Football Club, but the name of the club was already changed to Val in the same year. The story goes that when these founders of the club were working on fixing their football field at Melunum in Reykjavík, a falcon hovered over their heads and that's when they got the idea to call the club Val. At the inauguration of the first Valsvallar in Melunum in the fall of 1911, priest Friðrik gave a speech in which he encouraged the boys to continue on the path they had set out on and also reminded them of honesty in play and work and that peace, love, unity, beauty and energy should reign in the work and nothing indecent and ugly should ever flourish. In 1915, Valur participated for the first time in the Icelandic national championship in football, but in addition to them, Fram and KR competed in the tournament. In 1916, a junior division was founded in the association, called Væringjar, for boys in YMCA up to the age of 15 who from that age joined Valur. In 1919, this group of young Valsmen won the so-called fallmeet, and it was the club's first tournament victory.

Valur won its first Icelandic championship in 1930, nineteen years after the club was founded. A long-awaited dream had come true, but Reverend Friðrik told the newly crowned champions that a victory would certainly be good, but one should not overestimate or show arrogance, but Reverend Friðrik always had various advice for the Valsmen, i.a. about boyish play and pomp. The club didn't win their next national championship until 1933 and then four years in a row from 1935-1938, again in 1940 and then again four years in a row from 1942-1945.

In March of 1984, the Valur football department signed a contract with Ian Ross, a Scotsman who previously had, among other things, played football for Aston Villa and Liverpool but also had a lot of experience as a coach, meaning that Ross would take over the coaching of the men's football team. Ross quickly proved himself as a coach, but the team finished second in the league in his first season. Ross led the team to victory in the top tier in football a year later and repeated the feat in 1987.

Valur participated in the Icelandic men's football tournament for the first time in 1915 and, as stated previously, won the Icelandic championship for the first time in 1930. In total, the club has won the Icelandic championship 23 times, the most recent success being in 2020.^[1][2] This makes Valur the second most decorated club in Iceland.

In a reshape in the fall of 2022, following a disappointing season, Valur appointed Arnar Grétarsson as manager soon after he was sacked as manager of KA Akureyri, after having notable success as manager in the northern capital the Icelandic giants hope to bring stability to their setup. Along with Arnar Grétarsson Valur appointed Sigurður Höskuldsson former manager of Leiknir Reykjavík as assistant manager.

After the 2022/2023 season, Sigurður Höskuldsson and Valur parted ways, with Sigurður taking the manager job of Þór Akureyri. Valur appointed former captain and most capped player Haukur Páll Sigurðsson as assistant manager.

In March 2024 the club signed Icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson on a two year contract, a move widely regarded as the biggest signing of an Icelandic club. this signing signalled the clubs intentions of a championship run for the 2024 season.

Valur first competed in Europe at the 1966–67 European Cup Winners' Cup Preliminary Round, drawing 1–1 with Standard Liège but ultimately losing on aggregate 9–2. Since then, the club has participated in European competition twenty times, never advancing beyond the second round of any tournament.

Valur holds the record attendance for a football match in Iceland, with 18,243 spectators in attendance for their match against Benfica in 1968.^[3]

More information Season, Competition ...

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1966–67	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	Preliminary Round	Standard Liège	1–1	1–8	2–9
1967–68	European Cup	First round	Jeunesse Esch	1–1	3–3	4–4(a)
		Second Round	Vasas	0–6	1–5	1–11
1968–69	European Cup	First round	Benfica	0–0	1–8	1–8
1974–75	UEFA Cup	First round	Portadown	0–0	1–2	1–2
1975–76	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Celtic	0–2	0–7	0–9
1977–78	European Cup	First round	Glentoran	1–0	0–2	1–2
1978–79	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	1. FC Magdeburg	1–1	0–4	1–5
1979–80	European Cup	First round	Hamburg	0–3	1–2	1–5
1981–82	European Cup	First round	Aston Villa	0–2	0–5	0–7
1985–86	UEFA Cup	First round	Nantes	2–1	0–3	2–4
1986–87	European Cup	First round	Juventus	0–4	0–7	0–11
1987–88	UEFA Cup	First round	Wismut Aue	1–1	0–0	1–1(a)
1988–89	European Cup	First round	Monaco	1–0	0–2	1–2
1989–90	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	BFC Dynamo	1–2	1–2	2–4
1991–92	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Sion	0–1	1–1	1–2
1992–93	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Boavista	0–0	0–3	0–3
1993–94	European Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying round	MyPa	3–1	1–0	4–1
		First round	Aberdeen	0–3	0–4	0–7
2006–07	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round	Brøndby IF	0–0	1–3	1–3
2008–09	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	BATE Borisov	0–1	0–2	0–3
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Brøndby IF	1–4	0–6	1–10
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Ventspils	1–0	0–0	1–0
		Second qualifying round	Domžale	1–2	2–3	3–5
2018–19	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	Rosenborg	1–0	1–3	2–3
	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	FC Santa Coloma	3–0	0–1	3–1
		Third qualifying round	Sheriff Tiraspol	2–1	0–1	2–2 (a)
2019–20	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	Maribor	0–3	0–2	0–5
	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	Ludogorets Razgrad	1–1	0–4	1–5
2021–22	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round	Dinamo Zagreb	0–2	2–3	2–5
	UEFA Europa Conference League	Second qualifying round	Bodø/Glimt	0–3	0–3	0–6
2024–25	UEFA Conference League	First qualifying round

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• Úrvalsdeild^[4]
  • Champions (23): 1930, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1956, 1966, 1967, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1985, 1987, 2007, 2017, 2018, 2020^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• Icelandic Cup
  • Champions (11): 1965, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2005, 2015, 2016
• Icelandic League Cup
  • Champions (4): 2008, 2011, 2018, 2023
• Icelandic Super Cup
  • Champions (11): 1977, 1979, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2006, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018