Långholmen FC was founded in 2002 and is now an important part of the sporting and social life in Stockholm and also of the expatriate community.

It’s incredible to think that not so long ago the club was formed when a bunch of ex-pats used to meet up on Långholmen’s gravel pitch each Saturday to play football together.

Word spread around and from  8 or so players turning up each week, the numbers grew to sometimes over 30!  They were great times. All nationalities mixed together playing football for a few hours. It was a sense of belonging, that other like minded people wanted to rid the week’s stress and play football. It couldn’t have been a more humble beginning.

After many months of friendly kickabouts, the original group of members decided to enter into a league. We entered our first team in the lowest Korpen league (comparable to Sunday league football) and it was there the journey really began. We grew in numbers due to interest in the club and decided to enter into the Swedish pyramid footballing system (Stff) with a Division 8 team. Naturally  promotion entailed and the climb upwards started until we eventually reached Division 3 in 2010. After a tough year in the semi-pro division, we slipped back down and are now ready to aim higher as we sit comfortably in Division 4. Our Korpen team became two as the numbers of members grew. The team became known as Korpen 2 the following year. Some women partners/wives/girlfriends/contacts of some male members formed the original Korpen Ladies team in 2004. In 2008 there was enough interest from more female players to form a team which was also entered into the Stff set up. This was another defining moment for the club.
As the years passed, it was time to have a Veteran team for those players over 35 years of age. In 2011 the Vets team was formed completing the circle from young talent to experienced player levels.

We now have five teams: Div4 M, Div5 Ladies, Veteran, Korpen 11 and Korpen 7, regular structured training, casual kickabouts and a lively social network. In 2003 our team travelled to Berlin and played in an international tournament which they won. Great memories of that summer. We have hosted matches here in Stockholm to our international friends, for instance we have played the Royal Household Staff team from London, England and in 2010 the Tartan Army team before the national Scotland vs Sweden match and also the Royal Epsom team from the UK played a friendly against us on their visit to Stockholm a few years back. The high point for the club was eventually becoming runners up in the Stockholm Cup in 2011 which meant automatic placement in the Svenska Cuppen competition. The fixture draw put us in a match against Sweden’s most successful team IFK Göteborg! The media interest became massive with national and International news teams dubbing the match “David versus Goliath”. It was played on the 20th August 2012 at Grimsta IP in front of 670+ fans, tv cameras streamed it live plus many tabloid and Internet journalists were present to report. We lost 9-0 but at the end of the match it was us that celebrated like we had won!  A truly wonderful memory and night for the club. The buzz in the rammed Southside Pub watching the tv highlights on the late night sports news program with players, fans and strangers was legendary.

LFC has always been proud of its international mix of players. We like to consider ourselves an international club with a tradition of becoming a second-home for many a traveling footballer. We have had members from all over the globe play for us during the years. In total we have had 64 different nationalities play for us which without doubt makes us a truly International club. Many of our players have joined and then left due to either circumstance or work commitments. Others have passed through Sweden but felt the need to play football and have joined us. Many still play for us after years of service and commitment. Backing all these members up is a thriving social community of friends that meet outside the boundaries of the football pitches. The nature of the club’s international membership has led to it also becoming a place to ask for help and advice, for anything, from getting jobs, apartments or just a few people to share a pint with. Informal drinks and social events often take place at the home of our main sponsor, the Southside Pub in Zinkensdam, Södermalm. We’ve held dinner/dance parties every year where we congratulate and hand out awards to voted players and celebrate the past season, had meet ups, travelled abroad for team trips and hired training facilities outside of Stockholm.

In a nutshell, all this started on the Långholmen gravel pitch playing football on Saturdays..

69 nationalities and counting.....

Over the years we've had members playing for us from all corners of the globe.
Here are their nationalities, in no ranking order:

ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, NORTHERN IRELAND, IRELAND, SWEDEN, NORWAY, ICELAND, FRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, SWITZERLAND, ITALY, THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, GERMANY, POLAND, HUNGARY, ALBANIA, GREECE, LEBANON, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, LIBYA, NIGERIA, GHANA, EGYPT, KOREA, NEW ZEALAND, PERU, BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, CHILE, COLOMBIA, USA, CANADA, PANAMA, CUBA, SERBIA, TURKEY, MEXICO, BOLIVIA, MOLDOVA, BENIN, SAUDI ARABIA, ISRAEL, LITHUANIA, GEORGIA, DENMARK, VENEZUELA, AUSTRALIA, IRAN, IRAQ, ALGERIA, BOSNIA, AZERBAIJAN, CZECH REPUBLIC, PAKISTAN, SYRIA, CROATIA, ESTONIA, EQUADOR, COSTA RICA, CYPRUS, PORTUGAL....

NOSTALGIA: Below is a short piece about a Långholmen season of the past written by one of LFC footballing legends, Mr. James Passmore.

Three words:

Långholmen. Football. Club.

Three words that have started fires in the hearts of some and fear into the hearts of others.

A club that started as no more than a collection of travelers, lost souls and renegades searching for the opportunity to play ball, the chance to scream, kick, argue, curse, shoot, pass, score, celebrate, blame, suck in the frozen air, sweat in the summer heat, slip on the ice. How far we have come, gentlemen. And of course, ladies, now. But it has not been an easy ride.........this pre-season rambling of words is dedicated to you. All of you..all of us...the safe establishment of our club has required passion, understanding, organisation, discipline, empathy, sympathy, teamwork, even nagging and setting of rules. Our greatest victory to date is that we are still here as a club and facing a new season. In our second season, a season riddled with learning experiences, mistakes and “could do betters” we won two promotions, one league title, are still in the cup and walked off with a European cup winners cup! Go the L´s.....

The new season will bring new challenges and new faces. We welcome both with open arms. Old enemies will be fought on past and present battlefields, new enemies will find us tougher and more determined than ever. We may lose, as we have lost before, but we never give up....we will win, as we have won before, with grace and style. (Unless of course we play “Bajen break your legs”, just kidding) However before we look to the future, can we take one last glance at the past?
Indulge me....let me tell you some of my highlights from last season. Please “return all” and tell us yours...as last season is very shortly forgotten. Lest we forget......

Without a doubt the most important thing is the way the club settled down after the first few games. We found it hard to find our rolls, Who? Which team? Who does what? When? Where? Heated words were exchanged and e-mails were exchanged faster than trading floors tabs and half time arguments were the summer trend. We ended the season with harmony and focus in the club..and deserved our success.
The last Korpen game (against Gary Glitter) was almost broadcast to my sickbed live by supporters mobile phones. That game I am so sad to have missed. The Korp ten man victory against 11 and a ref...who can forget that....Daniels breathtaking saves to ensure the first Gary Glitter victory?
The apologies from the opposition for the behaviour of the referee? They come flooding back now....Teds 50 yard equaliser in Div 8, beating Viking away from home with more wounded players than fresh.. ...Putting 7 past the Tudor in style....

Our internal friendlies...wrought with competition, passion and excitement.....the final in Berlin!!! Oh my god... gladiators.....I have never been so knackered!.. :-) The last 10 minutes of that game was the strongest example of teamwork I have to date... Justin's desperate clearance..tackle after tackle... Goosebumps.

Some players playing for both sides...some in different positions, Roy of the Rovers stuff!.........Dara´s goal, one for the books....Peter´s curling corners and Beckham style free kicks, defenses giving nothing away and midfields running their hearts out...Richie's wonder goal, Mark and Tom running through on goal, Robbie scoring and scoring again, Bushnell getting a brace, Andy playing in three positions in 2 days, Div 8 scoring freely from all positions, Tim and Paul breaking the net frequently, the red cards, the yellows......the memories are great, thank you. Please send me your favourites. Half a season injured was made so much easier by our amazing performances. An enormous thank you to those in management and organisation and of course to our loyal supporters. I will leave you with a kind word and thought. The one thing that always stands out most from last season has nothing to do with a win, a goal, a personal or team achievement. It has to do with the club members attitude to each other and to newcomers. On the night that Artoo our star polish attacking midfielder striker was to be deported I asked him if he would be back and if he would miss Sweden. He said he would be back, but he would miss playing football with the boys...It then struck me how much a small club can mean to us. We have lost some friends to foreign shores and we have gained new ones. Thank you for the good times, the memories and the respect for each other that should stand us well for the challenges ahead.....

/James Passmore - LFC Legend.

We travelled down Memory Lane and asked a selected Långholmen legend to describe a personal memory of playing with The Stripes.

Deri Thomas: "3-2 at Ösmo. One of my happiest earliest memories of playing for LFC. Seeing as I scored the last-minute winner, sure the memory is a little bit self-indulgent, but it was a great day for the team. We'd traveled the long road down to Ösmo in expectation of a win against a team near the bottom of the league, but things didn't start too well and by half-time we were 2-0 down. I'd started as a sub but came on just before the second goal went in and the game looked lost. But we got back into the game, pulled the score back to 2-2 and then in the last minute I picked up the ball in the box, dribbled round the keeper and then passed the ball into the net. I just remember the total elation of the moment and seeing Chrissy and Mark O going totally mental on the sidelines. Great stuff....".