The nation is pushing for an officially recognized soccer team, and CONCACAF membership could be answer
Patrick Frederiksen was a pretty good handball player in his day. Tall, strong, and athletic, he played at the closest thing to a professional level that Greenland, his home country, had to offer. But then, injury struck. He was told that he couldn’t represent the national team in his favored sport.
And with his usual activity off the table, another filled the space. He was invited to the Czech Republic to join the national team in futsal, a version of soccer that is played indoors on a smaller court. Friedrecksen jumped at the opportunity, and after impressing there, outdoor football became an option.
“Another player got injured in a training match, so they put me on the field. I was one of the 11 starters, and that kickstarted my career,” Frederiksen told GOAL.
So began the tenure of the Greenlandic national team’s starting center back. His story is not uncommon for a nation – legally a Danish territory – trying to obtain CONCACAF membership. This is a group of talented athletes, who have their own distinct culture, pieced together to form a soccer team. And now, the country would argue that it has the infrastructure to be something more.
Not acknowledged by FIFA, and declined entry by UEFA, Greenland – complete with a fully fledged roster, plans for a national stadium, and viral kits – have turned to CONCACAF instead. And this time, a nation with a population of 55,000 might finally achieve the international legitimacy in the sport that they feel they deserve.
“We have a good organization. We have good people who work very hard. My expectation is to be the 42nd member of CONCACAF in 2026,” national team head coach Morten Rutkjaer told GOAL.
Greenland’s footballing culture is richer than you might expect, as 5,500 Greenlanders – some 10 percent of the population – play the sport. There is a well established and very competitive futsal culture. They have a professional outdoor setup, too, with eight teams competing in a yearly tournament.
Of course, there are obstacles. Greenland is very cold. Summer temperatures, nationwide, max out at 50 degrees. For most of the year, the country is covered in snow. In that context, playing outdoor, 11-a-side soccer gets tricky. And there isn’t currently a full size covered stadium, or sufficient indoor training facility to support a true national team.
Not that any of those potential dealbreakers have stopped this team.
KAKFinding the right coach
Rutkjaer’s affiliation with Greenlandic football started in 2018. The Danish born manager, who lives near Copenhagen, was invited to a conference to talk about coaching opportunities in his native land. He went. And he kept going back.
He returned time and time again to talk football, and with every journey, he slowly started to understand the Greenlandic people. Rutkjaer's footballing career existed in glimpses. He made 79 appearances for Denmark’s Boldklubben from 1993 to 1999, yo-yoing between the first and second tier of Danish football for six years. He was capped once for his country at an U19 level.
By 2007, he was in management full time, working as a reserve and then assistant coach. He spent one year as a manager for a professional club, overseeing Boldklubben as they returned from financial crisis into the football pyramid. He is not part of the traditional elite.
But eventually, a job offer came. And Rutkjaer couldn’t refuse.
“It is the land of the opportunities,” he said. “You could build up something from zero. It was a big opportunity to do something as a coach. So it's not only about football. It’s also to give something to the Greenlandic people, because they're very sweet. They're very helpful. They want the best for you.”
There were other options. He could have stayed in Denmark and continued his coaching career. But Greenland offered the chance to build something from the ground up. This wasn’t just about a men’s team. This was about an entire federation – youth systems, scouting, academies, and eventually a women’s setup, too.
He had one condition, though:
“The first thing I said – it was my ambition for this project – was to be a part of CONCACAF,” Rutkjaer said.
AdvertisementKAKManaging a player pool
There are enumerable complications. Proving that you can join a football federation is a long, lethargic process. Greenland had already been turned down once, with UEFA blocking them from entry – citing the fact that Denmark’s governmental ownership of the land rendered the country’s participation impossible (never mind that the Faroe Islands, also a Danish territory, compete in UEFA).
But for all of the paperwork, Greenland has one key advantage: talent. The futsal culture in the country has allowed football as a sport to develop. This isn’t a wintery landscape in which no one can kick a ball. Indoor football – although radically different to the challenges of 90 minutes outdoors – has ensured that Rutkjaer has plenty of talent to work with.
That didn’t make scouting easy, however. Rutkjaer has one assistant coach. That’s it. When he accepted the job, he held open tryouts outdoors – as soon as it was warm enough, of course.
He then spent the ensuing weeks traveling the country, identifying footballers for his squad – Greenland’s outdoor national football championship has existed since 1964, and was officially sponsored in 1971. By the end, he had a pool of 45 that he deemed good enough to play for the senior national team. But he also identified talents for the future, making note of players as young as 10 or 11 who could someday represent their country.
“It's easier to be a national coach in Greenland than in Denmark or in the USA, because it's a small country,” he said. “It's like a family. You know all the players. It’s maybe a little bit like being a father for them – it's easier to know all your children.”
CONCACAF and infastructure
So, there is a squad to work with. But infrastructure is a problem. The layer of permafrost that covers the Greenlandic landscape means that grass pitches are impossible to maintain. Some of the earliest football fields were either sand or gravel – none of which, of course, would be appropriate for any sort of high-level competition.
In recent years, though, artificial turf has been installed for the national championship. There is a fully-fledged field in Nuuk. With the right adjustments – including a roof to make it usable year-round – Greenland insists they can have a viable national facility.
“I think it's going to be a big step for us to play some football in the whole year, and not only in the three months,” Greenland FA President Ken Kleist said.
They applied for CONCACAF membership in May 2024. Their application is still pending. Asked about Greenland's application, CONCACAF declined to comment to GOAL. As of January 2025, Greenland still hadn’t heard anything from the federation – although there remains cautious optimism that they will be accepted.
“We haven't got an email or call or anything from them at all, really. That's a big problem,” Kleist said.
And that’s not where the problems end. As part of the application, Greenland had to make an argument as to where they could fit in the football federation – and find the appropriate level of competition.
The land mass notwithstanding, the country has a tiny population, and is unable to match up with powers such as the United States, Mexico and Canada. Instead, Greenland argued it could compete on the same level as the Caribbean nations such as the British Virgin Islands, Bonaire and French Guiana – which are also governed by European nations.
Hummel'We have a feeling of nationality in our heart'
So they have taken other measures to advance their cause. This whole thing, Kleist insisted, is about so much more than football.
There are political tensions involved. Greenlandic people don’t have a fractious relationship with Denmark, Kleist explained. Their national team coach lives in Copenhagen. The two nations have collaborated on sporting projects before, and they are helping fund some of the footballing infrastructure.
But they don’t feel Danish either. For perspective, nearly 90 percent of Greenlandic people are of Inuit descent,
“We are not European,” Kleist said. “We have a feeling of nationality in our heart. Of course, without getting too political, the Danish government colonized Greenland many years ago. Who likes to be colonized? We want to be independent in this sense.”
Meanwhile, the governance of Greenland has once again resurfaced as a controversial topic. The country’s prime minister said last week that the mineral-rich Arctic territory’s people don’t want to be Americans, but that he understands U.S. President Donald Trump’s interest in the island given its strategic location.
The comments by Múte B. Egede came after Trump said earlier in the week that he wouldn’t rule out using force or economic pressure in order to make Greenland – a semiautonomous territory of Denmark – a part of the United States as a matter of national security.
Geo-politics notwithstanding, figuring out how the country is represented by the team has been something of a challenge. For the FA, though, it started with the kit.
Upon first glance, it looks all-too similar to the red with white accents currently donned by the Danish national team. It is made by the same company, Hummel. But look closely – zoom in on the pictures that went viral in early December – and it is a uniquely Greenlandic vibe.
It features markings and accents that pay homage to Greenlandic football and culture. The spear-like drawings, called tuukkaqer, are supposed to represent fighting spirit and modern masculinity. The faces adorning the strip next to them are replicas of tupilaks, a common motif in Greenlandic art that were once important parts of traditional religion.
The collar features avittatter markings, which pay homage to local art. Everything about it is distinctly Greenlandic. The players were brought in to make a final choice on the shirt – their authentic input considered vital in getting it right.
“We looked at the shirts, what could bring up the Greenlandic identity, and with which symbols and how should it be designed,” Frederiksen said. “It was quite simple but also catchy. Not too many details, but the details were something from Greenland.”
An away kit has arrived, too. This one is an ode to the cold, with patterns that mimic the natural patterns shaped by the ice sheet that covers most of the country. The photoshoot was done outside, on location, in negative temperatures. Some of the images – including one of three models playing soccer in hiking boots as glaciers stretch in the background – defy belief. And that's kind of the point.
