Mjällby, the Swedish David: Fishing Village Club Surprises and Wins League

Mjällby, a modest team from a remote fishing village by the Baltic Sea, has achieved one of the most surprising feats in European football by winning the Swedish league title last Monday. The 2-0 victory against IFK Gothenburg secured Mjällby an insurmountable 11-point lead, with three matchdays remaining in the Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football.

This unexpected triumph has been compared to Leicester’s in the English Premier League in 2016, a fairytale story.

This is the first major trophy for Mjällby, a club from the south coast of Sweden, whose team is mainly made up of locally born players. They play their matches in a stadium with a capacity of 6,000 spectators in the nearby village of Hällevik, with a population of around 800 inhabitants, and whose budget is much smaller than that of the larger teams in the country.

This is something I never thought would happen in my life. I am incredibly grateful to be part of this group. We showed that the collective can take you incredibly far.

Jacob Bergström, Mjällby forward

Just nine years ago, Mjällby was one match away from being relegated to the fourth Swedish division. The team held on, achieved consecutive promotions in 2018 and 2019, and has been revitalized by the decisions and strategies implemented by Magnus Emeus, a local businessman who became president in 2015. This season, Mjällby, led by Anders Torstensson, a school principal, has only lost one match and has 66 points, just one short of Malmö’s total record in the 101-year history of the Allsvenskan. Mjällby will participate in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League next season. It will be the first time the team competes in a European competition. The match in Gothenburg was briefly delayed in stoppage time because some Mjällby fans jumped from the stand housing the away supporters, apparently ready to jump onto the field in celebration. They returned to the stands after an appeal from the Mjällby players.

When the referee blew the final whistle, the substitutes, coaches, and members of the technical staff ran onto the field to congratulate the team. Then they ran towards the fans dressed in yellow and black behind one of the goals to celebrate. Founded in 1939, Mjällby has usually played outside the top category, moving through the regional leagues. Plays its home matches at the picturesque Strandvallen, with a capacity of 6,000 spectators, located in Hällevik, a remote and rural village by the Baltic Sea, where fishing has long been the predominant industry. Torstensson is in his third period as a coach and his assistant is Karl Marius Aksum, who has a PhD in Visual Perception in Elite Football and had never coached at a senior level before joining Mjällby. Mjällby achieved a club record of 50 points by finishing fifth last season. This season, Mjällby has conceded only 17 goals in 27 matches. Among their best players are Axel Noren, who recently received his first call-up for the Swedish national team, and defender Abdullah Iqbal, who is the captain of Pakistan.