Mjällby, the humble Swedish club from a fishing village, unexpected champion

The Mjällby, a modest team from a small fishing village by the Baltic Sea, has achieved one of the greatest feats in European football by winning the Swedish league title this Monday. The 2-0 victory against IFK Gothenburg secured Mjällby an insurmountable 11-point lead, with three matchdays remaining until the end of the Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. This unexpected triumph evokes Leicester’s feat in the English Premier League of 2016, a football fairytale.

It’s the first major trophy for Mjällby, a club from the south coast of Sweden, whose team is mostly made up of local players. They play their home matches in a stadium with a capacity of 6,000 spectators in the nearby town of Hällevik, with a population of around 800 inhabitants, and with a significantly smaller budget than 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 stayed in the category, achieved consecutive promotions in 2018 and 2019, and has been revitalized thanks to 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 historical record in the 101-year history of the Allsvenskan. Next season, Mjällby will compete in the Champions League qualifying rounds, marking their debut in a European competition. The match in Gothenburg was briefly interrupted in stoppage time because some Mjällby fans jumped from the stand designated for away supporters, apparently ready to invade the field in celebration. They returned to the stands after an appeal from the Mjällby players.

When the referee blew the whistle for the end, substitutes, coaches, and members of the technical staff ran onto the field to congratulate the team. Then, they headed towards the fans dressed in yellow and black behind one of the goals to celebrate. Founded in 1939, Mjällby has traditionally played outside the top category, alternating between 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 term as 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 its best players are Axel Noren, who recently received his first call-up to the Swedish national team, and defender Abdullah Iqbal, who is the captain of Pakistan.