A fishing village with 1,500 inhabitants is aiming for the title in Sweden. The rise of Mjällby AIF is also linked to new perspectives.
Follow the beach, turn left at the campsite: if you want to get to the stadium of league leaders Mjällby AIF in the southern Swedish fishing village of Hällevik, you don’t have to look far. “We play where the world ends and the sea begins,” is how the club describes its home ground with the beautiful name Strandvallen. If nothing goes wrong, Mjällby will celebrate its completely unexpected first championship in the club’s history there in a few weeks.
Just 1,485 people live in Hällevik in the far south of the country, but it feels like there are 10,000 seagulls. Neighboring Mjällby, which gave the club its name, has a population of just 1,379. And yet big clubs such as Malmö FF, AIK Solna, and IFK Göteborg are trailing behind the underdog. Since its 1-0 win against Halmstad at the weekend, Mjällby has an eight-point lead over second-placed Hammarby with eight match days remaining.
The team’s top performers are the most successful striker Abdoulie Manneh (nine goals), midfielder Elliot Stroud—whose penalty kick secured the victory against Halmstad—and Axel Noren. The center back was invited to join the Swedish national team in June 2025, but did not play in Hungary or against Algeria. In general, Mjällby is doing well at both ends of the pitch: the team has the best attack (42 goals) alongside Hammarby and the best defense (16 goals conceded).
Many players live together – assistant coach in focus
Hard to believe: In 2016, Mjällby only saved itself from relegation to the fourth division on the last day of the season. Then the slow rebuilding process began – without an investor, mind you. Team spirit continues to play a decisive role today, with many players living together in a kind of student dormitory. “When we have nothing to do, we barbecue, cook together or hang out,” Stroud told the BBC.
Tactical experts, on the other hand, see assistant coach Karl Marius Aksum as the decisive factor. The 35-year-old has a doctorate in visual perception in soccer and applies his knowledge at Mjällby. “No one in the world has studied the eye movements of soccer players as intensively as I have. In modern soccer, it’s crucial to gather information about your surroundings,” says the Norwegian, who hopes to become head coach of a major club soon. Aksum also tries to optimize the players’ active head movements when receiving the ball, for example, so that they can better perceive their surroundings.
Military, school principal—champion coach?
Mjällby’s current coach is Anders Torstensson, who also has a remarkable story. The Swede served in the military for ten years, then worked as a school principal and finally as a coach at his former club Mjällby. In the summer of 2024, the 59-year-old was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. “Treatment isn’t necessary, so I’m carrying on. There could have been 100 worse diagnoses,” says Torstensson.
And so everything continues as usual in Hällevik. The town’s inhabitants could fit five times into the Strandvallen Stadium, where squirrels occasionally run across the pitch and cause interruptions. The gem is best reached by car, but away fans can take bus line 2 from Sölvesborg station via Mjällby directly to the Hällevik stop “Strandvallen” every two hours on weekends. “Sveriges vackraste Arena,” or “Sweden’s most beautiful arena,” is almost always sold out. No wonder: Mjällby has not lost any of its 19 home games since May 2024.
If this continues, nothing stands in the way of a happy ending. Twenty-two match days have already been completed, and the Swedish season runs throughout the calendar year and ends in mid-November—possibly with a huge sensation.