The modest Mjällby, a club from a small town in southern Sweden with just over a thousand inhabitants, became national football champions in the Scandinavian country on Monday (20), an unprecedented title with three rounds remaining in the competition.
“It’s really liberating to be able to live this [antes mesmo do fim do campeonato]”, exclaimed his coach, Anders Torstensson, to Swedish radio SR.
Founded in 1939, Mjällby AIF, whose slogan is “making the impossible possible”, beat IFK Göteborg 2-0 away from home.
Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Petterson scored the goals in the 20th victory in 27 games for Mjällby, who will compete in the preliminary qualifying rounds of the next edition of the Champions League.
A former school director, Torstensson, 59, played as a child for Mjällby’s youth teams.
Even before the end of the game against IFK Göteborg, a club that won the UEFA Cup (in 1982 and 1987), the small Mjällby fans present in Gothenburg tried to invade the field, which caused the match to be temporarily stopped.
With three rounds still to be played, the champion team has 66 points, 11 more than second-placed Hammarby.
