How Bodø/Glimt were ‘brainwashed’ into winning Champions League games | Football

You’ll probably have noticed Bodø/Glimt’s rise by now. In their past five Champions League games, they have beaten Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan (twice) and now Sporting Lisbon.

They’ve done it playing an attacking style of football with the vast majority of their squad born in Norway, and some of their most important players being from Bodø itself – population, just 50,000.

This is a team who have gone to stadiums that could fit the entire town’s population and more, and have left as winners. 

Fans and pundits across the world have been at pains to figure out just how they’ve done it so far. Is it their astroturf pitch? Are opposition teams simply underestimating them? Is there some Norse mythological god behind all this?

The answer might be something else.

After a relegation in 2017, the club were looking for different ways to find an edge, and ended up hiring a former fighter pilot, Bjorn Mannsverk, as the club’s mental coach. He, with the support of manager Kjetil Knutsen, banned all talk of winning and helped players overcome psychological difficulties by focusing on overall performance and well-being instead of just results.

Ørjan Berg, father of captain Patrick and former Bodø player himself credits Mannsverk’s work with making a huge difference: ‘Bjørn has brainwashed us for six years now,’ he told ESPN. ‘I think that today’s team is playing the best football ever played in Norway.’

A golden generation in the Arctic circle

While most clubs now have someone like Mannsverk to help player mentally, there genuinely does seem to be something else in the cold, cold air in Bodø.

Their two most important players, Berg and Jens Petter Hauge are both in their second spells at their hometown club. Berg had an ill-fated season at Lens in France in 2022 while Hauge moved to AC Milan as a 21-year-old but struggled to make an impact. Both now look like they could play at any top club.

Star striker Kasper Høgh had 15 goals in his entire career before making the move north two seasons ago – he has the same amount just in European competitions for Bodø since then.

Midfielder Ulrick Saltnes was planning on retiring a few years ago after he fell out of love with the game. The then 26-year-old struggled with stomach problems arising from stress that meant he found it hard to finish a full game, let alone perform well.

He was one of the first to work with Mannsverk, who encouraged him to have fun on the pitch. Now aged 33, Saltnes has been one of Bodø’s key players over the past few seasons.

Whatever they’re doing, it’s working.

How far can Bodø/Glimt go in the Champions League?

This run is the culmination of years of building but has still come out of nowhere.

Bodø became Norwegian champions for the first time in 2020 and the core of this squad have been together for a number of years.

They also made the quarter finals of the Conference League in 2022, and lost last season’s Europa League semi final to Tottenham.

You’d imagine that, if they hold onto their lead in the second leg against Sporting Lisbon, the quarter final may be Bodø’s lot – but in an inverse of Tottenham’s fortunes, just when you think things can’t keep getting better, they do.

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