US EditionHow a fighter pilot’s mental techniques helped tiny Bodø/Glimt reach the Europa League semifinals
- Bodø/Glimt, a football team from the northern fishing town of Bodø located over 1,000 kilometers from Oslo, made history in 2024 by becoming the first Norwegian club to advance to the final four of a prominent European tournament.
- This milestone followed the arrival of former Royal Norwegian Air Force pilot Mannsverk in early 2017, who joined after the club's relegation to Norway’s second division.
- Mannsverk applied mental techniques he developed for his military squadron, focusing on open communication, reducing stress, and changing attitudes toward preparation and nutrition.
- Bodø/Glimt has secured four of Norway’s last five league championships, delivered a stunning 6-1 victory over Roma in 2021, and in April 2024 made history as the inaugural Norwegian team to advance to the semifinal stage of a major European tournament by overcoming Lazio.
- The club’s success has increased attention on Bodø and its airport, but fans face high travel costs due to the town’s remote location and limited transport options.
45 Articles
45 Articles
The story of the Norwegian Top Gun back from Afghanistan that now makes soccer teams fly
Bjørn Mannsverk, former colonel of an F-16 fighter flock, has been hired by Bodø/Glimt as mental coach to motivate the group that eliminated Lazio in the Europa League and that is playing for access to the final against Tottenham
The story of the Bodø/Glimt, the Norwegian miracle that defies the Tottenham in the Europa League
It is a modest Arctic club, this Thursday it plays the most important semifinal of its history before the Spurs.The team was transformed mentally and footballically by a former fighter pilot of the Norwegian air force.From its descent in 2017 to winning 4 local leagues and measuring with European giants, its history looks like a fairy tale.
How a fighter pilot’s mental techniques helped tiny Bodø/Glimt reach the Europa League semifinals
How did an unheralded Norwegian team from a tiny town north of the Arctic Circle become one of the fairy-tale stories of European soccer? For Bodø/Glimt, the transformation has been underpinned by a fighter pilot who developed mental techniques for his squadron before bombing missions in Libya. Bjørn Mannsverk discovered a group of players exuding negative energy and prone to “a collective mental breakdown” when he was asked in early 2017 to joi…
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