{"id":12447,"date":"2026-02-14T01:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/12447\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:54:25","slug":"faroe-islands-part-timers-and-coach-are-dreaming-of-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/12447\/","title":{"rendered":"Faroe Islands part-timers and coach are dreaming of the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a population of 55,000, a coach who writes crime novels and a squad of part-time players, tiny Faroe Islands has a stunning shot at qualifying for the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The odds are still stacked against the team ranked 127th by FIFA. But it has defied the odds to be in contention.<\/p>\n

Even beating mighty Croatia on Friday in its last group qualifier would not guarantee a place in the playoffs for next year\u2019s tournament. For that, the Faroe Islands must also better the other group result of second-placed Czech Republic, which plays last-placed Gibraltar.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, this is unchartered territory for a nation that used to be routinely rolled over by European rivals. An unlikely run of wins has fired belief it could be about to achieve what was once unthinkable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are Faroese. Shaped by the wind. Beaten by the storms. Softened by the rain. We do not back down from great challenges or adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Eydun Klakstein, who writes crime thrillers and is a journalist, wrote those words in a letter entitled \u201cAgainst the wind, against the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes people say that we Faroese should be realistic about our size and our possibilities,\u201d Klakstein said. \u201cBut if we ourselves had thought like that we would never have had the strong society we have here in the Atlantic Ocean. We would not have our language, our culture, our land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faroese spirit<\/p>\n

The Faroe Islands is a land area of 540 square miles (1,400 square kilometers) \u2014 a little bigger than Los Angeles \u2014 halfway between Scotland and Iceland, and has never qualified for a major tournament. At its lowest point it was ranked 198th.<\/p>\n

When Klakstein took charge he said he and his coaching team tried to find the \u201cinnermost core of the Faroese spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

His team beat the Czech Republic 2-1 last month – one of four wins from its last five games in qualifying. It is third in the group, four points behind Croatia and one point behind the Czechs with one game remaining. The second-placed team advances to the playoffs for the World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

By comparison, in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, the Faroe Islands lost eight of its 10 games. In the campaign for the 1994 finals in the U.S. it lost all 10.<\/p>\n

Improvement has been the result of a deliberate drive to raise standards from the youth levels. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a very volunteer-based football society,\u201d Christina Ravnsfjall, grassroots co-ordinator for the Faroe Islands Football Federation, told The Associated Press. \u201cAll coaches of children are often parents who have been playing football and they just started with nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ravnsfjall said there has been a push to get those parents coaching qualifications. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose who are involved now are more informed than 10 years ago,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s approach to youth development has been an inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not a big country but they\u2019re considered good. They have top players,\u201d Ravnsfjall said.<\/p>\n

Faroese children play in three-on-three matches and there is a patient approach with players who may need longer to develop physically.<\/p>\n

High winds are good<\/p>\n

Improvements in the nation\u2019s infrastructure have also helped, with tunnels linking its major islands, as opposed to the need previously to use ferries to cross the sea.<\/p>\n

The weather is a challenge \u2014 especially high winds \u2014 but can be used for home advantage. Croatia managed only a narrow 1-0 win in the capital of Torshavn in September.<\/p>\n

The win against the Czech Republic was also at the national stadium, which has 6,000 seats. Montenegro was routed 4-0 last month in Torshavn.<\/p>\n

Another advantage, Ravnsfjall said, was the access to playing fields in the Faroe Islands, with even the stadiums of the top clubs open for all to play on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s usually said that every village has a church but every village also has a football pitch,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone can go in and train, and they do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the national stadium, you can see in the mornings, kindergartens come, play a little and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Punching above their weight<\/p>\n

The best players leave the Faroe Islands\u2019 10-team, semi-professional Premier Division to play in countries like Denmark, Slovenia and Iceland. Midfielder Geza David Turi plays in England for fourth-tier Grimsby Town. The national squad includes a furniture salesman, a teacher and a carpenter.<\/p>\n

It underlines just how remarkable its qualifying campaign has been even if, as expected, it misses out on the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand people from the outside, looking in at such a small country, asking the question, \u2018How on earth is that kind of possible?\u2019\u201d Eli Hentze, the former assistant for the national team, told the AP. \u201cBut our players, our coaches are so used to facing far, far, far stronger opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat bravery, courage, and believing in ourselves, punching above our weight, is ingrained in the way we are … the team is confident that they can do something and that tells us a story that they have a belief which is not something that the brain has told us, but something coming from the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hentze, who works in youth development for the national federation, said a win in Croatia \u2014 the 2018 World Cup finalist with Ballon d\u2019Or winner Luka Modric \u2014 would go down in soccer history as \u201cone of the biggest results ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

But to the Faroese fans, reputations don\u2019t faze them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just say go out and beat them,\u201d Hentze said. \u201cThey don\u2019t care about if we are inferior, just go out and win.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

James Robson is at https:\/\/x.com\/jamesalanrobson<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a population of 55,000, a coach who writes crime novels and a squad of part-time players, tiny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[9587,3034,9588,43,9165,9585,5946,9589,9117,9586,133,135,9590],"class_list":["post-12447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faroe-islands","tag-christina-ravnsfjall","tag-czech-republic","tag-eli-hentze","tag-faroe-islands","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-gibraltar","tag-james-robson","tag-jwd-evergreen","tag-luka-modric","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-torshavn"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}