European football can feel very predictable. The same clubs spend their fortunes on the world’s most valuable stars, cruise to the final eight of continental tournaments, and dominate their domestic leagues. In a way, football at the very top has stagnated. But in the geographical centre of Sweden, in an isolated place known to the rest of the country as “up in the mountains of the north,” a new approach has taken root and blossomed on the European stage. Östersund were in the fourth tier of Swedish football as recently as 2010. They had little by way of vision or resources and were struggling to make football work in a town dominated by winter sports, in a country dominated by...
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