Viking FK's Bold Dual-Coaching Experiment in Champions League
Norwegian champions Viking FK walk into the MHP Arena on Wednesday carrying one of European football’s rarest ideas – and a league title to prove it works.
They do not have a manager and his assistant. They have two head coaches. Equal power. Equal say. Equal pressure.
Morten Jensen and Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim have shared the reins since January 2021, ripping up the traditional hierarchy and replacing it with a partnership. Every big call – from system tweaks to substitutions – is discussed, debated and decided together.
This is no quirky stopgap. It has become Viking’s identity.
A shared brain in the dugout
The Stavanger club built their resurgence on this dual structure. With Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim on the touchline, Viking climbed back to the summit of Norwegian football and, in 2025, finally ended a 34-year wait for the Eliteserien title.
That breakthrough did not come as a freak season. Viking have stayed in the thick of the title race, trading blows with Bodo/Glimt and turning domestic momentum into European relevance.
Jensen did not hide the emotion when their play-off win over Dinamo Zagreb secured a place among the continent’s elite. He called it “overwhelming and everything we've ever dreamed of” – a line that captured just how far this experiment has carried them.
On matchdays, the split is clear but balanced. Both coaches handle tactical tweaks, both patrol the technical area, both front up to the cameras. The workload is shared, the authority mirrored.
It helps that this is not a cold, corporate arrangement. Both men are steeped in Viking’s story. Lunde Aarsheim, in particular, is part of the club’s fabric, sitting eighth on Viking’s all-time appearance list as a player. The badge means something to the men making the decisions.
Tripic, the on‑field conduit
On the grass, the partnership needs a voice. That belongs to Zlatko Tripic.
The captain is the hinge between the dugout and the dressing room, the player trusted to translate two coaches’ ideas into one coherent performance. His influence is not theoretical either.
Tripic scored in both legs of the play-off against Dinamo Zagreb, driving Viking into the Champions League main stage for the first time since 1992. One goal home, one away, and a 33-year wait snapped in two.
When Viking talk about a “shared vision”, Tripic is the one living it in real time – pressing when they press, calming when they want control, setting the tone for a group that has bought into an unusual structure.
A 1,150km test of belief
Now comes the real examination of that belief. A 1,150-kilometre journey from Stavanger to southwest Germany, and a meeting with VfB Stuttgart that will shine a hard European light on Viking’s methods.
The MHP Arena offers more than just a backdrop. It offers a stage.
Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim bring their dual-coaching framework into a Champions League tie that will test every part of it – preparation, in-game adjustments, emotional control. One misread and the night can run away from you at this level. One brave call, perfectly timed, can change a season.
Viking arrive not as tourists, but as champions with a plan. If they can execute the co-coaches’ gameplan with the same clarity that carried them past Dinamo Zagreb, this “two heads, one team” model could leave Germany with more than just curious glances.
It could leave with a historic result – and a blueprint that forces Europe to take their experiment seriously.
