Meet Viking FK: The Champions League Club Operating With Two Head Coaches

Viking FK are preparing to step onto Europe’s biggest stage with a structure that sounds almost impossible in modern football: they have not one head coach, but two.

As the Norwegian champions prepare for their Champions League campaign, Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim and Morten Jensen remain joint head coaches of the Stavanger club — a partnership that began in 2021 and has since taken Viking from an unconventional experiment to Norwegian champions and Champions League participants.

The arrangement was unusual when it was introduced. Five years later, it has become one of the most intriguing coaching partnerships in European football.

And now the pair are taking their experiment to the highest level.

It started with an interview that changed everything

Viking's two-manager system was not originally some grand revolutionary plan.

When the club decided to part ways with Bjarne Berntsen at the end of 2020, Viking began searching for his replacement. Both Aarsheim and Jensen were already working at the club as assistant coaches.

According to Viking CEO Eirik Bjørnø, the club initially expected to choose between the two.

Instead, the two coaches arrived at their interview together.

Their proposal was simple: why choose one when they could do the job together?

The club eventually accepted the idea, and Aarsheim and Jensen became joint head coaches from January 2021.

It was an unconventional decision, and there was understandable scepticism.

Football is traditionally built around a clear hierarchy. One manager makes the final decisions, one voice addresses the players and one person ultimately carries responsibility when results go wrong.

Viking deliberately chose a different route.

Five years later, the experiment has worked

The most compelling argument for Viking's model is not theoretical.

It is the trophy cabinet.

In their first season together, the duo guided Viking to third place in the Norwegian top flight, securing European football. The club subsequently developed into one of Norway's regular challengers before finally reaching the summit in 2025.

That 2025 campaign produced the biggest achievement of their partnership.

Viking won the Norwegian league title for the first time since 1991, ending a 34-year wait. They sealed the championship with a 5–1 victory over Vålerenga on the final day.

Aarsheim and Jensen were subsequently recognised as Norway's Coaches of the Year.

The experiment had become a success story.

More importantly, it had produced something that is extremely difficult to manufacture in football: stability.

The pair have remained together while the club has progressed from an intriguing domestic project into a Champions League side.

So, how does having two head coaches actually work?

Viking's model is not simply two people standing on the touchline shouting instructions at the same time.

The partnership is based on shared responsibility and an understanding of each other's strengths.

Both coaches are involved in the team's footballing decisions, with their complementary qualities allowing the club to operate without the traditional single-manager structure.

That relationship was developed before they were promoted to the top job.

They already knew each other's strengths and weaknesses from working together as assistants, which helped make the transition possible. The partnership also required them to put individual egos aside and operate for the benefit of the team.

That may be the most important part of the entire experiment.

Two head coaches could easily create conflict.

Two competing philosophies could produce confusion.

Two people fighting for control could destroy a dressing room.

Viking have instead built a system where collaboration is the foundation.

Aarsheim brings a special connection to Viking

The story becomes even more interesting when looking at Aarsheim's relationship with the club.

The 51-year-old is not simply an outsider who arrived in Stavanger to manage Viking.

He is a former Viking player who spent much of his playing career with the club and made more than 200 appearances. He also represented Norway at senior level.

His connection to Viking therefore stretches back decades.

Jensen, meanwhile, developed his coaching career within the club and worked alongside Aarsheim before the two were promoted together.

The partnership is consequently built on familiarity with the institution as well as familiarity with each other.

That continuity has been crucial to Viking's rise.

From Norwegian champions to the Champions League

Now comes the ultimate test.

Viking are making their Champions League league-phase debut in the 2026/27 season. It is the club's first appearance in the competition's league phase and only their second appearance in a UEFA league-phase/group-stage competition after their participation in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage.

Their Champions League history goes even further back, however.

Viking previously appeared in the European Cup during the 1992/93 season, when they were eliminated by Barcelona in the first round. Their return to Europe's premier club competition more than three decades later therefore represents a remarkable change in the club's fortunes.

The journey from Norwegian domestic football to facing Europe's elite has taken years — and the two coaches have been present throughout the most important part of it.

Their first league-phase assignment is a demanding trip to Germany to face VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday, 9 September.

Stuttgart arrive with Champions League experience and the advantage of playing at home, while Viking bring something equally valuable: a team already deep into its domestic season and accustomed to competitive football.

The two-manager experiment faces its biggest examination

There is an important distinction between making an unusual coaching structure work in domestic football and making it work against Europe's best teams.

Champions League football increases the pressure.

Every tactical decision is scrutinised. Every mistake is magnified. Recruitment, preparation, substitutions and game management all face a higher level of examination.

For Viking, however, that pressure may actually strengthen the case for their system.

They have already demonstrated that the arrangement can survive difficult periods.

They have experienced setbacks, rebuilt, challenged for titles and ultimately won one.

The club's CEO has previously acknowledged that he would not necessarily recommend the model to other clubs, but described the partnership as the perfect match for Viking.

That is perhaps the clearest explanation of why Viking's structure works.

It is not a universal formula.

It is a relationship that happens to fit this particular club.

More than a gimmick

It would be easy to look at Viking and treat the two-manager arrangement as a quirky football story.

But that would miss the bigger picture.

The remarkable part is not that Viking have two head coaches.

It is that the model has produced results.

Since Aarsheim and Jensen took charge, Viking have gone from an unconventional coaching experiment to a consistent Norwegian contender, then to league champions and finally to the Champions League.

Their story challenges one of football's most deeply established assumptions: that every successful team needs one person at the top.

Viking have spent the last five years demonstrating that, under the right circumstances, two people can share that responsibility.

Now European football gets to find out whether their unusual partnership can survive the biggest test yet.

For Aarsheim and Jensen, the Champions League is not simply another competition.

It is the latest chapter in a five-year experiment that nobody knew would work when it began.

And somehow, against conventional football logic, it has worked remarkably well.

Fan Debate

⚽ Goal: Viking's two-coach system proves that football does not always need one manager calling the shots.

🔥 Fire: Aarsheim and Jensen have earned the right to test their unique partnership against Europe's elite.

😮 Shock: Five years ago, having two joint head coaches looked like a gamble. Now they are Champions League managers.

👍 Like: The fact that both coaches put the team's interests ahead of individual status makes the partnership special.

💬 Comment: Would you trust a football club to operate with two joint head coaches?