Mjallby were established in 1939 by the merging of two local teams, and have spent much of the subsequent 86 years outside the Swedish top flight.
A coastal area closely tied with fishing and agriculture, the people of Solvesborg municipality are hard working and proud.
They show up in numbers at their modest 6,500 capacity Strandvallen home in the small town of Hallevik, with average attendances more than four times the size of the local population.
It’s by the sea, but a far cry from the vast arenas of Stockholm and Malmo as Mjallby try to make up for lost time.
After a joint-best finish of fifth in the 2024 Allsvenskan, they have won 20 of their 27 league games this season and tasted defeat just once. Since May 2024, they have also gone 22 home league matches unbeaten.
Mjallby have beaten title rivals Hammarby, currently in second place, home and away this season, despite having one of the smallest turnovers and budgets in the division.
“When I arrived at the club before the 2023 season I saw pretty fast that we had a lot of potential, but I thought that the mental perspective in the club held us back,” 35-year-old defender Tom Pettersson told BBC Sport.
“It’s something that we’ve been working on for a few years now. So it doesn’t feel like we don’t belong up there, top of the table, because we’ve been talking about this for a few years, that we have to stop using old excuses.
“We can still win things, even though we don’t have a lot of money, even though we’re a small village and all that.
“The group of players in the locker room, they’re amazing. Everyone brings in energy every day, there’s no egos at all, so we have a lot of fun as well.”
Team-mate Elliot Stroud added: “It’s difficult to take it all in, it’s happened so fast.”
The 23-year-old midfielder, Mjallby’s top goal contributor in the league with nine goals and five assists, is thriving in a high energy, high pressing attacking system, something only recently introduced at the club.
“When people thought of Mjallby, they thought of long balls, long throws. We’ve always been strong defensively, but last season we brought in a new assistant coach who brought lots of great offensive ideas,” added Stroud.
