In an astonishing turn of events, the small Swedish club Mjallby, hailing from a village of just 1,485 people near the Baltic Sea, has achieved an unbelievable feat by clinching a league title and securing a spot in the Champions League qualifiers. This story sounds more like the stuff of a fantasy football video game than real life.

Mjallby’s triumph is one of football’s most remarkable surprises, arguably even more shocking than Leicester City’s legendary Premier League win in the 2015-16 season.

Not too long ago, Mjallby was teetering on the edge of relegation to the fourth division and facing financial ruin. Yet on Monday night, the club celebrated in style, with cake and champagne marking their historic achievement.

This modest club from a seaside village, led by a head coach who once served as the local school principal and a scout who doubled as the postman, has outperformed the nation’s traditional football powerhouses, including their nearby rivals, Malmo.

Malmo, just a 90-minute drive away, boasts a population 250 times larger than Mjallby and an 85% bigger budget. Yet, it was Mjallby that emerged victorious.

Mjallby’s players stuffed their faces with cake and sprayed champagne after winning the title 

The remarkable triumph has led to the minnows reaching Champions League qualifying

The likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid could end up playing at Strandvallen next season

Should Mjallby succeed in the Champions League qualifiers next year, football giants like Real Madrid and Liverpool might find themselves playing at the quaint 6,750-seat Strandvallen Stadium in the village of Hallevik.

Until now, the only public record of note from Hallevik was seven herring fishermen drowning 162 years ago in 1982. 

But the football team has now put them on the map.  

‘I have a hard time finding equivalent achievements, especially considering they’re from this really small municipality,’ Swedish sports journalist Olof Lundh told CNN Sports.

‘You can’t really compare because Leicester still had really wealthy owners.’ 

‘They shouldn’t even be in the top division. Just being in the top division is impressive, and being in the top half of the top division is super impressive and then winning the title, it’s incredible.’

So in a football landscape dominated by clubs with the highest wage bills, revenues and transfer budgets, how did Mjallby pull it off? 

Magnus Emeus is the chairman and bought the club back in 2015 after returning home from making his money as a businessman abroad. 

The squad pose for a celebratory photo after winning the Allsvenskan

Mjallby are from a village of just 1,500 and travelling hardcore supporters are thin on the ground

Lundh describes Emeus’ philosophy as boiling down to ‘we need to measure everything’, leaning heavily on data to find an edge, as the likes of Brighton and Brentford have done in the Premier League. 

He wanted to use the same principles that had brought him success with companies across Europe.  

‘The size of the club, our conditions, our financial muscle — to one year beat all the others, I think no one has been near this,’ the owner said. 

But it isn’t just a Moneyball story – annual turnover is only £2.3m. The size of the village makes the entire community feel part of the club and vice versa. 

Many of the players live in the same apartment block as each other and team spirit is off the charts. 

‘Another mantra I talk about is, we need to be best on the things which are free,’ Emeus explained. ‘We can have a better team spirit than Real Madrid… we can prepare better for a game than Manchester United.’

Tom Pettersson roars in celebration after the 2-0 victory that confirmed the title on Monday

Mjallby AIF’s fans celebrate winning the league by climbing a statue in the Baltic village

‘No egos but lots of fun’, is the dressing room mantra according to defender Tom Pettersson.

Sporting director Hasse Larsson was a player, then manager before moving into the boardroom and the feeling of living and breathing everything Mjallby is said to infect everyone else. He’s survived a brain tumour and prostate cancer and is viewed as the organisation’s soul. 

In combination with the Mjallby obsessives at the heart of the club, recruitment has been key.

Karl Marius Aksum, who has a PhD in Visual Perception in Elite Football, was identified as the kind of bright tactical mind to improve the team after collecting a following on social media posting about his ideas. 

‘It’s no surprise that we’re playing a good style of football,’ Aksum said earlier this season. ‘It’s a surprise, of course, that we’re leading the table.

‘For everyone around the village, in the shops, in the countryside when I take a walk or a run, they are living a fairytale. They can’t believe what’s happening.’

Aksum’s background in studying visual perception has given him expertise in the key area of ‘scanning’ in modern football, which is the ability of players to have an exact picture of team-mates and opposition in their mind before they receive the ball. 

Mjallby AIF’s captain Jesper Gustavsson leads the fans in chants on the mic 

The club would be by far the smallest ever to qualify for the Champions League if they make it

‘It’s a critical skill in modern football because the movements of the players are faster and the press is better, so you have to update your surroundings all the time,’ Aksum told BBC Sport.

‘It’s especially important for players in the middle of the pitch, because they could have important information 360 degrees around them.’

‘It makes better passers and better players both offensively and defensively.’ The team play an attacking, expansive brand of football but are also helped by their remote location and have won 22 games in a row at home.

The bitter Baltic wind after incredibly long journeys for the rest of the Swedish top flight to play Mjallby are the Scandinavian version of the old ‘wet, windy night at Stoke’, albeit with a more progressive opposition.

‘They’re probably sick and tired of never ever getting to the stadium,’ Emeus said. ‘You drive and you drive and you drive and you drive, and then finally you either have to drive into the Baltic Sea or into the arena.’

And David hasn’t just beaten the Allsvenskan Goliaths this season – they’ve flattened them. 

Mjallby have only lost once all season, wrapped up the title with three games to go and are 11 points clear of second-place Hammarsby. 

Head coach Anders Torstensson was a teacher and in the military before being a full-time coach

Monday night’s 2-0 win over IFK Göteborg sealed the deal and head coach Anders Torstensson said: ‘I have a hard time putting it into words, I can honestly say. It’s so incredibly powerful.’

‘To stand here as Swedish champions with little bloody Mjallby. It’s unreal.’

If Mjallby were to make it through three rounds of Champions League qualifiers next summer, they would become the smallest side ever to reach the tournament, a tenth of the size of Unirea Urziceni from Romania (currently the smallest minnows to ever take part). 

For a land synonymous with folklore and mythology, the tiny village’s sporting fairytale must top them all.