Viking FK's Unique Two-Headed Coaching Model Shines in Champions League

Norwegian champions Viking FK walk into Wednesday’s Champions League tie against VfB Stuttgart with a setup that still makes traditionalists blink twice: two head coaches, one dugout, equal power.

Morten Jensen and Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim have shared the reins since January 2021. Not as a manager and his No. 2. As co-authors of the same project, signing off on every major tactical call together.

What started as a bold idea has hardened into a philosophy – and it has changed the club.

A Double Act That Delivers

Viking were drifting in the shadows of Norwegian football for decades. Under Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim, they climbed back to the summit, lifting their first Eliteserien title in 34 years in 2025. That long wait ended under a split command structure many clubs would never dare to try.

The success has not been a one-season spike. Viking have stayed in the thick of the title race, trading blows with Bodo/Glimt and refusing to slip out of the conversation. The league table keeps telling the same story: this is no experiment on borrowed time.

The European stage has brought its own proof. Viking battled past Dinamo Zagreb in the play-offs, a statement tie that pushed them into the Champions League main draw for the first time since 1992. When the final whistle went, Jensen called the achievement “overwhelming and everything we’ve ever dreamed of.” It sounded less like a soundbite and more like a release.

Shared Power, Shared Pressure

The structure behind that rise is as unusual as it is uncompromising. Matchday duties are split. So is the weekly workload. Media responsibilities too. Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim front up together, win or lose.

Both men know Viking inside out. Lunde Aarsheim is not just a coach; he is part of the club’s fabric, sitting eighth on Viking’s all-time appearance list. Those years on the pitch now feed into decisions on the touchline, balanced against Jensen’s voice in a constant tactical dialogue.

This is not a case of one quietly leading and the other nodding along. The model only works because both carry equal authority. Every substitution, every tweak, every switch of shape is a joint decision.

Tripic, the On-Pitch Conductor

On the grass, one figure stitches the whole idea together. Captain Zlatko Tripic is the conduit between the dual brains on the bench and the XI on the field.

He doesn’t just wear the armband; he embodies the plan. Tripic scored in both legs of the play-off against Dinamo Zagreb, the decisive edge that finally dragged Viking back into the Champions League proper. Those goals were more than numbers – they were the execution of a shared blueprint under the highest pressure Viking have faced in a generation.

When the instructions come from two voices, clarity in the middle of the pitch matters. Tripic provides it.

A 1,150km Test of a Philosophy

Now comes Germany, VfB Stuttgart and the MHP Arena. A 1,150-kilometre journey from Stavanger, and the biggest spotlight yet on Viking’s two-man revolution.

This is the stage Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim have effectively been coaching towards since they joined forces: a Champions League night away to a major Bundesliga club, their methods exposed to the sharpest tactical scrutiny.

Viking will lean again on the same principles that carried them here – shared authority on the bench, a clear gameplan, and Tripic as the on-field extension of that dual command. If they can impose that structure in Stuttgart and prise a historic result from the tie, the co-coaching model will no longer look like a curiosity.

It will look like a blueprint others might be tempted to copy.