10. January 2026
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The Sheep Islands Did It Again – My Thoughts about the Success of Sports on the Faroe Islands

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

It was just two days ago, on 28th November 2025. The match clock is ticking down at SWT Arena in Trier, Germany. The last seconds of the group match of the Women Handball World Championships. The Spanish team is under pressure needs to forecheck in man-to-man marking. A long pass reaches Jana Mittun. There is no defender around, she has an easy time to throw the ball into the Spanish net, passing their goalkeeper. Trier is getting mad. Six seconds left on the clock is over. Spain is beaten by 25-27. Some 2,000 people in Trier get mad and cheer for the winner.

Jana Mittun is one of the key players of the opponent team. She is representing the Faroe Islands. A territory of some 55,000 people is beating a country of 48.8 million (that’s about 870 times more…). Another time the archipelago, which is one of my absolute favorite places, did a great victory in sports. I felt this is the right moment to write down my personal thoughts about (competitive) sports in that part of the Nordics. Hope you like it.

The pictures in this post have been taken with my pocket camera after the match and thus do no have the normal Flyctory.com quality.

 

My Story of the Match in Trier

After the match, I read a lot of a sensational victory of the Faroe Islands. Indeed, Spain is a big name in international handball. They finished third in the London 2012 Olympic Games, fourth at the 2021 World Championships. The team is in a revolution of generation period, though. The Faroe Islands’ history in Women Handball World Championships is easy to tell. This 2025 tournament is the first time they qualified for that event. One year before, they had their first European Championship. On the pitch, Spain initially felt to succeed in their favorite role. The first minutes were close, they lead after ten minutes and did not give away that lead until the intermission. Whenever the underdogs felt to have the momentum, they struggled, did silly mistakes. Mistakes you simply do, when you do things for a first time. Like seconds before the intermission when they pushed for a goal – but conceded a turnover leading to a Spanish goal with two seconds left on the clock.

 

Then came the second half of the match. Spain had a three goal lead, but the ladies from the North scored four in a row. After a lead in the first minutes, they were back in the match. And they felt being the better team. However, they also ran into hectic actions and empty net goals whenever they had the chance to increase the lead. In the 55th minute, Spain lead by two goals, 24-22. The Faroe Islands felt to have learned, backed up by goalie Rakul Wardum (39% saves). They dared to lead against Spain, they dared to have the lead, they dared to win. The last two entries on the scoresheet were by Jana Mittun. Her brother is Oli Mittun, one of the backbones of the men’s national team. Her cousin Elias Ellefsen a Skipagotu plays in Germany. She won the Faroese Under 18 as well – in soccer.

 

The Faroese Phenomenon

Part of the story of the match was a bunch of people with white jerseys. Hundreds of Faroese people supported their match proudly. They did celebrate their team, even when the lost the first match against Montenegro. Without these fans, there would have been hardly any atmosphere during that Trier game. The much Spain outnumbers the Faroe Islands in inhabitants – the much they were outnumbered by the territory (which is politically not even a country) on that evening in Trier.

The Faroese supporters are infectious in a positive way. Whenever I saw the team abroad (and not facing the home team), the people felt to have sympathy for the Faroe Islands. They have infected me as well, sitting in the first row of the arena in my blue national team jersey and cheering for the team like I would do for the Indian Davis Cup Team. But also the more neutral people more and more supported them and cheered for their goals the closer they were to the sensation. David vs. Goliath – this story feels to work. And the fans are so positive, so fun to watch. In a documentation about the soccer club KI Klaksvik, I once heard We are not fans. The players are our friends, our co-workers. This special bound is definitely an advantage of smaller community. Like the Faroe Islands, which are shared by these 55,000 people and 80,000 sheep. By that, they have half of the inhabitants compared to the host city Trier. People often ask me about where these islands are located, why I love them, what is being a visitor there like. But they know this difference.

 

It started with Soccer

I struggle to call the victory a sensation. It is definitely an upset, a surprise – but it is also another step in a long development. Even nowadays, when people think about national team sports on the Faroe Islands, they think back to a soccer match on 12th September 1990. In their very first official match, the Faroe Islands beat Austria 1-0. Many Austrians might still fear Jens Martin Knudsen, the goalkeeper of that team, who wore a bobble cap at cold Landskrona, Sweden (the Faroese did not have a suitable stadium at that time), and played the match of their life.

While this match is a long time ago sports anecdote, rather recent sports history put the Faroe Islands in focus again. One of the teams which wrote sports history is my soccer favorite, KI Klaksvik. The team from the second largest city on the islands had a sensational run in 2023, beating Hungarian champion Ferencvaros Budapest and Swedish BK Häcken in the UEFA Champions League qualification. Even though they lost the remaining qualifiers, they made it to the group phase of the UEFA Conference League. At Faroese national stadium Torsvollur, they even tied French OSC Lille and beat Slovenian Olimpija Ljubljana.

Sensational Run of the Soccer National Team

While the Faroese handball dream was already alive (see below), the islands made it back in focus in national team soccer. The men’s team finally even had minimal hopes until the last day of the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers. After beating Gibraltar twice and Montengro and Czechia at home, they had small chances before they traveled to Rijeka in Croatia in the last match of the campaign. I reported from the huge 4-0 victory against Montenegro on 9th October 2025.

 

The Handball Dream

Handball on the Faroe Islands is growing since years. However, they stepped into the international sports scene in early 2024, at the Men’s Handball European Championships in Germany. It was the first-ever appearance of the team. Apart from two close losses in the group matches against Slovenia and Poland, they tied Norway on 13th January 2024. With four seconds left on the match clock Elias Ellefsen a Skipagotu tied the score by penalty shot. Apart from the Norwegian fans, the people at Mercedes Benz Arena (now: Uber Arena) went nuts. This did include an amazing crowd from the Faroe Islands itself – almost a tenth of the total population was in Berlin on that day.

The men’s team is young and may develop. It might be a first “golden generation”, but not a “lucky shot”. In 2025, the Under 19 team tied Germany at the World Championship – one year after the Under 21 national team finished with a sensational run to the bronze medal. The ladies feel surfing on the same wave. While in soccer, for example, the Faroese soccer ladies struggle to take the first steps into international sports, Jana Mittun, Pernille Brandenborg and her teammates are already established in the continental handball scene. One year before Trier, at the European Championships in Switzerland, they tied Croatia and finished third in their group. Now, they beat Spain. And thus opened the door to many scenarios, under which they will face teams like co-host Germany in the main round at Dortmund Westfalenhalle.

 

I Don’t Feel It is a Sensation…

Trier saw an amazing story in sports. The numbers illustrate: if a team like Faroe Islands deservedly beats a team like Spain, which has such a major resource potential, they did something much better than their opponents. Interestingly, depending on who you talk with about Faroese people, they are rather regarded to be relaxed. But in sports, they seem to show their fair, but passionate side.

The Nordic sports heroes of today enjoyed the Faroese sports structures of their childhood (unless they grew up in other countries). And, regardless whether it is in soccer or in handball, the today’s success lies on a foundation in their home country. The Faroe Islands have a unique structure of sports venues. If their is no school education or club training, you can use the facilities for free. Indoor like for handball or outdoors like for soccer. I got to know Jens Wedeborg, this season’s coach of soccer club NSI Runavik, while he was kicking some balls with his son – at Svangaskard, the former national soccer stadium of the archipelago. The kids go out there and enjoy sports, whenever they feel like it. Jana Mittun or her cousin Elias Ellefsen a Skipagotu felt to have enjoyed a lot of that. Sports – that’s a different deal on the Faroe Islands. You see so many kids wearing their club shirt in the SMS Shopping Mall in Torshavn on a weekend – regardless of the sports they are doing.

 

How will that story continue?

I am proud of the Faroese Women Handball National Team, regardless how this journey through Germany (and, potentially, the Netherlands) will finally come to an end. I will remember these days of Trier. However, I also asked myself how the journey of Faroese sports will continue. At least in handball, the times when the red, blue and white colored teams are underestimated by their opponents, should be over. If they have a good day, the Faroe Islands are able to beat almost any team out there now (even though they might still be the underdog). I still feel that they always have this underdog aura. Just because many people know that this Nordic community (likely) has less people than your home town and that they are easily outnumbered by sheep on the island.

It will be interesting how the Faroe Islands develop in other sports. There are interesting upcoming athletes like Jonas Gunnleivsson Isaksen, 2023 European Junior Champion in 400 meter sprint. However, they might be a bit under the radar of the European sports fan. Due to a lack of an acclaimed Faroese Athletics Federation and the special political situation, he is running under the Danish flag. In swimming, you might remember Pal Joensen, who represented Denmark in London 2012 and Rio 2016. The Faroese Swimming Federation is intensively trying to improve training structures. So, maybe, there will be another “sensation” in another sports as well.

 

Faroe Islands

Here are my postings related to the Faroe Islands:

 

Postings about Handball

Here are all my postings related to handball:

 

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