Viking FK’s Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim share Champions League coaching role

Viking FK will carry one of European football’s rarest coaching arrangements into Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with VfB Stuttgart, as Morten Jensen and Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim continue to lead the Norwegian champions as equal head coaches.

Equal authority at the top

Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim have operated without a conventional manager-and-assistant hierarchy since January 2021. The pair divide tactical planning, matchday decisions, media commitments and the wider workload, with neither coach placed above the other.

• Both coaches have equal responsibility for Viking’s football decisions.
• The arrangement has been in place since January 2021 rather than being introduced as a short-term solution.
• They share duties on matchdays as well as work away from the pitch.
• Lunde Aarsheim has a long-standing connection with the Stavanger club and sits eighth in Viking’s all-time appearance rankings as a player.

The model has coincided with Viking’s return to the summit of Norwegian football. The club won the 2025 Eliteserien, ending a 34-year wait for a league championship, and have remained in contention domestically alongside Bodo/Glimt.

Tripic leads Viking into the Champions League

Captain Zlatko Tripic has been central to translating the coaching pair’s plans onto the field. He scored in each leg of Viking’s play-off win over Dinamo Zagreb, a tie that took the club into the Champions League main stage for the first time since 1992.

Jensen described qualification after the Dinamo tie as “overwhelming” and said it represented everything the group had dreamed of.

• Viking defeated Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League play-off round.
• Tripic found the net in both legs.
• The outcome secured Viking’s first appearance at this stage of the competition since 1992.
• The Norwegian champions now face Stuttgart in Germany.

Stuttgart trip offers a major test

Viking’s next assignment takes them around 1,150 kilometres from Stavanger to Stuttgart’s MHP Arena. It is a significant European occasion for a side whose shared leadership structure has helped drive their domestic revival and continental progress.

Against VfB Stuttgart, Jensen and Lunde Aarsheim will again work from the same touchline footing, while Tripic and his team-mates attempt to deliver a result that would add another notable chapter to Viking’s Champions League return.