Faroe Islands part-timers and crime novelist coach are dreaming of the World Cup

With a population of 55,000, a coach who writes crime novels and a squad of part-time players, tiny Faroe Islands has a stunning shot at qualifying for the World Cup.

The odds are still stacked against the team ranked 127th by FIFA. But it has defied the odds to be in contention.

Even beating mighty Croatia on Friday in its last group qualifier would not guarantee a place in the playoffs for next year's tournament. For that, the Faroe Islands must also better the other group result of second-placed Czech Republic, which plays last-placed Gibraltar.

Nonetheless, this is unchartered territory for a nation that used to be routinely rolled over by European rivals. An unlikely run of wins has fired belief it could be about to achieve what was once unthinkable.

“We are Faroese. Shaped by the wind. Beaten by the storms. Softened by the rain. We do not back down from great challenges or adversity.”

Coach Eydun Klakstein, who writes crime thrillers and is a journalist, wrote those words in a letter entitled “Against the wind, against the odds.”

“Sometimes people say that we Faroese should be realistic about our size and our possibilities,” Klakstein said. “But if we ourselves had thought like that we would never have had the strong society we have here in the Atlantic Ocean. We would not have our language, our culture, our land.”

The Faroe Islands is a land area of 540 square miles (1,400 square kilometers) — a little bigger than Los Angeles — halfway between Scotland and Iceland, and has never qualified for a major tournament. At its lowest point it was ranked 198th.

When Klakstein took charge he said he and his coaching team tried to find the "innermost core of the Faroese spirit.”

His team beat the Czech Republic 2-1 last month - one of four wins from its last five games in qualifying. It is third in the group, four points behind Croatia and one point behind the Czechs with one game remaining. The second-placed team advances to the playoffs for the World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

By comparison, in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, the Faroe Islands lost eight of its 10 games. In the campaign for the 1994 finals in the U.S. it lost all 10.

Improvement has been the result of a deliberate drive to raise standards from the youth levels.

“We are a very volunteer-based football society,” Christina Ravnsfjall, grassroots co-ordinator for the Faroe Islands Football Federation, told The Associated Press. “All coaches of children are often parents who have been playing football and they just started with nothing.”

Ravnsfjall said there has been a push to get those parents coaching qualifications.

“Those who are involved now are more informed than 10 years ago,” she said.

Belgium's approach to youth development has been an inspiration.

“They’re not a big country but they’re considered good. They have top players,” Ravnsfjall said.

Faroese children play in three-on-three matches and there is a patient approach with players who may need longer to develop physically.

Improvements in the nation's infrastructure have also helped, with tunnels linking its major islands, as opposed to the need previously to use ferries to cross the sea.

The weather is a challenge — especially high winds — but can be used for home advantage. Croatia managed only a narrow 1-0 win in the capital of Torshavn in September.

The win against the Czech Republic was also at the national stadium, which has 6,000 seats. Montenegro was routed 4-0 last month in Torshavn.

Another advantage, Ravnsfjall said, was the access to playing fields in the Faroe Islands, with even the stadiums of the top clubs open for all to play on.

“It’s usually said that every village has a church but every village also has a football pitch,” she said. "Everyone can go in and train, and they do that.

“In the national stadium, you can see in the mornings, kindergartens come, play a little and go.”

The best players leave the Faroe Islands' 10-team, semi-professional Premier Division to play in countries like Denmark, Slovenia and Iceland. Midfielder Geza David Turi plays in England for fourth-tier Grimsby Town. The national squad includes a furniture salesman, a teacher and a carpenter.

It underlines just how remarkable its qualifying campaign has been even if, as expected, it misses out on the playoffs.

“I understand people from the outside, looking in at such a small country, asking the question, ‘How on earth is that kind of possible?’” Eli Hentze, the former assistant for the national team, told the AP. "But our players, our coaches are so used to facing far, far, far stronger opposition.

“That bravery, courage, and believing in ourselves, punching above our weight, is ingrained in the way we are ... the team is confident that they can do something and that tells us a story that they have a belief which is not something that the brain has told us, but something coming from the heart.”

Hentze, who works in youth development for the national federation, said a win in Croatia — the 2018 World Cup finalist with Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric — would go down in soccer history as “one of the biggest results ever.”

But to the Faroese fans, reputations don't faze them.

“They just say go out and beat them,” Hentze said. “They don’t care about if we are inferior, just go out and win.”

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - The view from a hiking trail of the village of Tjornuvik, Faroe Islands, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna, File)

FILE - Denmark's Gustav Isaksen and the Faroe Islands' Viljormur Davidsen battle for the ball during an international friendly soccer at Broendby Stadium, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

FILE - The image of a sheep decorates a gate in Klaksvik, Faroe Islands, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna, File)

FILE - Denmark's Elias Jelert, right, and the Faroe Islands' Petur Knudsen battle for a head ball during an international friendly soccer at Broendby Stadium, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday displayed apparent progress in the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine, with state media photos showing a largely completed hull, as leader Kim Jong Un condemned rival South Korea’s push to acquire the technology.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited a shipyard to inspect the construction of what the North describes as an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine, which the leader has called a crucial step in the modernization and nuclear armament of North Korea’s navy. The North has indicated it plans to arm the submarine with nuclear weapons, calling it a “strategic guided missile submarine” or a “strategic nuclear attack submarine.”

During the visit, Kim described South Korea’s efforts to acquire its own nuclear-powered submarine, which have been backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, as an “offensive act” that severely violates the North’s security and maritime sovereignty.

He said that the South Korean plan further underscores the need to advance and nuclear-arm North Korea’s navy, and claimed that the completion of his nuclear-powered submarine would be an “epoch-making” change in strengthening its nuclear war deterrent against what he called enemy threats.

The agency did not specify when Kim visited the shipyard but released photos showing him inspecting a huge, burgundy-colored vessel, coated with what appears to be anti-corrosion paint, under construction inside an assembly hall with senior officials and his daughter. It was the first time North Korean state media had released images of the submarine since March, when they mostly showed the lower sections of the vessel.

It was not immediately clear how close North Korea is to completing the vessel. But because submarines are typically built from the inside out, the release of what appears to be a largely completed hull suggests that many core components, including the engine and possibly the reactor, are already in place, said Moon Keun-sik, a submarine expert at Seoul’s Hanyang University.

“Showing the entire vessel now seems to indicate that most of the equipment has already been installed and it is just about ready to be launched into the water,” said Moon, a former submarine officer in the South Korean navy, who believes the North Korean submarine could possibly be tested at sea within months.

A nuclear-powered submarine was one item on a long wish list of sophisticated weaponry that Kim announced during a major political conference in 2021 to cope with what he called growing U.S.-led military threats. Other weapons were solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and multi-warhead missiles.

North Korea has conducted a series of tests to develop some of those systems and recently unveiled a new naval destroyer, which Kim hailed as a major step toward expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of the country’s nuclear forces.

If North Korea obtains a submarine capable of operating stealthily for extended periods and launching missiles from underwater, it would be a worrying development for its neighbors, as such launches would be difficult to detect in advance. But there have been questions about whether North Korea, a heavily sanctioned and impoverished country, could get resources and technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.

Some experts say North Korea’s recent alignment with Russia — including sending thousands of troops and military equipment to support President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — may have helped it to receive crucial technologies in return.

While some analysts suspect North Korea may have sought a reactor from Russia, possibly from a retired Russian submarine, Moon said it's more likely that North Korea designed its own reactor, while possibly receiving some technological assistance from Russia.

During a summit with Trump in November, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for U.S. support for South Korea’s efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, while reaffirming a commitment to increase defense spending to ease the burden on the United States.

Trump later said that the United States is open to sharing closely held technology to allow South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine, but it’s not immediately clear where and when the vessel would be built and how Seoul would get the nuclear fuel and reactor technology required.

In a separate report, KCNA said Kim on Wednesday supervised a test of a new, long-range anti-air missile that was fired toward its eastern sea. South Korea’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately comment on the launch.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened in recent years as Kim accelerated his military nuclear program and deepened alignment with Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Washington and Seoul to revive negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear and missile programs, which derailed in 2019 following a collapsed summit with Trump during the American president’s first term.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, a test of a long-range anti-air missile is launched towards its eastern sea, as seen from an undisclosed location in North Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, with his daughter, inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, third left, visits a shipyard as he inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)