In a remote fishing village beside the shore of the Baltic Sea, one of the most remarkable achievements in European soccer is close to being realized.

“Make the impossible possible” is one of the mantras found on the walls and the PowerPoint slides at tiny Swedish club Mjällby. And that’s exactly what is happening.

Mjällby holds an eight-point lead with six rounds left in Sweden’s top league, Allsvenskan, and has lost just one game this season. Oh, and it is on course for the biggest points haul in the league’s 101-year history.

Not bad for a team made up of mostly locally born players who play home games in a village of around 800 inhabitants on Sweden’s south coast, whose coach is a school principal and scout is a postman. Just nine years ago the club was one game away from dropping i

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