Laura Kaminski Wins the Double in Her First Season at SK Brann
Laura Kaminski won the Norwegian league and cup double in her first season as head coach of SK Brann, ten months after she took the job. The double means she won both the Toppserien, Norway's top women's league, and the national cup in the same year.
Kaminski is English and 38 years old. She is also the first woman to manage SK Brann's women's team, the club from the city of Bergen on Norway's west coast. Yahoo Sports has reported on her appointment and her record since then.
Her route into the job started with a difficult spell in England. Before taking charge at Crystal Palace, she spent more than 15 years as an assistant manager at clubs in the second and first tiers of the Women's Super League, and worked with England's under-19s. At Palace she led the club into the Women's Super League through promotion in 2024. Crystal Palace sacked her in February 2025, and Leif Smerud took over. At the time of the change, Palace were bottom of the table, and Kaminski had said she believed her side could take points from every game.
She told BBC Sport that she was approached about the Brann job in January. She said she wanted European football, which she did not believe she could reach in England, and that the chance to fight for the title was a big pull. She also said she felt she had the skills to manage at the top level, and that her focus was on Brann.
Travel was a big part of the job. Kaminski said she took 65 flights in 11 months while managing the Norwegian club. Brann sit far from many of their rivals, so long trips are part of life in the Norwegian game, and for a coach based in a new country, the distances add up quickly.
Looking ahead, Kaminski said she expects Brann to win the Toppserien again. Her reasoning is simple: the club believes it has invested more than any of its rivals. Brann are also still in the hunt for a place in the European quarter-finals.
Brann have been here before. Under former manager Martin Ho, the club reached the quarter-finals of the 2023-24 Women's Champions League. Ho now manages Tottenham.
For Brann's supporters, the double is a fresh start after a club-record run of European football. For Kaminski, it is a second chance to show what she can do at the top, after a sacking that ended her time at Palace. Her first season back in the game ended with silverware, and that is the headline.
