Óli Mittún: "The key to success was the key to the training hall"

GOG centre back Óli Mittún, his brother Pauli, his sister Jana and his cousins Elias and Rói Ellefsen á Skipagøtu are all making waves in the handball world.

“We are a real handball family, and none of us could have expected what would come when we were kids,” says Mittún.

“We had the dream to become professional players, but no one thought that one of us could manage it to go all the way from the Faroes Islands — now we are all national team players and handball professionals. We can live off handball, our hobby. Incredible.”

At 20 years old, Mittún has already won more individual trophies than the Dusjhebaev brothers or the Karabatics and Richardsons at the same age. He is the first male player ever with two MVP awards, one more All-star Team nomination and three-time top scorer of major younger age tournaments — the Men’s 18 EHF EURO 2022, the 2023 U19 World Championship and the 2025 U21 World Championship. At the latter event, Mittún steered the Faroe Islands to their first-ever medal in any team sport on the global stage, wining bronze.

Everything began with their handball-crazy parents. Mittún’s father coached at H71 in the Faroese capital Tórshavn, where Jens, the father of Elias and Roi Ellefsen á Skipagøtu, was goalkeeper coach. Jens Ellefsen á Skipagøtu is now the goalkeeper and mental coach for the national team and his wife Gunn, the Mittúns’ aunt, is the national federation president.

All the parents had keys for the H71 training hall, which became the children's playground.

“We played handball five, six hours per day, just us kids, we were and we are addicted to handball,” says Mittún, who was also a talented football player. As a young teenager he had to pick a sport, and as all of their family played handball, he did the same.

“Handball runs through my veins, my father and my mother were players, my uncle, my aunt, simply every one around in my family.”

Handball now is the biggest sport on the Faroe Islands, thanks largely to the Mittún and Ellefsen á Skipagøtu clan and their peers, who form the current golden generation of men’s and women’s national teams.

“We are individually skilled, of course, but for us it is all about team spirit. We know each other for so long, as the Faroe Islands are small. We played our whole life together, we are friends on the court, we are all like a family. And we always believed in us. This is what counts,” says Mittún.

“Currently handball from the Faroe Islands shows to the world of sports what is possible by a really small country. And this is what we are really proud of.”

When his cousin Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu made it from H71 to the Swedish club IK Sävehof, it was like a starting whistle for this generation to try their luck abroad. Jana Mittún moved to Viborg HK in Denmark, then Óli followed to Sävehof when he was only 16.

“It was great to play my first season together with Elias, he helped me a lot to get settled,” Mittún says.

When Ellefsen á Skipagøtu moved to German side THW Kiel in 2023, Mittún stayed for two more seasons at Sävehof and became Swedish champion and top scorer and MVP of the Swedish league, all at the age of 19.

The next step was the transfer to Danish club GOG last summer.

“This club is the best place for young, talented players like me to grow and develop. When you see which players made it from GOG to the world of handball, like Mathias Gidsel, Simon Pytlick, Lukas Jörgensen or Emil Jakobsen, you see the impact this club has on handball,” Mittún believes.

The move has also brought Mittún his first taste of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League.

“When I was younger, I watched the highlight clips of all those Champions League stars on YouTube, now I play against them. This is incredible.

“I can develop in the best club competition, this was my dream,” says Mittún.

“In my first Champions League season, I played at Barcelona, at Magdeburg, at Paris or at Szeged — some of the greatest places of handball. Those matches were really special for me.”

But what will the future bring? Mittún’s contract runs until 2029.

“I am only half a year here, and Denmark feels like a second home for me. I speak Danish, one part of my family lives nearby in Copenhagen, my sister plays in Viborg. I feel very comfortable in my team, as we have my young guys just like me, who simply want to play and enjoy handball on a highest level,” he says.

Mittún’s role model is Croatian legend Ivano Balic. Why?

“He played the style that I play now, creative, with a lot of assists and funny feints. This is how I love to play,” Mittún says.

In general, Óli Mittún is very happy that the style of handball changed from hammer shots by tall guys from a long distance to breakthroughs, a style the likes of Gidsel or Gísli Kristjánsson are famous for.

“It is good for players like me that not only those 2.05-metre players are imprinting the attack in modern handball, but those small, versatile and quick players,” he says.

It is this type of player who is leading in the current Faroese squad, and Mittún thinks the future is also bright.

 “When I come home to training sessions, I see 50 kids playing in our old arena, and they are exactly like we were eight, 10 years ago. They aim to become national team players, and they are really good and they are motivated by the success of our current national teams,” he says.

The Faroese team fell just short of the main round at the EHF EURO 2026, despite being supported by almost 7,000 fans in Oslo, and Mittún says that support will drive them onwards as they embark on the qualification campaign for the EHF EURO 2028.

“I truly hope that the fan support will remain like it was until now. Those fans are crazy, they push us to the limit,” he concludes.

Photos © Lau Nielsen; kolektiff images