The English former promotion-winning Crystal Palace coach is referring to Bergen, the place she now calls home, whose football club, Brann, she has taken to her heart since her appointment in January. She could easily be speaking about the job itself. After Brann failed to qualify for the Women’s Champions League owing to a 4-0 second-leg defeat by Austria Vienna, they secured a cup final success against Aalesund, handing Kaminski a first major trophy on the continent.
Her team are four points clear at the top of the league with seven games remaining. At Brann, she is following in the footsteps of her fellow Briton, Martin Ho, and also Leif Smerud, who replaced her at Palace and who she succeeded at Norway’s reigning champions. Kaminski was sacked by Palace in February 2025, midway through their first Women’s Super League campaign, and a move to Norway “wasn’t on the cards”.
Also coming to an ambitious club that wants to fight for a title, that was a massive pull.” After taking a much-needed break post-Palace, which she says gave her “a lot of time to reflect on what happened there”, Kaminski was ready to go back into a No 1 job after becoming a head coach, rather than an assistant, for the first time at Palace in 2024. Domestic opportunities after Palace were forthcoming but Kaminski says: “The person has to match the project, and while things were coming up, I didn’t feel they were a match. When Palace came up, that was a match for me, it was almost perfect in terms of personnel, being able to build something; it was somewhere I could call home.
And then my agent contacted me and a recruitment agency got involved because Brann were looking for a new head coach, and it happened really quickly. One minute you’re in London and 48 hours later you’re on a plane, but I snapped it up because for me to get to a WSL club fighting for a title was going to be difficult, I’m still on a journey in management but I’ve been coaching for years.” More than 15, in fact. Kaminski gained her Uefa A licence in 2018.
I don’t know why, I just believed that would happen. It’s come on a lot and thankfully now we’re in a different place where we can leave that behind and reward people for their skills.” With growth has come more scrutiny, more pressure and a more ruthless sport, as Kaminski found out when Palace relieved her of her duties. Despite a small peak in results under Smerud, the club were relegated and Kaminski learned more in 18 months than in the previous 18 years.
I met fantastic people; Palace will always be my home. It’s a well-run club, but those 18 months were a crash course in how to function, especially when things aren’t going well, and things are stressful. There are things I’ve reflected on, where I think I could have controlled it better, and there’s other things [that] I think were out of my hands.” Kaminski says “flying to games has been a huge change” in Norway, where she is enjoying “fantastic scenery” and senses a country “very proud of its football”.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
