Kaminski targets Norwegian crown with Brann after Palace 'crash course'

Laura Kaminski is relishing a trophy hunt in Norway. Eighteen months after Crystal Palace relieved her of her duties midway through their first Women's Super League campaign, the English coach has taken Brann to cup final glory and four points clear at the top of the league with seven games remaining.

Speaking from Bergen, the rainy west-coast city she now calls home, Kaminski laughs: "When it's a good day, it's absolutely stunning, so we'll take that." The same could easily be said of 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 bounced back with a cup final success against Aalesund, handing Kaminski her first major trophy on the continent.

From Palace sacking to a move abroad

At Brann, Kaminski follows in the footsteps of fellow Briton Martin Ho and also succeeds Leif Smerud, the man who replaced her at Palace before taking charge of Norway's reigning champions. A move to Norway, she admits, "wasn't on the cards" after her departure in February 2025.

“I’d never really thought about it because I’d always been involved in jobs in England, and then this opportunity came up which meant I was going to be stretched in terms of European football. 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 return to a No 1 job. She became a head coach, rather than an assistant, for the first time at Palace in 2024.

“I’d had a great opportunity in WSL 1, I always wanted to coach in top leagues, and here we can be in a title race most seasons, so I knew I’d have the chance to compete for trophies, and what head coach doesn’t want to compete for trophies?”

Matching the person to the project

Domestic opportunities after Palace were forthcoming, but Kaminski says the fit was not right. “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.”

It was her agent and a recruitment agency that changed everything. “Brann were looking for a new head coach, and it happened really quickly. Sometimes you don’t really realise what is going on until 24 hours down the line, you’re moving to Norway. 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.”

Kaminski, who gained her Uefa A licence in 2018, has been coaching for more than 15 years, previously working at promotion-winning Tottenham, for the England Women youth teams and at Charlton before moving to Palace. “I always dreamed of being something that I couldn’t see,” she says. “There were hardly any pro coaches when I started, let alone female coaches. I don’t know why, I just believed that would happen.”

“I had that belief I was driven and ambitious enough to do it, but it was a labour of love because it was juggling multiple jobs, always on the road, not making any money, sometimes paying to do the job. 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.”

‘A crash course you couldn’t buy’

With growth has come scrutiny, pressure and a more ruthless sport, as Kaminski found out at Palace. Despite a small peak in results under Smerud, the club were relegated, and Kaminski says she learned more in 18 months than in the previous 18 years.

“It was a course you couldn’t buy. It was led by Steve Parish, a great chair, great people at the club who were able to stretch me in the role. 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". Her obsession with the game remains undimmed: “I’m constantly watching games. I was addicted to football and still am. I’ll put on a Bundesliga game and see what I would do at half-time in whatever scenario they’re in. I still have that hunger and drive as when I did all those years out in the cold and the rain in London.”

“The coaching part of being on the ground for so many years has given me so much knowledge, developing my way of playing over and over again, and who knows, that’s just the start. It will change and evolve; we’re playing some good football here. I’ve won in England, won promotion with Tottenham and Palace, and now I want to prove I can do it abroad.”