Who is Mak Lind?

Note: In this post there are many quotes which have been machine-translated from the linked articles in Swedish. Apologies for any inaccuracies.

The conclusion of this article has been updated based on some of the announcement interviews.

In November, the rumor came out that Mak Lind was close to signing on as the North Carolina Courage’s next coach.

A common response from Courage fans at the time was “… who?”

Now that he has been announced as the head coach, let’s answer that question.

Refugee turned footballer #

Born Mohammed Ali Khan in Beirut, Lebanon, Lind’s family fled to Sweden as refugees when he was a child. Playing in the youth system of Västra Frölunda in Gothenburg, he eventually joined the first team while they were playing in the second and third tier of the Swedish system. He then moved to BK Häcken (also of Gothenburg) in the first division, playing for five years, including captaining the squad.

He was popular enough in his time that he published an auto-biography, Vilja slår talang (Willingness beats talent).

I sincerely believe that everyone can become pretty much what they want. I've never had a talent for football but the will took me to the elite and I could live my dream.

I know what I want and fight myself bloody to get it and now I want to share that anything is possible. I want to take a run through your head to open up the defense in your thoughts and tear up surfaces for you to run along on. Run with me.

It’s me who is Mohammed Ali Khan, the refugee from Lebanon, football pro, entrepreneur, dad, chairman and I’m not that terrorist. This is my story.

A name change #

In 2015, he was arrested after a false complaint made against him. He talked about how he was treated to Sportsbladet:

But with this, some of my sense of having a basic value and clear rights disappeared – part of my sense of citizenship. I felt I was treated in a way that was deeply unfair. “Damn, there’s something wrong here.” And the more I thought about it, the clearer it became that there was a reason for that. I was treated unfairly because I was who I was, because my name was Mohammed Ali Khan.

While Lind has never been claimed to be involved with them, the extended Ali Khan family is part of a local crime family.

A few months later, he had a fateful play on the last week of the season.

Own goal. One of the most unlikely and costly of Allsvenskan history.

For Halmstads BK, it meant mathematically confirmed relegation, for AIK it meant that they passed IFK Göteborg in the [championship] battle.

The first threat call to Mohammed Ali Khan's phone arrived already half an hour after the final signal, the most serious just before eleven o'clock the same night. It was then an unknown voice first announced that he knew which address in Gothenburg that Mohammed Ali Khan lived on his family, to then describe the curtains that hung in those windows and explain what would happen to the people who were in there.

It was a murder threat.

These incidents combined to convince Lind to change his name.

All of this is somewhere about being judged beforehand, on incorrect premises, based on something other than who you actually are. Being judged for things others do, rather than what you do yourself. That feeling had always been in me, but now it quickly became stronger and stronger.

… I don’t want the kids to feel what I’ve felt. I don’t want them to stand in the schoolyard with a friend who wants to come home to us and play, but who doesn’t get because their parents say no: “Her father is Ali Khan”.

A switch to coaching #

Disillusioned with playing, Lind moved into caching on the men’s side. He had consecutive one-year stints at his original club Västra Frölunda (finishing 5th in the fifth Swedish division) and Husqvarna (finishing 10th in the third division).

He then moved to Norrby in the second division, where in his five years they finished 12th, 9th, 11th, 4th, and then relegated in 15th place.

Moving back to Häcken, on the women’s side #

After a few months as coach and sporting director of 3rd tier FC Trollhättan, he took over BK Häcken FF midseason in 2023, signing through the 2026 season.

At his introduction, he said all the usual things new coaches say about attacking.

In the long run, I want to be involved in influencing football to be conducted, that we can move forward our positions and dare to stand out, dare to take market share. … Even if we score a lot of goals, I want us to score even more goals. We want to attack with more players than you have done and attack the box with more players than you have done.

2023 #

When Lind came on as manager, Häcken was in first place, seven points up on Hammarby. They finished tied on points, second due to a single goal difference; a 3-2 loss to Hammarby in the penultimate match dooming them.

This qualified them for the second qualifying round of the next year’s UEFA Champions League.

Meanwhile, in the current year’s champions league, they beat FC Twente 4-3 on aggregate, which qualified them for the group stage. Drawn into a group with Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Paris FC, they finished in second with three wins, two draws, and one loss; their only loss was to Chelsea.

In the knockout stage, they faced PSG, who defeated them in both matches (5-1 on aggregate).

2024 #

In 2024, Häcken again finished second, this time 11 points behind FC Rosengård, who won 25 of 26 matches. They lost the Swedish Cup final to Piteå.

In the Champions League, they faced Arsenal in the qualifiers. After a 1-0 home victory, they fell 4-0 in the return leg.

After the 2024 season Häcken considered him for the vacant men’s head coach role, which eventually went to Jens Gustafsson.

2025 #

When Häcken and Lind started the 2025 season with back-to-back losses, some cranky local press had complaints, given Häcken’s status as one of the highest revenue teams in the Damallsvenskan.

Since the takeover of Kopparbergs/Gothenburg FC, the Hisings Club has not yet managed to win Damallsvenskan, and given the resources coach Mak Lind has at his disposal, it is a failing mark on Lind's ability to get the players to overperform. Years that could have given Häcken a superior head start have rather resulted in stagnation.

But should Lind's Häcken FF fail this year too... well then it is possible to discuss whether the Häcken management should really renew his contract.

However, they would lose only twice more through the rest of the season, as Häcken won their first ever Damallsvenskan title as Häcken (they had won once in their previous incarnation as FC Göteborg). Finishing with 21 wins, they took the championship by 4 points, clinching on the second-to-last match.

In Champions League qualifying, they tied Atlético Madrid 1-1 at home, but fell 2-1 in Madrid and were eliminated. This relegated them to the new Europa Cup; after a 7-1 aggregate win over GKS Katowice,and 1-0 on aggregate over Inter Milan, they will be in the Europa Cup quarters in February.

Tactics and coaching style #

Lind used a fairly consistent lineup in 2025. In the 25 games that won them the title, six players started 22 or more games, and 8 started 18 or more. According to FBRef, he normally set them out in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 most of the year, only playing in a 3-back system once.

In the preseason training camp, he talked about integrating psychology into the team’s routines.

We’ve started talking about psychological accrual. At our meetings, we go through certain issues related to psychology. It can be anything from how to celebrate successes to issues of group dynamics and leadership.

[We did this because] I really don’t think we’re good enough at talking psychology in a room. It’s all about how we can positively reinforce what we do, for example when it comes to communication. Players may interpret it differently, therefore it is important that we talk about how to do it. For us, it not only creates thoughts, but also clarity.

Midseason, he described how he thought the team performed in an interview with the team website:

It’s in our DNA to be forward-leaning and offensive. We train a lot in our offense. And it’s fun to see how our training patterns show up in real life – the goals are recognized from the training plan.

… We score in many different ways – on posts [?], set pieces, changes and distance shots. It provides reassurance when one way doesn't work, then we have several other tools.

Fittingly, he describes courage as one of their key values:

Everything we do on and off the field should be characterized by that identity. Courage may be to want the ball in tight spaces, to run in deep behind when you are tired, or courage can also be to be tackling. When it comes to professionalism, it's in how we are, how we do at the training facility. And from our side, in the leadership staff, to give them the right conditions in all situations. Creativity may be easier to understand. Although we have the structures and principles we play by, there must also be room for players to be creative. We want to see players creative based on the framework we have set up.

As for how they play, they want to build flexibly.

That desire to construct well-executed passing sequences is another key aspect of Häcken’s tactics, and Lind has made no secret of his desire for the team to build through the thirds whenever they are in transition.

As a result, there has been a constant need for players to be positionally flexible and to drop into different spaces around the field in order to allow the ball to be shifted around in an efficient manner.

This flexiblity and dropping into different spaces would seem to fit well with players like Manaka, Shinomi, and Ashley Sanchez.

In a different sort of coaching style, apparently supporters chant about his tight jeans, which did show up in the Courage’s announcement video.

A new era...

Introducing Head Coach of the NC Courage, Mak Lind!

[image or embed]

— North Carolina Courage (@nccourage.com) January 24, 2026 at 10:00 AM

Overall #

When profiled in 2023, Mak Lind suggested he was interested in staying long-term in Gothenburg.

In essence, Mak Lind is only interested in jobs within just over an hour of driving radius from Gothenburg. Moving the family is too cumbersome, being absent from it is not an option.

The most important thing in my life is to be there for my children – to give them what I didn’t get myself – even though I probably have to slow myself in order for me not to go the other way and be overprotective.

Now coming to NC, he talked about the people that drove that change.

I would say the people. All of the talks I’ve had with Ceri [Bowley], and with people around the club, was the key for me. I believe that relationships are important when you start a new journey in a new environment. No matter what kind of challenges you have, you need to do it with people you can believe in, and you should be aligned on a couple of things that are non-negotiable. We should be aligned about the style of play, etc. So there are many things that I felt that was right for me and also for my family. To make this move with four kids and wife, the schools need to be good … so it was many, many reasons.