Klebér Saarenpää

John Klebér Saarenpää (born 14 December 1975[1]) is a Swedish football manager who is the current head coach of Superettan club IK Brage.[2] He is also a former professional footballer who played as a defender. He represented IK Sirius, Djurgårdens IF, IFK Norrköping, AaB, Hammarby IF, and Vejle during a career that spanned between 1992 and 2008. A full international between 2000 and 2001, he won 11 caps for the Sweden national team.

Klebér Saarenpää
Personal information
Full name John Klebér Saarenpää
Date of birth (1975-12-14) 14 December 1975
Place of birth Uppsala, Sweden
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Defender
Team information
Current team
 IK Brage (manager)
Youth career
1981– Stäppens IF
–1991 Uppsala-Näs IK
1991–1992 IK Sirius
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–1994 IK Sirius 46 (2)
1995–1996 Djurgårdens IF 34 (1)
1997–2000 IFK Norrköping 88 (4)
2001–2004 AaB 31 (1)
2005 IK Sirius 5 (0)
2005–2006 Hammarby IF 6 (0)
2007 Vejle Boldklub 10 (2)
2007–2008 Hammarby IF 13 (0)
Total 233 (10)
International career
1991–1992 Sweden U17 9 (0)
1993–1994 Sweden U19 10 (0)
1995–1998 Sweden U21 11 (0)
2000–2001 Sweden 11 (0)
Managerial career
2009–2010 Hammarby IF (youth)
2011 Hammarby Talang FF
2012–2013 Syrianska
2014 Vejle BK (assistant manager)
2014–2016 Vejle BK
2016 Syrianska
2017 Hammarby IF (U19 manager)
2018– IK Brage
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Saarenpää was born in Uppsala, of Finnish and Guinean descent, and started his career in local team Stäppens IF.

Saarenpää represented Djurgårdens IF, IFK Norrköping, Hammarby IF and AaB (in Denmark). He made a contract with the Danish club Vejle Boldklub from 1 January 2007. On 10 March 2007 the defender debuted as captain for Vejle Boldklub and scored two goals. His contract with Vejle Boldklub only ran until 30 June 2007 and Saarenpää has therefore played his last match for the club. After that he returned to his old club Hammarby IF and signed a two-year contract with the Stockholm based club. He ended his career after the 2008 season.

International career

Internationally, Saarenpää represented the Sweden U17, U19, and U21 teams a total of 30 times before making his full international debut for the Sweden national team on 31 January 2000 in a friendly game against Denmark.[3] He made his competitive debut for Sweden in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Slovakia, in which he played in all 90 minutes as Sweden won 2–0.[3] He appeared in four more qualifying games for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but missed the final tournament because of an injury.[4] He won a total of 11 caps between 2000 and 2001.[3]

Coaching career

In January 2014 he signed a 2.5 year contract with Vejle Boldklub as an Assistant Manager.[5] In October of the same year he was promoted to Manager of Vejle Boldklub after the former Manager Tonny Hermansen withdrew from the position.[6] He was sacked on 23 April 2016.[7]

Personal life

Saarenpää also has Finnish citizenship.[8]

References
  1. "Klebèr Saarenpää — svenskfotboll.se". svenskfotboll.se. Archived from the original on 2014-07-22.
  2. KLEBÉR SAARENPÄÄ NY TRÄNARE IIK BRAGE‚ ikbrage.se, 16 November 2017
  3. "Klebér Saarenpää - Spelarstatistik - Svensk fotboll". www.svenskfotboll.se. (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  4. "Saarenpää kan missa VM: Måste jag opereras är det kört". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  5. "Vejle Boldklub – Topfodbold i Regionen".
  6. "Vejle Boldklub – Topfodbold i Regionen". Archived from the original on 2014-10-20. Retrieved 2014-10-28.
  7. "Vejle Boldklub – Topfodbold i Regionen". Archived from the original on 2016-05-07. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  8. "Kleber Saarenpaa". footballdatabase.eu. Retrieved 9 June 2021.


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