Lars Lagerbäck

Lars Edvin "Lasse" Lagerbäck (pronounced [ˈlɑːʂ ˈlâsːɛ ˈlɑ̂ːɡɛ(r)ˌbɛk]; born 16 July 1948) is a Swedish football manager and former player.

Lars Lagerbäck
Lars Lagerbäck in 2014
Personal information
Full name Lars Edvin Lagerbäck
Date of birth (1948-07-16) 16 July 1948
Place of birth Katrineholm, Sweden
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1960–1969 Alby FF
1970–1974 Gimonäs CK
Managerial career
1977–1982 Kilafors IF
1983–1985 Arbrå BK
1987–1989 Hudiksvalls ABK
1990–1995 Sweden U21
1996–1997 Sweden B
1998–1999 Sweden (assistant)
2000–2009 Sweden
2010 Nigeria
2011–2016 Iceland
2017–2020 Norway
2020–2021 Iceland (technical advisor)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Lagerbäck has managed a number of national teams prior to his current position. He managed the Swedish national team from 1998 until 2009, leading Sweden to five consecutive tournaments. He resigned as manager in 2009, after Sweden's failure to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. After a short stint as manager of Nigeria, he led Iceland to unprecedented success as they qualified for their first finals competition, UEFA Euro 2016, and reached the quarter-finals, beating England in the last 16. Apart from his coaching duties, Lagerbäck has in recent years been a pundit for Premier League and UEFA Champions League broadcasting on Swedish television.[1] He currently holds the record for managing a team in the finals of the European Championships with four appearances.

Playing career

Born in Katrineholm and raised in Ovansjö, Medelpad, in his youth, Lagerbäck played for Alby FF. When he was 13 years old, he began playing for their P16 team.

After completing his upper secondary school studies at the end of the 1960s, Lagerbäck studied political science and economics at Umeå University in northern Sweden. On the side of his studies, he also played football for Gimonäs CK under the guidance of Calle Lindelöf.[2] He continued to play there until 1974 and worked as a club clerk from 1970.[3] Over the course of the following years, he played twice for the club in the qualifying rounds to division two in the Swedish League without success. Lagerbäck himself played midfielder, but was often an unused substitute.

In 1974, he attended the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, where he was a classmate of current assistant coach Roland Andersson.

Managing career

Club-level

In 1977, he was called up to the senior team. It was former teammate Kjell Pettersson that recommended him to Kilafors. He coached the Division IV team until 1982. In 1983, he moved to Arbrå IK until 1985. In 1987, he took over Hudiksvall ABK but left in 1989.[4]

Sweden

In 1990, Lagerbäck took a job with the Swedish Football Association. He began as a coach for the junior levels which included Freddie Ljungberg. He helped Tommy Svensson and Tord Grip with the Swedish national team.[3]

In 1996, Lagerbäck took over the Sweden B national team, until 1997. In 1998, Tommy Söderberg chose him to be the assistant coach for the Swedish national team. In 2000, he was promoted to dual-coach, a responsibility he shared with Söderberg until 2004.[5] Under their guidance, the Swedish national team qualified for UEFA Euro 2000 but was eliminated in the group stages.

In 2002, they led Sweden to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where Sweden were drawn in the 'group of death', together with England, Argentina and Nigeria. Sweden won the group but subsequently lost against Senegal in the first knockout round. In 2004, Sweden qualified for their third straight championship. At UEFA Euro 2004, Sweden made it to the quarter-finals where they lost to the Netherlands.[6] That same year, Tommy Söderberg left the Swedish national team to coach the U21 team.

After the departure of Söderberg, Lagerbäck appointed Roland Andersson as assistant coach. In 2006, Lagerbäck took Sweden to their fourth consecutive championship, the first time in Swedish history. He led Sweden to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, losing against Germany 2–0 in the knockout stage.[4] Under Lagerbäck, Sweden also qualified for UEFA Euro 2008, however they were eliminated in the group stage after losing 2–0 against Russia. The team's early dismissal from the tournament led sport columnists to ask Lagerbäck to be sacked.[7] Despite this, he signed an extension, which kept him until the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign. After Sweden's unsuccessful qualification campaign, Lagerbäck resigned and was replaced by Erik Hamrén.[8]

Iceland

On 4 October 2011, KSÍ's chief executive Geir Þorsteinsson reported that talks had begun over the appointment of Lagerbäck as the new manager of the Icelandic national team. The appointment was then confirmed ten days later.[9] Under Lagerbäck, Iceland qualified for the play-off stage of the qualification tournament for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but Croatia were the victors over two legs.[10] Shortly thereafter Lagerbäck signed a new contract, this time as joint manager with his former Iceland assistant Heimir Hallgrímsson, who took over as sole manager with Lagerbäck's retirement following UEFA Euro 2016, where Iceland famously reached the quarter-finals, beating England in the last 16. They went out to France in the quarter-finals.[10][11] Lagerbäck won 30 votes as a write-in candidate in the 2016 Icelandic presidential election.[12]

He was later (2020-2021) the technical advisor of the Iceland national football team.

Norway

On 1 February 2017, Lagerbäck was announced as the new manager for Norway, signing a contract lasting until the end of 2019.[13] On 26 March, Lagerbäck took charge of his first game as manager of Norway, which resulted in a 2–0 defeat to Northern Ireland in Belfast.[14] His tenure as manager was considered somewhat mixed in terms of success. In December 2020, Lagerbäck was fired from his role as national team manager, being replaced by Ståle Solbakken.[15]

Managerial statistics

As of 18 November 2020

Sweden Sweden

Role From To Record
GWDLWin %Unbeaten %
Joint manager 2000 2004 5926231044.0783.05
Sole manager 2004 2009 7231172443.0666.67
Overall 2000 2009 13157403443.5174.05

Nigeria Nigeria

Role From To Record
GWDLWin %Unbeaten %
Manager 2010 2010 723228.5771.43

Iceland Iceland

Role From To Record
GWDLWin %Unbeaten %
Sole manager 2011 2013 2083940.0055.00
Joint manager 2013 2016 321371240.6362.50
Overall 2011 2016 5221102140.3859.62

Norway Norway

Role From To Record
GWDLWin %Unbeaten %
Manager 2017 2020 36189950.0075.00

Honours

Manager

Sweden U21

Sweden

Nigeria

References
  1. "Viasat förlänger med Lagerbäck" (in Swedish). Viasat Sport. 19 August 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  2. "Guide to Sweden". Sky Sports.
  3. "ETT UNDERVERK FRÅN OVANSJÖ". aftonbladet.se. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  4. "Euro2008.uefa.com - Teams - Sweden". Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  5. "Lagerback: I love my job". FIFA. 3 July 2007. Archived from the original on 19 September 2007. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  6. "Lagerbäck: "Hoppas man glöms bort snabbt"". expressen.se. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  7. "Krönikörer kräver Lagerbäcks avgång". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). 19 July 2008. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  8. "Eriksson in line for Sweden post". Simon Austin. 19 October 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
  9. "Lagerback tekur við landsliðinu (Staðfest)" (in Icelandic). Fótbolti.net. 14 October 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  10. "Lagerbäck og Heimir áfram með landsliðið" (in Icelandic). mbl.is. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  11. "Lagerbäck: Vil ljúka ferlinum á stórmóti" (in Icelandic). mbl.is. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  12. "Lars Lagerbäck hlaut vel á þriðja tug atkvæða í forsetakosningunum". visir.is (in Icelandic). 27 June 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  13. Fotballforbund, Norges. "Lars Lagerbäck ny norsk landslagssjef". fotball.no - Norges Fotballforbund.
  14. AS, TV 2 (September 2017). "King herjet i Norges første seier med Lagerbäck". TV 2 (in Norwegian). Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  15. Richvoldsen, Ole Jonny Eriksrud Hansen, Adrian (3 December 2020). "Lagerbäck ferdig som Norge-trener. Dette sier han om avgjørelsen". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 31 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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