Lars Lagerbäck

2000–200920102011–20162017–2019

**Lars Edvin "Lasse" Lagerbäck** (pronounced [lɑːʂ ²lɑːgɛ(r)ˌbɛk]; born 16 July 1948) is a Swedish football manager and former player. He is the manager of the Norwegian national football team.

He is best known as the former manager of the Swedish national team.
 He managed the Swedish national team from 1998 until 2009, leading
Sweden in five consecutive championships. He resigned as manager in 2009
 after Sweden's failure to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Apart from his coaching duties, Lagerbäck has in recent years been a pundit on 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 4 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 Gymnastik- och Idrottshögskolan (GIH), 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 Fredrik 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 his guidance, the Swedish national team qualified for the Euro 2000 but was eliminated in the group stages.

In 2002, he led Sweden to the 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. In the 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 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.[8]

### Nigeria

On 26 February 2010, Lagerbäck signed a five-month (renewable) contract that would see him lead Nigeria in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.[9] Despite Nigeria's poor performance in the World Cup, the Nigeria Football Federation
 offered Lagerbäck a contract extension for another two years. Lagerbäck
 declined the offer. Around this time, Lagerbäck was a candidate for the
 position of manager of the Welsh national team.[10]

### 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.[11] Under Lagerbäck, Iceland qualified for the play-off stage of the qualification tournament for the 2014 World Cup, but Croatia were the victors over two legs.[12] 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 Euro 2016, where Iceland famously reached the quarter-finals, beating England in the last 16. They went out to France in the quarter-finals.[12][13]

### Norway

On 1 February 2017, Lagerbäck was announced as the new manager for Norway, signing a contract lasting until the end of 2019.[14]
On 26 March 2017, Lagerbäck took charge of his first game as manager of
Norway, which resulted in a 2-0 defeat to Northern Ireland in Belfast.