Roy Hodgson Profile

Roy Hodgson

Personal information
Full name	Roy Hodgson
Date of birth	9 August 1947 (1947-08-09) (age 62)
Place of birth	Croydon, London, England
Club information
Current club	Liverpool (manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
	Crystal Palace
	Tonbridge
	Gravesend & Northfleet
	Maidstone United
Teams managed
1976–1980	Halmstad
1980–1982	Bristol City
1983–1985	Örebro
1985–1990	Malmö FF
1990–1992	Neuchâtel Xamax
1992–1995	Switzerland
1995–1997	Internazionale
1997–1998	Blackburn Rovers
1999	Internazionale
1999–2000	Grasshopper
2000–2001	Copenhagen
2001	Udinese
2002–2004	United Arab Emirates
2004–2005	Viking
2006–2007	Finland
2007–2010	Fulham
2010–	Liverpool
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is an English former footballer and now football manager, who is currently the manager of Liverpool F.C.

Hodgson is probably best known for guiding the Swiss national team to the last 16 of the 1994 World Cup and qualification for Euro 1996; Switzerland had not qualified for a major tournament since the 1960s. He has also coached many notable club sides, including Malmö FF, Internazionale, Blackburn Rovers, Udinese and most recently, at Fulham, where he guided them from relegation battlers to Europa League finalists within 3 years. He was appointed to his current role at Liverpool on 1 July 2010.

Hodgson has served several times as a member of UEFA's technical study group at the European Championships, and he was also a member of the FIFA technical study group at the 2006 World Cup. Hodgson has also worked as a television pundit in several of the countries in which he has coached and speaks five languages.

Early life and club career

Hodgson was born in Croydon and educated at John Ruskin Grammar School. He was a moderately successful player with Crystal Palace but was never able to break into the first team. This was followed by several years in non-League football with Tonbridge, Gravesend & Northfleet and Maidstone United, where he also served as assistant manager.

Managerial career

Early career

Following a spell at English non-league side Carshalton Athletic,Hodgson started his top flight managerial career in 1976 at the Swedish top division side Halmstad. Hodgson spent five years at Halmstads BK, winning the league championship in 1976 and 1979. His success with Halmstad in 1976 is considered as one of the biggest surprises of all time in Swedish football. The year before, Halmstad had struggled against relegation and before the 1976 campaign began, they were almost universally tipped for relegation. Hodgson himself says "my greatest achievement would have to be the water-into-wine job at Halmstads BK." Early in his career, he was dubbed the nicest man in the world.

In 1980, he moved to Bristol City in his native England, where he was assistant manager and later manager. Due to the club's financial problems he was largely unsuccessful. In 1983, Hodgson moved back to Sweden to take over Örebro. In 1985, he took over at Malmö FF, which he led to five consecutive league championships, two Swedish championships (at the time the Swedish championship was decided through play-offs) and two Swedish Cups. Due to his successful time at Malmö, Hodgson is still highly appreciated by the club's fans who have unofficially named a section of the new Swedbank Stadion "Roy's Hörna" (Roy's Corner). His greatest continental achievement at Malmö was knocking the then-Italian champions Internazionale out of the Champions League, winning 1–0 at home and drawing 1–1 at the San Siro.

Malmö offered Hodgson a lifetime contract, but he declined, saying later that "moving to another place seemed exciting. The decision was also financial. Swedish taxes were so high that even if you were being paid reasonable money, after losing 65% in tax there wasn't a lot left." Hodgson moved to Swiss side Neuchâtel Xamax in 1990. He led Xamax to European victories over Celtic and Real Madrid.

His early coaching career was closely linked to that of his friend Bob Houghton; they worked together at Maidstone, Stranraer and Bristol City, and they both worked in Swedish football at the same time. The pair are credited with transforming Swedish football, bringing in zonal marking for the first time.

Switzerland

Hodgson took over as manager of the Swiss national team from Uli Stielike on 26 January 1992. Stielike had been the first Swiss coach to have a winning record,winning 13 of the 25 games he was in charge. As Hodgson was succeeding Stielike at the national level, Stielike took over the job Hodgson had just vacated at club level with Swiss Super League side Neuchâtel Xamax.

Hodgson took the Schweizer Nati to the 1994 World Cup, losing only one game during qualification, from a group that included Italy and Portugal. The Swiss took four points off Italy, managed by the successful former coach Arrigo Sacchi, who were to make it to the World Cup final and lose only on penalties. In the game in Italy, the Swiss were at one stage leading 2–0 before being pegged back to 2–2. This was Switzerland's first World Cup since 1966. At the 1994 World Cup, the Swiss finished runners-up in their group, qualifying for the Round of 16 where they lost to Spain.

The Swiss easily qualified for Euro 1996. Hodgson left immediately after they had qualified for Euro 1996, on 15 November 1995 to join Serie A side Inter Milan. He had in fact been doing both jobs from October of that year. Without Hodgson, the Swiss had a difficult time at Euro '96 with defeats coming at the hands of the Netherlands and Scotland, with the Swiss finishing bottom of their group.

At his peak as manager of Switzerland, they were the third best international side in the world, according to the FIFA World Rankings.

Internazionale

Before the European Championships, Hodgson joined Italian Serie A giants Internazionale, where he worked from 1995 to 1997. He presided over a rebuilding phase. Inter had finished 13th and 6th in the seasons prior to his arrival. After a terrible start to the season, Hodgson was brought in and guided the club to a 7th place finish in the 1995–96 season, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. The 1996–97 season saw Inter finish 3rd and reach the 1997 UEFA Cup Final, losing on penalties over two legs. Hodgson says of his time at Inter, "We lacked stars, apart from Paul Ince. It wasn't the Inter we see today of household names. They weren't the best technically but physically they were like machines. The Premier League is like that now, but back then Italy was far ahead." The side Hodgson built would go on to win the UEFA Cup in 1998 and finish runner-up in Serie A under his successor, Luigi Simoni.

Blackburn Rovers

In the 1997 close season, Hodgson was tempted by Jack Walker to become manager of Blackburn Rovers. Rovers had finished 13th the previous season – only 2 seasons after winning the title—and had been in danger of relegation. Manager Ray Harford had quit on 25 October 1996 with Blackburn winless, bottom of the Premier League and just knocked out of the Football League Cup by Division Two underdogs Stockport County. Coach Tony Parkes had been put in charge for the rest of the season and overseen an improvement in league form to secure survival, but it was clear that chairman Walker wanted a more experienced man to build a side capable of regaining the form of a few years earlier (when Blackburn had been league champions), and Hodgson accepted the offer to take over.

In the 1997–98 season—his first season in charge – Blackburn finished 6th, qualifying for the UEFA cup and appeared to be in the ascendancy. However, Hodgson's second season with Blackburn would prove to be disastrous, both for the club and for his personal reputation within English football. Hodgson spent £20m in the summer of 1998 to strengthen the Rovers side. A succession of poor buys – notably the £7.5 million Kevin Davies—coupled with injuries and dressing room unrest led to a disastrous start to the season. He was sacked in December 1998 with Rovers at the bottom of the league table. His final game was a home defeat to Southampton.

Return to Inter, Grasshopper

In 1999, he had a brief second stint as caretaker at Inter before returning to Switzerland to coach Grasshopper for a season. In 2000, Hodgson was one of three candidates to take over as England manager. However, his failure with Blackburn and subsequent damage to his reputation in England counted heavily against him and the job went to Sven-Göran Eriksson.

Copenhagen, Udinese

Hodgson moved to Denmark and became manager of Copenhagen. Hodgson was an instant success, taking a team that had finished 7th and 8th in the two previous seasons, and winning the Superliga championship in the 2000–01 season. In 2001, he left Copenhagen to move to Serie A side Udinese. Despite a successful start, he was fired after just six months after allegedly stating that he regretted taking up the post.

United Arab Emirates

Hodgson took over as manager of the United Arab Emirates in April 2002, managing the senior and Olympic sides. He was sacked in January 2004 after a disappointing fifth placed finish at the 2003 Gulf Cup. Speaking of his time as manager of the United Arab Emirates, Hodgson said: "That was a period where I didn't know where my career was going. But all these experiences enrich you and it was good to know I could get my message to players who many say are uncoachable. It's hard work; they're basically lazy. But I had them drilled and pressuring opponents almost like an English team. Most coaches who go there are just fannying around, but it's not my nature."

Viking

In May 2004, he moved to Norwegian club Viking. The club had been stuck in the relegation zone before Hodgson took over, but finished ninth under Hodgson in its first season in its new stadium, Viking Stadion, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. Following a spell at the top of the table, Viking finished fifth in the 2005 season. 2005 was also a good year for Hodgson and Viking in the UEFA Cup, with victories against Monaco and Austria Wien as the highlights. On 15 August 2005, he agreed to take over as coach of the Finnish national team for the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

Finland

Hodgson narrowly failed to reach Euro 2008 with Finland (Finland attained 24 points and coming fourth in their group). Hodgson's Finland were praised for well organized defending but criticized for inefficient attacking. Finland played five 0–0 draws in 14 qualification games. However, Finland still had a chance to qualify in their last match. Hodgson's contract expired at the end of November, and although the Finnish FA expressed their willingness to extend it, Hodgson decided to move on. Prior to taking up an ambassadorial role at Inter, Hodgson was linked with the vacant Republic of Ireland manager's job. He was also considered an outside candidate to replace Steve McClaren as England manager, having been linked to the job after the departure of Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan and given his international management record and nationality.

Fulham

On 28 December 2007, in a surprise appointment, Hodgson accepted the manager's post at struggling Premier League side Fulham, with his contract beginning on 30 December 2007. He initially endured a run of very poor results with the club, including being knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties after two draws against League One side Bristol Rovers. Looking to be certainties for relegation to the Championship, Fulham picked up just nine points from Hodgson's first thirteen league games. However, a run of twelve points from the last five games of the season, including a 3–2 win over Manchester City when the club was 2–0 down with twenty minutes remaining, secured the Cottagers' survival on the final day of the season.

In the 2008–09 season, Hodgson led Fulham to unprecedented success. He guided his side to a seventh placed finish in the Premier League, the club's highest ever finish, and ensured qualification for the new UEFA Europa League.There were calls for Hodgson to be given the Premier League Manager of the Year award and he received much praise for the signings of Mark Schwarzer, Andy Johnson and Brede Hangeland and for the upturn in Bobby Zamora's performances. Hodgson's spell at Fulham has greatly revived his reputation in England after his time in charge of Blackburn over a decade earlier, with renewed speculation linking him to the England job should Fabio Capello leave.

In the 2009–10 season, Hodgson has enjoyed an impressive run in the Europa League. The club's campaign, which started in July 2009, went on with impressive performances in the group stage, defeating Basel in the hostile St. Jakob-Park in the final group game to qualify for the knockout stage at the expense of the Swiss club. In the following rounds, Fulham went on to eliminate holders Shakhtar, Italian runners-up Juventus and German champions Wolfsburg. On 29 April 2010, Hodgson guided Fulham to their first major European final in their 130 year history, drawing 0–0 away from home to finally gain a 2–1 aggregate victory over Hamburg in the Europa League semi final.

In May 2010, Hodgson was voted the 2010 LMA Manager of the Year by a record margin. Hodgson received the award after a poll of coaches, including managers from the top four leagues in England.Two days later, he watched his Fulham side lose the club's first European final 2–1 to Atlético Madrid of Spain in Hamburg.

On June 30, the Liverpool Echo reported that Hodgson would be named as the new Liverpool manager after the club had a agreed a £2 million compensation deal with Fulham. The announcement came after weeks of speculation following the departure of Rafael Benitez - a period during which Hodgson was also touted as a possible successor to Fabio Capello as manager of England.

Liverpool

On 1 July 2010, Hodgson was officially appointed as manager of Liverpool, signing a three–year contract.He follows Spaniard Rafael Benitez as the manager.

Personal life

Hodgson is married to Sheila, with whom he has two sons, Christopher and Michael. Hodgson is multilingual, able to speak fluent Norwegian, Swedish and Italian as well as good German, Danish, French and Finnish.

Career statistics

Manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Halmstad		January 1976	November 1980
Bristol City		3 January 1982	30 April 1982	20	3	5	12	15.00
Örebro		January 1983	November 1984
Malmö FF		January 1985	November 1989
Neuchâtel Xamax		July 1990	June 1992	72	29	27	16	40.28
Switzerland		26 January 1992	15 November 1995	41	21	10	10	51.22
Internazionale		5 October 1995	25 May 1997	86	38	25	23	44.19
Blackburn Rovers		1 June 1997	21 November 1998	62	22	18	22	35.48
Internazionale		5 May 1999	27 June 1999	3	2	1	0	66.67
Grasshopper		July 1999	June 2000	36	14	12	10	38.89
Copenhagen		July 2000	June 2001	35	18	12	5	51.43
Udinese		21 June 2001	10 December 2001	17	7	5	5	41.18
United Arab Emirates		9 April 2002	14 January 2004	17	4	6	7	23.53
Viking		11 July 2004	20 December 2005	&0000000000000038.00000038	&0000000000000016.00000016	&0000000000000010.00000010	&0000000000000012.00000012	&0000000000000042.11000042.11
Finland		16 January 2006	30 November 2007	&0000000000000022.00000022	&0000000000000006.0000006	&0000000000000011.00000011	&0000000000000005.0000005	&0000000000000027.27000027.27
Fulham		30 December 2007	30 June 2010	&0000000000000127.000000127	&0000000000000050.00000050	&0000000000000032.00000032	&0000000000000045.00000045	&0000000000000039.37000039.37
Liverpool		1 July 2010	Present	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000	!—

As of 01 July 2010.

Honours

Halmstads

• Swedish football champions (2): 1976, 1979
• Allsvenskan (2): 1976, 1979

Malmö FF

• Swedish football champions (2): 1986, 1988
• Allsvenskan (4): 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
• Svenska Cupen (2): 1985–86, 1988–89

Inter Milan

• UEFA Cup Finalists (1): 1997

Copenhagen

• Danish Superliga (1): 2000–01
• Danish Super Cup (1): 2001

Fulham

• LMA Manager of the Year (1): 2010
• UEFA Europa League Finalists (1): 2010

From Wikipedia