Lars Lagerbäck

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

Lagerbäck has managed a number of national teams prior to his current position. He managed the Sweden national team from 1998 until 2009, leading Sweden to five consecutive tournaments. He resigned as manager in 2009, after Sweden failed 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. 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. He continued to play there until 1974 and worked as a club clerk from 1970. 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.