Bo Svensson
Svensson as coach of Mainz 05 in 2022
Personal information
Date of birth (1979-08-04) 4 August 1979 (age 44)
Place of birth Skørping, Denmark
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Central defender
Youth career
KB
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1999–2006 Copenhagen 150 (4)
2006–2007 Borussia Mönchengladbach 32 (2)
2007–2014 Mainz 05 109 (1)
Total 291 (7)
International career
2000 Denmark U-21 2 (0)
2006–2011 Denmark 3 (0)
Managerial career
2019–2021 FC Liefering
2021–2023 Mainz 05
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Bo Svensson (born 4 August 1979) is a Danish professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He was most recently head coach of Bundesliga club Mainz 05.

During his playing career, Svensson made three appearances for the Denmark national team.

Playing career

Svensson in 2006

Svensson was born in Skørping, Northern Jutland. He started playing youth football with Copenhagen club KB, the reserve team of Copenhagen (FCK). He moved from KB into the FCK squad in June 1999, and got his FCK debut in September 1999, under FCK manager Kim Brink. He was soon a FCK regular team member, and was called up for the Danish under-21 national team in March 2000.

With FCK, he won the 2001 Danish Superliga championship under manager Roy Hodgson, and the 2003 Superliga under manager Hans Backe. When FCK team captain Peter Nielsen retired in winter 2003, Bo Svensson was given the captain's armband. He went on to captain FCK when they won the Double, of both 2004 Superliga and Danish Cup titles. The 2004–05 season was less successful, but FCK managed to win the inaugural 2005 Royal League tournament. In the summer break 2005, Hans Backe demoted Svensson to vice-captain, as the captain status was given to the Swedish international midfielder Tobias Linderoth.[1] With his FCK contract running out one year later, in the summer 2006, Svensson looked for a new club, and left FCK in the winter break 2005. He played a total of 196 official games for FCK.

He moved abroad when he was sold to German team Borussia Mönchengladbach (M'gladbach) in January 2006. He debuted for Mönchengladbach in February 2006 and finished the season playing 13 of Mönchengladbach's last 15 games, under manager Horst Köppel. He was called up for the Danish national team, and made his debut in May 2006, under national manager Morten Olsen.

In summer 2007 he was transferred to Mainz 05. After the 2013–14 season he retired from professional football.[2]

Coaching career

After retiring from professional football, Svensson started his coaching career as an assistant coach for his old club, Mainz 05. In June 2015, he became a youth coach for the club. In 2017 Svensson, took over the under 19 squad of Mainz.[3]

In 2019, he became the head coach of FC Liefering in the 2. Liga in Austria.[4][5] The team is known for being a feeder club for Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg. Under his leadership, the young team finished the 2019–20 season in third place. They also were successful in the beginning of the 2020–21 season, being in second place after 13 games.[6]

On 4 January 2021, Svensson became the new head coach of his former club Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga.[7] He managed a nearly impossible task, leading them out of relegation zone by the end of the 2020–21 season, during the second half of which they harvested a sensational 32 points.[8] In the following two seasons, he successfully secured his team's position on the top half of the Bundesliga table, with Mainz constantly being a strong competitor for the Europa Conference League qualification. He held the position as manager until stepping down by mutual consent on 2 November 2023, after the team entered the new season with nine winless league games.[9]

Managerial statistics

As of match played 1 November 2023[10]
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
FC Liefering 12 July 2019 4 January 2021 43 23 11 9 100 60 +40 053.49
Mainz 05 4 January 2021 2 November 2023 105 38 27 40 151 163 −12 036.19
Total 148 61 38 49 251 223 +28 041.22

Honours

References

  1. ^ "Bo Svensson degraderet". Berlingske Tidende (in Danish). 13 July 2005.
  2. ^ "Trainingsauftakt bei Mainz 05: Erste Einheit unter neuem Trainer Hjulmand" [Training's kick off at Mainz 05: First session under new coach Hjulmand]. Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 23 June 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Svensson ny assistenttræner i Mainz" (in Danish). bold.dk. 17 February 2015.
  4. ^ "Bo Svensson erhält Freigabe und ist ab sofort Cheftrainer beim FC Liefering" (in German). FC Liefering. July 2019.
  5. ^ "U19: Svensson wechselt 2020 nach Österreich". mainz05.de (in German). Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  6. ^ "2. Liga (Österreich) 2020/2021 – Ergebnisse u. Tabelle". sport.de (in German). Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Svensson is new Main 05 head coach". mainz05.de. Mainz 05. 4 January 2021. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  8. ^ "Taktik, Tore und mehr: Die Trends der Saison 2020/21" [Tactics, Goals and more: Trends of the 2020-21 season]. bundesliga.com (in German). Bundesliga. 24 May 2021.
  9. ^ "Bo Svensson wirft hin, Jan Siewert übernimmt bei Mainz 05". allgemeine-zeitung.de (in German). 2 November 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  10. ^ "Bo Svensson career sheet". footballdatabase. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  11. ^ "Sunday 07/10 2001 at 19:05" (in Danish). fck.dk. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Tirsdag 20/07 2004 kl. 18:30" (in Danish). fck.dk. Retrieved 4 January 2024.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bo Svensson.
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