Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is an English former football manager and player.
He has managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstad in 1976. He later guided the Switzerland 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. From 2006 to 2007, he managed the Finland national team, guiding them to their highest-ever FIFA ranking of 33rd place and coming close to qualifying for a major tournament for the first time in their history. He managed the England national team from May 2012 to June 2016. Other clubs that Hodgson has managed include Inter Milan, Blackburn Rovers, Malmö, Grasshoppers, Copenhagen, Udinese, Fulham, Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion, Watford, and boyhood club Crystal Palace, whom he managed for 200 games across two spells.
Hodgson is one of only five managers, alongside Ignacio Trelles, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Dick Advocaat and Giovanni Trapattoni, to have managed 1,000 or more club games and 100 or more national team games.
Hodgson served several times as a member of UEFA's technical study group at the European Championships and was also a member of the FIFA technical study group at the 2006 World Cup. Hodgson speaks five languages, and has worked as a television pundit in several of the countries in which he has coached.
Hodgson was born in Croydon, Surrey. His mother was a baker in the town, and his father, Bill, a Newcastle United fan, worked as a bus driver south of the River Thames. Hodgson's family lived in the same building as Steve Kember, one of Hodgson's schoolmates at John Ruskin Grammar School. The two played in the school football team, a side which also included Lennie Lawrence. Bob Houghton, who would go on to play a prominent part in Hodgson's career, joined the school in the sixth form.
Hodgson was a moderately successful youth player with Crystal Palace, but was never able to break into the first team. After leaving Crystal Palace he played non-league football for several years with Tonbridge and Gravesend & Northfleet. At the age of 23, he completed training to gain his full coaching badge. He then joined Maidstone United, where he played and also served as assistant manager to Bob Houghton.
Transition to coaching via teacher training
Hodgson completed a teacher training course in 1972 at Avery Hill College, part of what is now the University of Greenwich, where he was awarded a Certificate in Education with emphasis on physical education. Hodgson said of the experience: "When I went to the college it was mainly due to the obsession I had with football and I thought if they take me on and teach me to teach other people physical education, it will be the closest I might get to following my dream of working professionally in the game". He subsequently took a teaching job at Alleyn's School in Dulwich but left to briefly play football in South Africa.
In 1972, after a year at Maidstone, he moved to Ashford Town, while also working as a PE teacher at Alleyn's School in south London. The following year, he moved to Pretoria, South Africa to play for Berea Park, despite the sporting boycott of South Africa in effect at the time. In 1974, Hodgson returned to England for his final playing spell, joining Carshalton Athletic. Again, he supported himself by teaching, this time at Monks Hill Comprehensive.
Hodgson started his managerial career in 1976 at Allsvenskan side Halmstad, having been recommended by then-Malmö manager Bob Houghton. Hodgson spent five years at Halmstad, winning the league championship in 1976 and 1979. His success with Halmstad in 1976 is considered one of the biggest surprises of all time in Swedish football. The year before, Halmstad struggled against relegation, surviving on just goal difference and before the 1976 campaign began they were almost universally tipped for relegation. Hodgson himself says that "my greatest achievement would have to be the water-into-wine job at Halmstad."
In 1980, Hodgson moved to Bristol City in his native England, where he was assistant manager to Bob Houghton from 1980 to 1982 and manager from January to April 1982. Due to the club's financial problems he was largely unsuccessful and was dismissed after four months in charge. Commenting later on his time at Bristol City, Hodgson said: "Bristol City was nothing short of a disaster in that we had only been there for a matter of weeks before the banks started to pull the rug from underneath the club. My job when I eventually took over, as caretaker manager, was quite simply to carry on in the aftermath of all the players leaving the club and just fulfilling the fixtures."
In 1982, Hodgson moved back to Sweden to take over second-tier side Oddevold part-way through the 1982 season. Hodgson could not save the club from relegation as they finished eleventh, one point off safety. In 1983, he moved to fellow Division 2 side Örebro. In his first season, Örebro finished third. In his second season, the club finished first but the missed out on promotion to Allsvenskan after losing in the play-off to Mjällby.
In 1985, he took over at Malmö, 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. His team took part regularly in European competitions: the Intertoto Cup, the European Cup and the UEFA Cup. In the 1986–87 European Cup Winners' Cup, they defeated Apollon Limassol in the first round and Tirana in the second round, losing to Ajax in the quarter finals. In the 1987–88 European Cup, Malmö were eliminated in the first round by Anderlecht. In the 1988–89 UEFA Cup, Malmö defeated Torpedo Moscow in the first round after extra time and lost to the club Hodgson would manage seven years later, Inter Milan, in the second round. Narrowly losing 1–0 at home, they secured a 1–1 draw at the San Siro. Hodgson's greatest continental achievement at Malmö came the following year in the 1989–90 European Cup, knocking Inter out in the first round, winning 1–0 at home and drawing 1–1 at the San Siro. In the second round, Malmö lost to Mechelen. 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 Stadion "Roy's Hörna" (Roy's Corner).
Hodgson continues to be held in high regard at Malmö, where he is known as "Royson".
His early coaching career was closely linked to that of his friend Bob Houghton; they worked together at Maidstone and Bristol City and they both worked in Swedish football at the same time. Houghton moved to Sweden with Malmö in 1974 and two years later installed Hodgson at Halmstad. The pair are credited with transforming football in Sweden and bringing in zonal marking for the first time to Swedish football. Swedish teams at the time were influenced by German football and used a sweeper with three or five in defence, favouring man-marking. The two were known in Sweden as English Roy and English Bob.
Besides zonal marking, the defence pressed hard and maintained a high offside line. Their teams counter-attacked with long passes played in behind the opposition's defence. Instead of playing with a team that was very spread out from one end of the field to the other, with a libero who stayed in his penalty area and a centre-forward who never tracked back, they set up a system of zonal defence, a back four, players pushing up and getting the ball forward into the final area much more quickly.
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 July 1990. In his first season in charge, Xamax finished third in both the league and the subsequent championship play-off league, qualifying for the 1991–92 UEFA Cup. In the following season, Xamax finished fifth in the league and then finished second in the championship play-off league, missing out on the title to Sion by just two points. In Europe, he led Xamax to a 2–0 win on aggregate over Floriana and then a 5–2 aggregate win over Celtic. In the third round, Xamax were drawn against Real Madrid and they won their home tie 1–0 but were eliminated after a 4–0 defeat at the Bernabéu.