To this day, a section of the Eleda
Stadion in southern Sweden is lovingly
referred to as Roy’s Corner. It’s a tribute
to an Englishman who not only changed
football in the coastal city of Malmo, but
whose ideas left a lasting impression
across Scandinavia.
At a glance, you’d be forgiven for mistaking
Hodgson’s career as an epic save on Football
Manager. His journey has taken in everything
from the Swedish second division to
European finals, stopping off in eight
different countries and 20 different outposts,
as varied as Viking, Grasshoppers and the
England national team.
It all started back in 1976 with a telephone
call between Halmstad and English coach
Bob Houghton, then managing Malmo.
Halmstad needed a coach with some fresh
ideas to help them avoid relegation from the
top flight, so Houghton suggested an old
colleague from his time at Maidstone
United. Hodgson was soon appointed, just
shy of his 29th birthday, and duly kept the
relegation favourites afloat. After that
followed two of the unlikeliest league title
wins in Sweden’s history.
“He changed the culture of Swedish
football,” said former Halmstad defender
Bengt Sjoholm. “He was so competent that
his philosophies gradually became the way
the national team played as well.”
Hodgson’s innovations were centred
around zonal marking and deploying an
offside trap, and they were quickly accepted
by his players. Former charges have
admitted they became so well-drilled in a
Hodgson system that they could
comfortably play any position in it.
While this approach would later prove to
be a stumbling block at more ambitious
teams – most notably Liverpool – Hodgson
performed more than one miracle with
underdog sides.
His achievements include taking
Switzerland to USA 94 (their first World Cup
for 28 years), overseeing Copenhagen’s first
league title win in more than a decade, and
restoring direction to an Inter Milan side in
decay. But it was with Malmo that he
achieved iconic status, bagging five
consecutive league titles and two Swedish
Cups between 1985 and 1989.
“There aren’t many English managers who
have had the sort of career I’ve had outside
of England,” claimed the Croydon-born
gaffer in 2011. “People don’t talk about what
I’ve done outside the country.”
Arguably Roy’s greatest hour came back in
his homeland, however, following a surprise
appointment at relegation-threatened
Fulham in late 2007. His calm and organised
approach – plus some shrewd signings –
helped to seal the club’s miraculous survival
99
FATIH TERIM
As a player, Terim was a wily
defender, and as a manager his
teams have been largely the same. ‘The
Emperor’ has coached Turkey on three
occasions – guiding them to the semi-finals
of Euro 2008 – and Galatasaray on four,
instilling a hard-running, hard-tackling style
best on show in his Gala sides that won four
consecutive league titles from 1997-2000, as
well as the UEFA Cup final against Arsenal.
“He’s extraordinary,” former charge
Gheorghe Hagi once gushed. “He could
coach any side.”98
VACLAV JEZEK
Taking charge of Sparta
Prague back in 1964, Jezek
introduced an aesthetic style of
play that swept all before it in
Czechoslovakia, then took on the national
team. He moulded the Czechs into his image
and watched as his country shocked the
world champions, West Germany, at Euro 76.
Antonin Panenka’s iconic spot-kick won it,
but the blend of brawn and grace, woven
from the fabric of great Eastern European
sides gone by, was all Jezek’s doing.97
ROBERTO MANCINI
As a youngster at Bologna,
Mancini demanded to take
every corner, free-kick and
penalty. If coaches resisted, he’d walk off. A
similarly uncompromising approach in
management, ever since cutting short a
2001 loan spell at Leicester to take his first
job with Fiorentina, has earned Mancini six
domestic cups and four league titles,
including Manchester City’s first in 44 years.
In 2021 he led Italy to European glory with
victory over England at Euro 2020.96
GERARD HOULLIER
“When I go to Liverpool,
I’m surprised people are so
nice to me,” said Houillier in 2019.
Why the Frenchman thinks any Red would
dishonour the man who delivered a cup
treble in 2001 is a head-scratcher; although
Houllier couldn’t land a league title on
Merseyside, he restored silverware at Anfield
after a six-year hiatus. Before that, he had
won PSG their first league crown in 1986,
and while his 1992-93 tenure as France boss
was disastrous, he was later a two-time
Ligue 1 champion with Lyon.on the final day of the season. From then,
life in west London improved markedly.
A superb 7th-placed finish the next year
set up a miraculous run to the Europa League
final, beginning in Lithuania in July 2009 and
ending in Hamburg in May 2010. En route,
German champions Wolfsburg and Italian
behemoths Juventus were defeated – the
latter, from 4-1 down on aggregate – and
although Bobby Zamora & Co. lost the
showpiece to an Atletico Madrid side with
Sergio Aguero, Diego Forlan and David de
Gea, Fulham’s feat in getting to that stage
earned Hodgson the Liverpool job.
“I assisted Bobby Houghton at Halmstad
and we were both just under 30,”
remembered Roy in 2018. “We’d say,
‘Wouldn’t it be great to do this for 10 years,
save a little money, then start a little
business together?’ Some sort of travel
agency. We had no football thoughts beyond
that.” From little acorns...100 ROY HODGSOn
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