ROY HODGSON
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 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...