Bo Jimmy Thelin (born 14 March 1978) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player who is currently the manager of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. He is the older brother of Tommy Thelin, former

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

and

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Jönköpings Södra IF Jönköpings Södra IF, also known as J-Södra IF, or J-Södra, is a Swedish football club based in Jönköping. The club, founded in 1922, returned to the Swedish second division Superettan in 2018 after relegation from the 2017 Allsvenskan. J ...

Playing career

He played until 2003 as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for IF Hagapojkarna (now renamed IF Haga), one of the local minor teams of the city of

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat o ...

, in the fourth and in the fifth level in the league system of

Swedish football Association football is the most popular sport in Sweden, with over 240,000 licensed players (approximately 56,000 women and 184,000 men) with another 240,000 youth players. There are around 3,200 active clubs fielding over 8,500 teams, whic ...

Managerial career

He began his coaching career taking over as FC Ljungarum coach in 2005. This newly founded team had its first effective season in 2006, dominating the Division 6 championship with 17 wins out of 18 games total. Thelin remained at Ljungarum until 2008, winning another championship. In 2009, he started managing the

Under-17 team, before coaching the Under-19 and the Under-21 teams of the same club. At the beginning of the 2014 season, the previous J-Södra coach Mats Gren moved to the role of sporting director for

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

, so the team found itself without a manager when

2014 Superettan The 2014 Superettan, part of the 2014 Swedish football season, was the 15th season of Superettan, Sweden's second-tier football league in its current format. The 2014 fixtures were released on 20 December 2013. The season started on 5 April 2014 a ...

had already started. The board decided to promote Jimmy Thelin as head coach of the first team, finishing the season in fourth place (the club's best finish since 1976). In the following season, he achieved an even better result, leading J-Södra back to the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

, after 46 years. It was announced on 16 April 2024 that Thelin had been appointed as the new manager of Scottish club

on a three-year deal starting in June 2024. He made a total of six signings for the club in the summer transfer window. Thelin's start to his Aberdeen tenure began positively with Aberdeen winning 10 out of 11 games in the league but then Aberdeen would only go on to win 5 out of the remaining 27 games of the season, finishing 5th in the 2024–25 season. Thelin was awarded August's Scottish Premiership’s Manager of the Month. Thelin also guided Aberdeen to the

2024–25 Scottish Cup The 2024–25 Scottish Cup (known as the Scottish Gas Men's Scottish Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 140th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Celtic were the defending champions after defeating Rangers in t ...

beating

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

in the final. It was the club’s first major honour in 11 years and their first Scottish Cup triumph since the 1989–90 season.

Managerial record

Honours

Manager

;Jönköpings Södra IF *

Superettan Superettan (; ) is an association football league and the second highest league in the Swedish football league system, league system of Swedish football, Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and rel ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

;IF Elfsborg *

runner-up:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

;Aberdeen *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2024–25 Individual *

Coach of the Year:

* Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month: August 2024; October 2024; April 2025

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thelin, Jimmy 1978 births Swedish men's footballers Swedish football managers People from Jönköping Jönköpings Södra IF managers IF Elfsborg managers Living people Men's association football fullbacks Footballers from Jönköping County Swedish expatriate football managers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate football managers in Scotland Aberdeen F.C. managers Scottish Professional Football League managers