Benjamin "Banjo" Westman (born 20 July 1976) is an

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football manager.

Playing career

Westman joined GAIS as a youth player in 1992 and was moved up to the first team the following year. In 1994, he moved to the

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where he had the ambition to join the newly started

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. Between 2005 and 2008 he played for lower league

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

club

Utsiktens BK Utsiktens BK is a Swedish football club located in Västra Frölunda, near Gothenburg. Background Since their foundation in 1935 Utsiktens BK has participated mainly in the middle and lower divisions of the Swedish football league system. Utsi ...

Managerial career

After working for seven years as a high school teacher Westman was recruited by GAIS in 2008 as a youth team coach. He also acquired his

UEFA Pro Licence The UEFA coaching licences are documents testifying credentials of manager (association football), managers/ coach (sport), coaches among members of UEFA. The governing body for association football, football in Europe mandates several licences, e ...

while working for Swedish manager

Hans Backe Hans Roland "Hasse" Backe (; born 14 February 1952) is a Swedish football manager and former player who most recently led Finland's national team. Prior to this he managed the New York Red Bulls. He has coached clubs in Sweden, Norway, Greece ...

at the

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conferenc ...

. When GAIS manager Jan Mak was fired in October 2012 Westman took over as temporary caretaker manager. Over the years he has also worked as an assistant coach to the Swedish youth national team for players born in 1996, who among other things, finished in third place at the

2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the fifteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The tournament was held in the United Arab Emirates from 17 October to 8 November. Nigeria won the tournament after defeating Mexico 3–0 in the final, claimin ...

. At the end of the

2015 Superettan The 2015 Superettan, part of the 2015 Swedish football season, was the 16th season of Superettan, Sweden's second-tier football league in its current format. The 2015 fixtures were released in December 2014. The season began on 3 April 2015 and e ...

season Westman took over as the GAIS caretaker again and helped the club avoid relegation. This time he was hired permanently as their new head coach at the end of the year. He got fired on 4 June 2017.Officiellt: Gais sparkar tränaren - Ingelsten tar över tillfälligt
�� fotbollskanalen.se, 4 June 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westman, Benjamin 1976 births Living people Swedish men's footballers GAIS players Swedish football managers GAIS managers Men's association football forwards Utsiktens BK players