Bo Svensson (born 4 August 1979) is a Danish professional

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 ...

manager and former player who played as a defender. He was most recently the head coach of

Union Berlin 1. Fußballclub Union Berlin e. V., commonly known as Union Berlin (), is a professional Football in Germany, German football club based in Berlin. The club's origins can be traced to 1906, when its predecessor FC Olympia Oberschöneweide was fo ...

. During his playing career, Svensson made three appearances for the Denmark national team.

Playing career

Svensson was born in

Skørping Skørping is a railway town in Rebild Municipality in Region Nordjylland in the geographic region of the Jutland peninsula known as ''Himmerland'' in northern Denmark. The modern town has a population of 3,076 as of 1 January 2024.Northern Jutland Northern Jutland () is a historical region in Denmark, defined as Jutland north of the Kongeå (with the region south of the Kongeå called Southern Jutland (''Sønderjylland'')). As with other historical regions of Denmark, Northern Jutland had ...

. He started playing youth football with

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

club KB, the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

(FCK). He moved from KB into the FCK squad in June 1999, and got his FCK debut in September 1999, under FCK manager

Kim Brink Kim Brink (born 19 November 1958) is a Danish football manager. Coaching career Kim Brink started as manager of Odense Boldklub, and later managed Ikast fS and F.C. Copenhagen. Odense Boldklub He was the Odense Boldklub manager, at the time ...

. He was soon a FCK regular team member, and was called up for the Danish under-21 national team in March 2000. With FCK, he won the 2001

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

championship under manager

Roy Hodgson 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 the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to t ...

, and the 2003 Superliga under 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 ...

. When FCK

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

Peter Nielsen retired in winter 2003, Bo Svensson was given the captain's armband. He went on to captain FCK when they won the Double, of both 2004 Superliga and

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

titles. The 2004–05 season was less successful, but FCK managed to win the inaugural 2005

Royal League The Royal League was an annual Scandinavian football tournament held three times in the 2000s between teams from the three Scandinavian monarchies (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway), starting after the end of the regular domestic seasons of Norway and ...

tournament. In the summer break 2005, Hans Backe demoted Svensson to vice-captain, as the captain status was given to the Swedish international midfielder

Tobias Linderoth Tobias Jan Håkan Linderoth (; born 21 April 1979) is a Swedish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Swedish club Varbergs BoIS. He played as a midfielder, and played professionally in Sweden, Norway, En ...

. With his FCK contract running out one year later, in the summer 2006, Svensson looked for a new club, and left FCK in the winter break 2005. He played a total of 196 official games for FCK. He moved abroad when he was sold to German team Borussia Mönchengladbach (M'gladbach) in January 2006. He debuted for Mönchengladbach in February 2006 and finished the season playing 13 of Mönchengladbach's last 15 games, under manager

Horst Köppel Horst Köppel (born 17 May 1948) is a German football manager and former player who last worked as manager for FC Ingolstadt 04 in 2009. Playing career Köppel scored 83 goals in the West German top-flight. For the West Germany national tea ...

. He was called up for the Danish national team, and made his debut in May 2006, under national manager

Morten Olsen Morten Per Olsen (; born 14 August 1949) is a Danish former Association football, football manager and former player. He was the head coach of the Denmark national football team, Denmark national team for 15 years from 2000 until 2015, guiding ...

. In summer 2007 he was transferred to

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sport-Verein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05 or simply Mainz 05 (), is a German professional sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the top tie ...

. After the 2013–14 season he retired from professional football.

Coaching career

After retiring from professional football, Svensson started his coaching career as an assistant coach for his old club, Mainz 05. In June 2015, he became a youth coach for the club. In 2017 Svensson, took over the under 19 squad of Mainz. In 2019, he became the head coach of

FC Liefering FC Liefering GmbH is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club, originally from Salzburg#Districts, Liefering, Salzburg. It currently plays in the Austrian Football Second League, Second League, the second tier of Austrian f ...

in the 2. Liga in Austria. The team is known for being a

feeder club In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful pl ...

for Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg. Under his leadership, the young team finished the 2019–20 season in third place. They also were successful in the beginning of the 2020–21 season, being in second place after 13 games. On 4 January 2021, Svensson became the new head coach of his former club Mainz 05 in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

. He managed a nearly impossible task, leading them out of relegation zone by the end of the 2020–21 season, during the second half of which they harvested a sensational 32 points. In the following two seasons, he successfully secured his team's position on the top half of the Bundesliga table, with Mainz constantly being a strong competitor for the Europa Conference League qualification. He held the position as manager until stepping down by mutual consent on 2 November 2023, after the team entered the new season with nine winless league games. In May 2024 it was announced that Svensson would take over the head coaching role of

for the start of the 2024–25 season, a position he only held until December 2024.

Managerial statistics

Honours

: 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006 *

: 2004 *

Danish Super Cup The Danish Super Cup was played for by the Football in Denmark, Danish Danish Superliga, League champions and the Danish Cup, Danish Cup Winners. Winners Titles by club References Defunct football cup competitions in Denmark, ...

: 2001, 2004 *

: 2005 and 2006

References

External links

*
Bo Svensson
official

statistics at danskfodbold.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Svensson, Bo 1979 births Living people People from Rebild Municipality Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Danish men's footballers F.C. Copenhagen players Borussia Mönchengladbach players 1. FSV Mainz 05 players Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish Superliga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Danish people of Swedish descent Men's association football defenders FC Liefering managers 1. FSV Mainz 05 managers 1. FC Union Berlin managers Bundesliga managers Danish expatriate football managers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Austria Danish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate football managers in Austria Expatriate football managers in Germany Association football coaches Footballers from the North Jutland Region