Roger Lennart Palmgren is a Swedish football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He has been active as club manager in nine different countries: Italy, Sweden, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia and China. He has been coach of the national football teams of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

and

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Career

Cafe Opera & Arezzo

Roger started his coaching career in 1990 as a playing coach with Alessandro Catenaccis team FC Cafe Opera in Sweden. After climbing 3 divisions in 3 years, Palmgren got an offer in 1993 from

Francesco Graziani Francesco "Ciccio" Graziani (; born 16 December 1952) is an Italian football manager and former football player who played as a forward. He began his career with Arezzo in 1970, and later joined Torino in 1973, where he remained until 1981, wi ...

to coach Primavera team FC Arezzo to explore a professional managing career. After great success, Palmgren got offered the job as coach for Sierra Leone national team.

Sierra Leone

When Palmgren won the

Amílcar Cabral Cup The Amílcar Cabral Cup was an international association football tournament for Western African nations. The competition originally was played on an annual basis until 1989, since then it was played on a biennial basis. The tournament is named ...

(1995), and qualified to

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

(1996) in South Africa with Sierra Leone national team, he made his break through as an international football manager. This is the best result in Sierra Leones football history yet.

Degerfors

After Sierra Leone, Palmgren worked as assistant coach and sport director for the Swedish

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 ...

team

Degerfors IF Degerfors IF is a Swedish professional association football, football club located in Degerfors. The club, formed 13 January 1907, is currently playing in the highest tier in Swedish football, Allsvenskan. Background Degerfors IF first played ...

. When FC Arezzo offered him to come back coaching 1998, he took the challenge.

Vasalund

After the merger between

Essinge IK Essinge IK is a Swedish football club located in Stockholm. Background Essinge Idrottsklubb is a sports club from Stockholm that was founded on 8 June 1919. Over the years the club has mainly been active in team sports such as football, bandy, h ...

and

Vasalunds IF Vasalunds IF is a Swedish football club based in Solna, Stockholm. The club is affiliated with Stockholms Fotbollförbund. History Vasalund was formed in 1934 and play in the Swedish Third Division: Ettan Norra. In 2002 the club merged with Es ...

, Palmgren became sport director and later managing coach of Vasalunds IF between 2003 and 2004.

Rwanda

In August 2004, Palmgren relocated to Africa as he accepted the position head coach of

Rwanda national football team The Rwanda national football team represents Rwanda in international football and is controlled by the Rwandese Association Football Federation, the governing body of football in Rwanda, and competes as a member of the Confederation of Africa ...

, where he took the team to the final of the

CECAFA Cup The CECAFA Cup, formerly the Gossage Cup (1926–1966) and the East and Central African Senior Challenge Cup (1967–1971), is the oldest football tournament in Africa. It is organized by the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associati ...

against

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. By the end of 2005, Palmgren took on the Nigerian club Kwara United F.C. in

Nigeria Premier League The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) (formerly the Nigeria Professional Football League) is the highest level of club football in Nigerian football league system. The Nigerian Premier League has suffered like many others, from the financ ...

and they eventually reached semi finals in

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football football team, club competition established in 2004 and organized by Confederation of African Football, CAF ...

in 2006.

Thanda Royal Zulu

Palmgren moved to South Africa in May 2007 when he got an offer from a Swedish consortium to manage the club

Thanda Royal Zulu F.C. Thanda Royal Zulu was a South African association football, football club based in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal. History The club started after a Swedish consortium that included Sven-Goran Eriksson bought the franchise from Benoni Premier Unite ...

Premier Soccer League The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the administrative body for professional soccer leagues and cups in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, and was founded in 1996 following an agreement between the National Soccer League and the remnant ...

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Amazulu

After two years with Thanda, he got offered to become sport director with the South African team Amazulu FC , and short thereafter head coach. Palmgren achieved the best league result ever for the club in 2011-12, as well as

FA cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

finals against Bidvest Wits FC.

Namibia

In 2013, Roger took the offer to coach

Namibia national football team The Namibia national football team represents Namibia in men's international football and is controlled by the Namibia Football Association. They have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup but have made four appearances in the Africa Cup of ...

. Unfortunately he didn't stay long as he and his family were threatened by supporters and decided to resign

Guangzhou & Shanghai

Palmgren relocated to China, and started working as

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; 5 February 1948 – 26 August 2024) was a Swedish association football, football player and Coach (sport), manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management ...

's assistant coach in the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

with the team

Guangzhou R&F Guangzhou City Football Club () was a Chinese professional football club which last competed in the Chinese Super League. The team was based in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The club's name between 2011 and 2020 was Guangzhou R&F, which was short for ' ...

Return to Sweden

On 5 September 2018, Palmgren was appointed as assistant manager of the Swedish club side

IF Brommapojkarna Idrottsföreningen Brommapojkarna, more commonly known as Brommapojkarna (meaning ''the Bromma boys'') or simply BP, is a Swedish association football, football club based in the borough of Bromma, in the western parts of Stockholm municipality ...

, following the sacking of Luís Pimenta. He was then manager of FC Nacka Iliria in Stockholm.

Honours

Sierra Leone *

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palmgren, Roger 1963 births Living people Swedish football managers Sportspeople from Stockholm SS Arezzo managers Expatriate football managers in Sierra Leone Sierra Leone national football team managers Expatriate football managers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Rwanda Rwanda national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Namibia Namibia national football team managers Degerfors IF managers Vasalunds IF managers Kwara United F.C. managers Swedish expatriate football managers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Sierra Leone Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Rwanda Swedish expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Namibia AmaZulu F.C. managers 1996 African Cup of Nations managers IF Brommapojkarna managers Guangzhou City F.C. non-playing staff Shanghai Port F.C. non-playing staff