Roy Hodgson

Former England manager, club football's great globetrotter, and a master of the post-match anecdote

Football

The story

Roy Hodgson managed more countries than most footballers have visited. Few people in the modern British game have seen the sport from as many angles.

Born in Croydon in 1947, he built his early reputation in Scandinavia, taking Halmstads to two Swedish titles in the 1970s and later turning Malmo into domestic champions five years in a row. From there his career became genuinely international, with national team jobs in Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Finland, and club work at Inter Milan and Udinese in Italy and FC Copenhagen in Denmark. He returned to England in the mid-2000s and took Fulham to a Europa League final in 2010, one of the great over-performances of the Premier League era.

He managed Liverpool, West Brom, and Crystal Palace, and spent four years in charge of the England national team between 2012 and 2016. A final return to Palace in 2023, at the age of 75, made him the oldest manager ever to take charge of a Premier League game. Only Roy would say yes to that phone call.

On the speaker circuit he is generous with the stories, fluent in five languages, and utterly unguarded about the glamour and the chaos of club football. Steam audiences get everything from the Scandinavian years to the England dressing room, all delivered with the unmistakable Hodgson dry humour.

Career highlights

  • England national team manager, 2012 to 2016
  • Took Fulham to the UEFA Europa League final, 2010
  • Five consecutive Swedish league titles with Malmo
  • Managed Switzerland, UAE, Finland, and England at international level
  • Oldest manager in Premier League history at 76
  • Holds a UEFA Pro Licence and speaks five languages

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