Benny Lennartsson
Benny Lennartsson ( born December 14, 1942 in Örebro ) is a former Swedish football player, who as coach worked following his playing career, especially in Northern Europe and won several titles in Norway. Since the 1970s, he is also in use as a football coach.
Career
Lennartsson began his football career in his hometown at Örebro SK. With the club he played for several years in the Allsvenskan. From there he moved in 1968 to England for Fulham before he later for Swiss club FC Monthey moved on only a short time, where he was active until his career end.
At FC Monthey Lennartsson resigned as player-manager in 1974 to his first coach site. In 1975, he returned to his home and took over as coach at his hometown club ÖSK. After serving in the season 1976 could still lead to fifth place in the standings of the Swedish Elite Series the team found themselves on the following season in a relegation battle. After relegation in 1978, he left the club and went to IFK Sundsvall Erstligaaufsteiger, which he has edited two seasons.
In 1980 he Lennartsson an offer of Svenska Fotbollförbundet and took over the management of the Swedish Under-21 team. This he oversaw until 1985 before he got transferred as coach at the Olympic selection. With the team, he qualified for the Olympic Games 1988. Parallel to the coach of the selection, he took over as coach in 1988 also at the Norwegian second division club Viking FK as successor by Svein Kvia. In the group stage of the Olympic football tournament could prove studded with players like Martin Dahlin, Anders Limpar or Jan Hellström team unbeaten in front of the German Olympic team in first place, but failed in the quarter-finals after extra time at the Italian Olympic team. After the end of the tournament Lennartsson left the federation and focused on his work at the club. He attributed this to the first league and cup victory in 1989. In 1990 he returned to the Association's work and took over parallel to his work at Viking FK at Norges Fotballforbund taking care of the Under-21 in Norway.
Despite the profit of the Norwegian league title and the award of the Kniksenprisen as coach of the year ended 1991 Lennartsson both previous jobs and was at Viking FK succeeded by Arne Larsen Økland and at the U21 team of Nils Johan Semb his former assistants. New coach station was the SK Brann, where he worked as an assistant to Karl Gunnar Björklund.
1993 Lennartsson returned back to Sweden and took over as coach at BK Forward in his hometown Örebro. With the club, he finished in three seasons each rear seats in the second class Division 1 Therefore, he was in 1995 a call from Denmark and took over the care of the Lyngby FC in the Super League. In three years he reached with the club seats in the middle of the league. After the end of his contract in 1998 there was speculation about an engagement with Standard Liege, after he had previously been courted over the years from Feyenoord Rotterdam and Helsingborgs IF. In October, he inherited John Ward as a coach at Bristol City in the First Division, but was again replaced after the season by Tony Pulis.
2000 returned Lennartsson as successor by Poul Erik Andreasen to Viking FK back. Under his leadership, the club was in the following two seasons, third in the league and won the 2001 Norwegian Cup. In the UEFA Cup 2002/ 03 the team could surprise in the first round, when Chelsea was thrown out after a 1:2 away defeat in the first leg with a 4-2 win in the return match of the competition. In the second round, the club was denied by the Spanish side Celta Vigo and Lennartsson announced after his departure.
In April 2003 Lennartsson returned as coach back to Denmark and took over as successor to the sacked Søren Kusk the coaching job at Viborg FF in the Super League. He signed a contract until the end of the season to help the club to relegation. Under his leadership, managed the club to have won only five times before in the whole course of the season, six wins and finished with seven points clear of the relegation zone the season.
Lennartsson then ended his coaching career and moved to France. He returned to the Svenska Fotbollförbundet and worked for the Association as a spy for the qualifying matches for the Swedish national team. In September 2007, he gave the club IK Start of the Norwegian Advertise, who was in a relegation battle and coach Stig Inge Bjørnebye had dismissed, gradually took over Alexander Axén as assistants as coach. However, he missed with the team as a table next to last target and the club was relegated to the second division. Nevertheless, the Swedish clubs GAIS and Örebro SK, as the successor of Patrick Walker and the transition solution Urban Hammar were interested in signing the duo.
Beginning of August 2009 Lennartsson returned again to the dugout back as required him the relegation threatened GAIS until the end of Allsvenskan season 2009 as co- manager of Axén. After the successful league he gave at the end of the year at the office. In May of the following year brought him Sven-Goran Eriksson in the coaching staff of the national team of the Ivory Coast. With the national team, he failed in the first round of the 2010 World Cup despite a 2-0 win over the North Korean national team as third in the group behind Brazil and Portugal.
Achievements
- Kniksenprisen as Coach of the Year: 1991, 2000
- Norwegian Champion: 1991
- Norwegian Cup winners: 1989, 2001