Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson was the manager of Fulham from 2007 until 2010. He remains as one of only two managers to lead the club to a major final as he reached the 2010 Europa League Final, narrowly losing to Atlético Madrid in extra time. He is also only one of three Fulham managers to have also managed England, following in the footsteps of Bobby Robson and Kevin Keegan.

Playing career
A defender who usually operated as a right back, Roy was part of Crystal Palace's youth setup for three years but was never able to break into the first team and left the club in 1966 aged 19. He then spent several years in non-League football, playing first for Tonbridge, before moving to Gravesend & Northfleet. In 1970, he completed his first full coaching badge.

He played for Maidstone United for one full season in 1971-72, also serving as assistant manager to Bob Houghton despite only being 24 years old. The following season he spent with Ashford Town while also working as a PE teacher at Alleyn's School in South London.

He made the decision to move abroad to South Africa in 1973 despite the sporting boycott in effect at the time, to play for Berea Park, who were playing in the all-white National Football League. However, he moved back to England in 1974, joining Carshalton Athletic and playing out the last two years of his playing career, whilst teaching at Monks Hill Comprehensive in his hometown of Croydon. He was just 29 when he decided to stop playing and begin his managerial career.

Before Fulham
Roy was handed the Allsvenskan side Halmstads BK's job in 1976 at the recommendation of then-Malmö FF manager and previous boss Bob Houghton. In total, he spent five years with the Swedish side, winning the League championship in 1976 and 1979. His title-winning campaign in 1976 in still considered one of the biggest shocks of all time in Swedish football, with Hodgson himself claiming it to be one of his greatest achievements. The previous season they narrowly avoided relegation and were widely tipped as favourites to go down for their victorious campaign.

In 1980, he took the oppertunity to join Bristol City, but as the assistant manager to Bob Houghton who had recently taken charge. He eventually took over in January 1982, but his reign only lasted until April of that year. Commenting later on his time at Bristol City, Hodgson said "Bristol City was nothing short of a disaster in that we had only been there for a matter of weeks before the banks started to pull the rug from underneath the club. My job when I eventually took over, as caretaker manager, was quite simply to carry on in the aftermath of all the players leaving the club and just fulfilling the fixtures."

Shortly after his departure from Bristol City, Roy moved back to Sweden and took over at second tier side IK Oddevold part-way through their 1982 season, in a bid to help them survive relegation. Unfortunately for him he failed to keep them up by one point and the following season he moved on to fellow second tier side Örebro SK. In his first season, Örebro finished third. In his second season, he won the title with them but missed out on promotion to the Allsvenskan after losing in the play-off to Mjällby AIF.

In 1985, he took over at Malmö FF and won five consecutive League championships, two Swedish championships (at the time the Swedish championship was decided through play-offs) and two Swedish Cups. Due to his successful time at Malmö, Roy is still highly appreciated by the club's fans who have unofficially named a section of the StadionRoy's Hörn (Roy's Corner). He continues to be held in high regard at Malmö, where he is known as Royson.

Despite Malmö offering him a lifetime contract, he respectfully declined, owing to a desire to move to another place. He ultimately moved on to Switzerland and took over at Neuchâtel Xamax in 1990, helping them qualify for two UEFA Cup competitions.

On 26 January 1992, he then took his first international managerial job when taking charge of Switzerland. The country hadn't qualified for a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup until Hodgson took them to the 1994 World Cup in the United States. He eventually led Switzerland to become the third-ranked nation in the world, still their highest ever FIFA ranking to date. He also led them to achieve qualification for Euro 1996, but left to join Inter Milan on 15 November 1995.

Whilst at Inter Milan, Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos had claimed that his main reason for leaving the Italian club was largely due to a fall-out with Hodgson, as he failed to play him in his preferred position of left-back instead of as a winger. After an initial re-build project, Roy reached a third-placed finish in Serie A by the time he left in 1997.

Roy moved back to England in 1997, taking over at Blackburn Rovers. He achieved sixth position in the 1997-98 season, qualifying for the UEFA Cup on the last day of the season. His second season with the Lancashire club did not go as smoothly, and after declining an offer to take over the German national team and being favourite to take over the England job, results for Blackburn were poor and he was sacked in November 1998. Hodgson later explained that Blackburn's owner did give him the chance to resign honourably, but he refused to do so, leaving the club with no option but to dismiss him. He later commented that his failure at Blackburn Rovers initially tarnished his reputation in England.

Roy made a return to Inter Milan briefly as technical director before taking charge once again, this time as caretaker manager in 1999 before returning to Switzerland to take the manager job at Grasshoppers. After just one season, he moved on to manage FC Copenhagen in the summer of 2000. He was again linked to the England job after Kevin Keegan's resignation in October 2000. However, after having only just begun his job at Copenhagen prior to the FA showing interest in interviewing him for the position, he was obliged to refuse any offer and instead the job went to Sven-Göran Eriksson. With FC Copenhagen he proved an instant success, taking a team that had finished seventh and eighth in the two previous seasons to the Superliga championship in the 2000–01 season – the club's first championship since 1993. He also led them to win the 2001 Danish Supercup.

He returned again to Italy in the summer of 2001m this time to Udinese, but was sacked just six months in after allegedly stating that he regretted taking the job. Newspapers quoted him saying: "Obviously I'm very happy to be back at this level of football, but I could have chosen a better club to come back to. It's an extremely strange club." Hodgson denied making the comments, but later claimed that he had wanted to leave so was happy to be dismissed. He then spent two years from 2002 until 2004 managing the United Arab Emirates national team before his first manager's job in Denmark, taking over at Viking. Despite a ninth-placed finish in his first season with them, they qualified for the UEFA Cup via their UEFA Fair Play ranking. In the 2005 season, he lead them to fifth place and just five points from the top of the league but resigned in December 2005 to take the Finland job, where he spent two years until his move to Craven Cottage.

Fulham (2007-2010)
Roy officially took over at Fulham on 30 December 2007, with the club then struggling in 18th place in the Premier League after the sacking of Lawrie Sanchez. In a desperate bid to retain their top-flight status, he made six signings in the January transfer window, the most important proving to be centre back Brede Hangeland, who would go on to become a key player for the club in the following six and a half years, and who Hodgson had managed at Viking. After picking up just 9 points from his first 13 matches, a remarkable run of 12 points from the final 5 matches of the season, including a 3–2 win at Manchester City after being 2–0 down with twenty minutes remaining, secured Fulham's survival, which was confirmed on the final day of the season with a 1–0 win at Portsmouth. It proved to be the club's greatest escapes in a League season after at one stage being dead certs to be relegated.

What proved even more impressive, was the very next season in 2008-09, Hodgson had led Fulham to their highest League finish in their history as the club ended in 7th place. This was enough to qualify for the inaugral Europa League the following season, 2009-10, which would go down in Fulham's history books as one of the greatest ever. Starting in July 2009 in the third qualifying round, Roy took the team through the early rounds, the group stage and all knockout stages to the Final, painfully losing out in extra time by the scoreline of 2-1 to Atlético Madrid in Hamburg. They were not given an easy ride on-route to the Final either, with tough rounds against sides such as Juventus and Shaktar Donetsk.

After his achievements in 2009-10, Roy won the LMA Manager of the Year in May 2010 by a record margin and the following month he agreed a deal with Liverpool to take over, after the club had agreed a £2 million compensation deal with Fulham.

Halmstads BK

 * Swedish Champion
 * Winners (2): 1976, 1979
 * Allsvenskan
 * Winners (2): 1976, 1979

Örebro SK

 * Division 2 Norra
 * Winners (1): 1984

Malmö FF

 * Swedish Champion
 * Winners (1): 1986, 1988
 * Allsvenskan
 * Winners (5): 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
 * Swedish Cup
 * Winners (2): 1986, 1989

Neuchâtel Xamax

 * Swiss Super Cup
 * Winners (1): 1990

Inter Milan

 * UEFA Cup
 * Runners-up (1): 1996-97

FC Copenhagen

 * Danish Superliga
 * Winners (1): 2000-01
 * Danish Super Cup
 * Winners (1): 2001

Fulham

 * Europa League
 * Runners-up (1): 2009-10

Individual

 * LMA Manager of the Year
 * Winner (1): 2010
 * Premier League Manager of the Month
 * Winner (4): Aug 1997, Dec 1997, Oct 2009, Feb 2010