Jacob Fischer Friis (born 11 December 1976) is a Danish professional football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of Viborg FF in the Danish Superliga.
Personal information | |||
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Full name | Jacob Fischer Friis[1] | ||
Date of birth | (1976-12-11) 11 December 1976 (age 45) | ||
Place of birth | Denmark | ||
Club information | |||
Current team | Viborg (Manager) | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1999–2001 | Aalborg Chang | ||
2001–2003 | AaB | ||
Teams managed | |||
2003–2006 | AaB II (assistant) | ||
2006–2008 | Tigres UANL (assistant) | ||
2008–2015 | AaB U19 | ||
2016–2018 | AaB (assistant) | ||
2018–2020 | AaB | ||
2021 | Hobro (assistant) | ||
2021–2022 | Denmark Women U19 | ||
2022– | Viborg | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Friis was team captain of the AaB reserve team playing in the fourth tier Denmark Series before retiring due to injury in 2002–03.[2] Beside AaB, he also played for two years for Aalborg Chang (1999–01).[3]
Friis started his career as a coach in connection with a job as an assistant coach for AaB's seventh-tier Series 3 team.[4] He then continued as an assistant coach for AaB's reserves, playing in the fourth-tier Denmark Series, where he remained until the summer of 2006.[2]
In the summer of 2006, Friis travelled to Mexico, where he was to teach English at Instituto CEFI and coach their football team.[2] However, the job as a football coach was not satisfactory for Friis,[2] and instead an opportunity arose for Friis to be part of the coaching staff around Monterrey's university team, Tigres UANL.[2]
When Allan Kuhn resigned as a result of a finding a new coaching job at Malmö FF, Friis became the new assistant coach at AaB in January 2016 under head coach Lars Søndergaard. He had already been promised a promotion to the assistant coaching position from the summer of 2016, but these plans were advanced with the premature change of head coach.[5]
Søndergaard was dismissed in December 2016.[6] Morten Wieghorst signed with AaB as their new head coach in early-January 2017,[7] and Friis was appointed his main assistant with Thomas Augustinussen as second assistant.[8] He signed an ongoing contract extension at the end of March 2018.[8]
In the fall of 2018, AaB won just one match out of 12 possible,[9] and Wieghorst was subsequently fired on 26 November 2018.[9][10][11] As his interim, Friis was appointed head coach for the three remaining matches in the Danish Superliga during the fall.[12] Friis' first match in charge resulted in a 1–4 win over Esbjerg fB on 1 December 2018.[13] Despite AaB losing the next match 2–4 at home to AC Horsens on 9 December,[14] Friis was still signed on a permanent deal for the remained of the 2018–19 season.[14]
Friis stepped back from the position as head coach of AaB on 29 October 2020, due to personal reasons related to his daughter fighting leukaemia.[15] Assistant Peter Feher took over as caretaker manager with Rasmus Würtz continuing as assistant.[15]
In August 2015, Friis acquired the UEFA Pro Licence, also known as the 'P licence'; the highest coaching education. His final assignment was entitled Afslutningspil fra mellemrum - Mod etableret forsvar (Finishing from the red zone - against established defense).[1]
Team | From | To | Record | ||||
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M | W | D | L | Win % | |||
AaB | 10 December 2018 | 29 October 2020 | 64 | 27 | 13 | 24 | 042.19 |
Total | 64 | 27 | 13 | 24 | 042.19 |
Viborg FF – current squad | |
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Current Danish Superliga head coaches | |
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AaB – managers | |
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Viborg FF – managers | |
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