Karl-Gunnar Björklund

Not to be confused with Kalle Björklund (footballer, born 1999).

Kalle Björklund
Kalle Björklund in 2015
Personal information
Full name Karl-Gunnar Björklund
Date of birth (1953-12-02) 2 December 1953 (age 71)
Place of birth Växjö, Sweden
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Östers IF (assistant)
Youth career
Växjö Norra IF
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1973–1983 Östers IF 215 (24)
1984–1986 IFK Värnamo 20 (2)
Total 235 (26)
International career
1981–1982 Sweden 14 (1)
Managerial career
1991–1992 SK Brann
1993 Kalmar FF
1994–1997 Örgryte IS
1998–1999 IF Elfsborg
2001–2003 Molde FK (assistant)
2004 Larvik Fotball
2004–2005 Landskrona BoIS (assistant)
2008–2009 Östersunds FK
2010 IFK Östersund
2011–2012 Östers IF (assistant)
2013–2014 Helsingborgs IF (assistant)
2015–2016 Östers IF (assistant)
2017 Laholms FK (U16)
2017 Ängelholms FF (assistant)
2018 Örgryte IS (assistant)
2019 Laholms FK
2019– Östers IF (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Karl-Gunnar "Kalle" Björklund (born 2 December 1953) is a Swedish former football player and coach. He has served as coach in several clubs in Scandinavia. As a player, Björklund earned 14 caps for Sweden, and the midfielder won Allsvenskan with Östers IF three times. He is the father of Joachim Björklund.

Player career

Born in Växjö,[1] Björklund started playing football in the local club Växjö Norra IF, before he moved to Östers IF as a youth-player. He won Allsvenskan with the club in 1978, 1980 and 1981.[2] In total he played 215 matches and scored 24 goal for Östers IF.[1] He later played for IFK Värnamo, where he played 20 matches and scored two goals. Björklund was capped 14 times and scored one goal while playing for Sweden.[1]

Coaching career

He started his coaching career at the youth department of Östers IF in 1987,[2] before he moved on to Norwegian club Brann, where he was head coach in 1991 and 1992.[3] After spells in Kalmar FF, Örgryte IS and IF Elfsborg,[4] he started to in the Swedish Football Association as a youth developer.[4][5]

He moved to Molde FK ahead of the 2001-season, where he became Gunder Bengtsson assistant coach.[5] Molde FK finished second in Tippeligaen in 2002, but Bengtsson and Björklund got fired in May the next season, with the team positioned in 10th place with five points after six matches.[6][7] Björklund then became head coach of Larvik Fotball ahead of the 2004-season,[8] but he left Larvik after a half season with the Norwegian Second Division side. In November 2004 he was hired as Mats Jingblad's assistant coach of Landskrona BoIS,[9] before both Jingblad and Björklund quit their job at Landskrona BoIS on year later,[10] and Björklund returned to his old club IFK Värnamo as sports director.[11]

Björklund later worked full-time as a sport teacher at the John Bauer school in Östersund and in the spring of 2008 he took over the coaching job at the third tier side Östersunds FK. After a losing streak at the start of the 2009 season he resigned from his post.[12] For the 2010 season he was signed by local rivals IFK Östersund.[13] In December 2010 he returned to his old club Östers IF as Roar Hansen's assistant coach.[2] They left the position at the end of 2012[14] and Björklund followed Hansen to Helsingborgs IF in the following season.[15] He then returned to Östers IF as assistant coach to Thomas Askebrand for the 2015 season.[16] The duo left the club at the end of 2016.

On 1 February 2017, he took charge of Ängelholms FF.[17] He left the position at the end of 2017. He was then working as an instructor at Osbecksgymnasiet in Laholm, a sports highs school (which he had worked for in 2006-2007 and then hired again since 2010[18]) and as head coach of Laholms FK's U16 team.[19] In September 2018, Kalle was reunited with Thomas Askebrand when he was hired as his assistant at Örgryte IS.[20]

He left the club at the end of 2018 to become head coach of Laholms FK[21] He left the position in July 2019 and returned to Östers IF once again as assistant coach to newly appointed head coach Denis Velić.[22]

Personal life

Kalle Björklund is the father of the former Swedish international player Joachim Björklund.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Karl-Gunnar Björklund at National-Football-Teams.com
  2. ^ a b c d "Kalle Björklund blir assisterande Östertränare" (in Swedish). smp.no. 12 December 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  3. ^ brann.no: «Branns hovedtrenere siden 1960»
  4. ^ a b "Kalle Björklund". altomfotball.no (in Norwegian). TV 2 (Norway). Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  5. ^ a b "Bengtsson ny Molde-trener". vg.no (in Norwegian). VG. 6 November 2000. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  6. ^ "Molde-trener fikk sparken". dagbladet.no (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. 22 May 2003. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  7. ^ "Gunder Bengtsson ferdig i Molde". nrk.no (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. 22 May 2003. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  8. ^ "Kalle Bjørklund til Larvik". nettavisen.no (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. 19 December 2003. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  9. ^ "Kalle Björklund klar för tränarjobb i BoIS". landskronadirekt.com (in Swedish). 19 November 2004. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  10. ^ "Landskrona BoIS tränare slutar". sverigesradio.se (in Swedish). 9 November 2005. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  11. ^ "Björklund klar för Värnamo". hd.se (in Swedish). 24 November 2005. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  12. ^ "Björklund lägger av som ÖFK-tränare". zsport.se (in Swedish). 25 June 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  13. ^ ""Kalle" och "Dala" på väg till IFK Östersund". zsport.se (in Swedish). 28 October 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  14. ^ Kalle Björklund lämnar Östers IF, ostersif.se
  15. ^ Officiellt: Kalle Björklund till Helsingborg - som ger Erik Edman tränarroll, fotbolltransfers.com, 21 December 2012
  16. ^ Östers nya tränarpar är installerade, ostersif.se
  17. ^ ÄFF blir Kalle Björklunds absolut största utmaning, hd.se, 1 February 2017
  18. ^ Kalle Björklund till fotbollsgymnasiet, hallandsposten.se, 12 August 2010
  19. ^ Karl-Gunnar Björklund ansluter till Sällskapet, fotboll.ois.se, 1 September 2018
  20. ^ Möt Kalle Björklund: “Som att komma hem igen”, fotboll.ois.se, 8 September 2018
  21. ^ Laholms FK - Kalle Björklund ny tränare för #laholmsfk ..., facebook.com, 7 December 2018
  22. ^ Kalle Björklund slutar som LFK:s huvudtränare – ersätter Järdler i Öster, 29 July 2019