Aaron Danks (born 15 June 1983) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

who currently works as an assistant coach for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. Danks was assistant manager to

Vincent Kompany Vincent Jean Mpoy Kompany (; ; born 10 April 1986) is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back and is the current manager of EFL Championship club Burnley. He most notably played for Manchester City f ...

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

, before leaving to be assistant to

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hi ...

and

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player, who most recently managed club Aston Villa. Described by pundits and fellow professionals as one of his generation's greatest players, Ge ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

. He later joined Michael Carrick's staff at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. He has also coached at

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

and

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

Career

Youth coaching

Danks' first role in football was as a Community Football Development Officer at

, joining in 1999 and later coaching in their academy. In 2005, Danks was hired as a youth coach at the West Bromwich Albion Academy, working for the club for over a decade between 2005 and 2016, before leaving after being selected by

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

to become Head of Specialist Coaching and Lead Offensive Specialist Coach for various levels of the England national team. Danks was part of the coaching staff for the England U20 team that won the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as ...

. As part of his work with the FA, Danks spent a short time with basketball team

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

, working closely with

Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, ...

and his individual development coach. In 2019, Danks attained a UEFA Pro Licence, graduating alongside the likes of

and Peter Schmeichel. Danks worked as assistant manager for the

side for one year from 2020 to 2021.

Senior coaching

Anderlecht

On 1 July 2021, Danks was appointed assistant manager to

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club

Aston Villa

On 1 September 2021, Danks departed Anderlecht to join

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

, as assistant to

, following the departure of

Richard O'Kelly Richard Florence O'Kelly (born 8 January 1957) is an English former footballer turned manager; whose most recent position was Dean Smith's assistant head coach at Premier League side Aston Villa. He began his career at Walsall in 1979, as they ...

. On 13 November 2021, following the sacking of Dean Smith and the appointment of

as Aston Villa manager it was confirmed that Danks would retain his position as assistant manager. On 21 October 2022, the day after the sacking of Gerrard as Villa manager, it was announced that Danks would remain at Villa and act as caretaker manager for their upcoming Premier League match against

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

, which Villa won 4–0. On 24 October, Aston Villa announced that Unai Emery would take over as manager, however, due to work permit formalities - Danks would remain as interim manager until 1 November. On 31 October, it was confirmed that Danks had been offered another coaching role at Aston Villa, away from the first team.

Middlesbrough

On 1 December 2022, Danks departed Aston Villa and joined Michael Carrick's backroom staff at

as a first team coach.

Bayern Munich

On 21 June 2024, he rejoined the coaching staff of Vincent Kompany at

club

Managerial statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danks, Aaron 1985 births Middlesbrough F.C. non-playing staff Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff R.S.C. Anderlecht non-playing staff West Bromwich Albion F.C. non-playing staff Living people People from Birmingham, West Midlands English football managers Aston Villa F.C. managers Association football coaches English expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Premier League managers Golden State Warriors coaches English expatriate sportspeople in Germany FC Bayern Munich non-playing staff