Göran Timur Aral (born 3 July 1953) is a Swedish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defender, coach and director.

Career

Göran Aral was born in Sweden in 1953 and is a product of the

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

youth system. At the beginning of the 1970s he was considered such a promising player that he was selected to go to London and train with Chelsea. He made his sole Allsvenskan appearance for Djurgården in the

1975 Allsvenskan Statistics of Allsvenskan in season 1975. Overview The league was contested by 14 teams, with Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. ...

against

Halmstads BK Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad () or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish professional Association football, football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club, formed 7 February 1914 and app ...

. However, a serious injury ended his career in 1977 at the age of 24. Aral was a Djurgården staff in the 1980s together with Tommy Söderberg and Benny Persson, also coached Råsunda IS before taking over

Älvsjö AIK Älvsjö AIK FF is a Swedish football club located in Älvsjö within Stockholm Municipality. Background Älvsjö AIK was formed on 23 May 1915. The first and largest section of the newly formed club was football. Other sports played included ...

in late 1990. He left Älvsjö AIK after two seasons in 1992. Aral served at Djurgården in a number of capacities and was on the management team since the late 1990s. During this time, Aral was part of

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

-winning teams in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, he left Djurgården to work with the

Swedish Football Association The Swedish Football Association (, SvFF) is the governing and body of football in Sweden. It organises the football leagues – Allsvenskan for men and for women – and the men's and women's national teams. It is based in Solna and is a ...

and remained there until 2008 when he returned to Djurgården to serve as technical director. During the 2010 season he was hired by

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conferenc ...

to serve as an assistant coach under fellow Swede

Hans Backe Hans Roland "Hasse" Backe (; born 14 February 1952) is a Swedish football manager and former player who most recently led Finland's national team. Prior to this he managed the New York Red Bulls. He has coached clubs in Sweden, Norway, Greece ...

. He was hired to assist with the first-team and to oversee the club's academy system. At the end of the 2010 season, Aral left the club and was eventually replaced by

Jan Halvor Halvorsen Jan Halvor Halvorsen (born 8 March 1963) is a former Norwegian football player and manager. Club career Halvorsen started his youth career in Pors, debuting at the age of fifteen and a half. He has also played for clubs like Brann, Rosenb ...

References

Living people 1953 births Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Swedish men's footballers Swedish football managers Älvsjö AIK managers Djurgårdens IF Fotboll non-playing staff Djurgårdens IF Fotboll directors and chairmen New York Red Bulls non-playing staff Men's association football defenders 20th-century Swedish sportsmen {{Sweden-footy-bio-stub