Johan Lange (born 22 November 1979) is a Danish

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

in 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 ...

, he was formerly a

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 ...

and coach. He is currently the Technical Director at

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

in the

English 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 Fo ...

Coaching career

Lange started his coaching career at

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

side

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, working as their assistant manager for three and a half years, before departing on 30 June 2012 to join

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

as assistant manager to

Ståle Solbakken Ståle Solbakken (born 27 February 1968) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Norway national team. During his playing career, Solbakken was named 1995 Norwegian midfielder of the year, and h ...

. On 5 January 2013, following a string a poor results, which left Wolves 18th in the Championship - and a

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

defeat to non-league

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

, Solbakken and his backroom staff were sacked. On 2 February 2013, Lange was hired as head coach of

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping street and the site of ...

in the

Danish 1st Division The 1st Division (''1. Division'') is the second-highest football league in Denmark, also known as NordicBet Liga for sponsorship reasons. From 1945 to 1991 the 1. Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark. With the forma ...

Transition into other roles

In 2014, Lange was reunited with Solbakken, as he rejoined Copenhagen as development director, the role changing to Technical Director within the same season. In this role he became known for his apparent knack of signing players for a low cost, then later selling them at great profit to Europe's elite clubs, all whilst Copenhagen continued to win trophies domestically and compete in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. On 30 July 2020, Lange joined

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 ...

team

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 ...

as Sporting Director. Following Aston Villa's survival from relegation the previous season, and subsequent departure of Jesus Garcia Pitarch as Sporting Director, Lange was tasked with helping build a team that would challenge at the top half of the Premier League, rather than battle against relegation. The signings of Emi Martínez,

Matty Cash Matthew Stuart Cash (born 7 August 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Aston Villa and the Poland national team. Cash started his career at Wycombe Wanderers and later the FAB Academy before he signed his fi ...

Bertrand Traoré Bertrand Isidore Traoré (born 6 September 1995) is a Burkinabé professional footballer who plays as a forward for Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir, on loan from Premier League club Aston Villa and the Burkina Faso national team. Afte ...

Ollie Watkins Oliver George Arthur Watkins (born 30 December 1995) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Aston Villa and the England national team. Watkins is a product of the Exeter City academy and made his breakthrough ...

and

Morgan Sanson Morgan Stéphane Sanson (born 18 August 1994) is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Strasbourg, on loan from Premier League club Aston Villa. Early life Sanson was born in Saint-Doulchard, Cher. Club ca ...

as well as

Ross Barkley Ross Barkley (born 5 December 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Nice. Barkley began his professional career at Everton in 2010. After loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United he b ...

joining on loan from

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

helped Aston Villa to achieve that goal, finishing 11th in Lange's first season, spending most of the season in the top half of the table and having not been in serious danger of relegation at any point of the season. On 16 June 2023, as part of an internal restructuring process,

Monchi Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo (born 20 September 1968), commonly known as Monchi, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper, currently director of football of Sevilla FC. Playing career Born in San Fernando, Cádiz, Andalusia, Mo ...

was named as Aston Villa's President of Football Operations. Lange now assumed the role of "Global Director of Football Development and International Academies". On 9 October 2023, Lange departed this youth development role at Aston Villa to become Technical Director at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lange, Johan Living people 1979 births Danish football managers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff Danish 1st Division managers Sportspeople from Copenhagen Association football coaches Lyngby Boldklub managers Expatriate association football managers Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Aston Villa F.C. directors and chairmen Tottenham Hotspur F.C. directors and chairmen