Thomas Frank (born 9 October 1973) is a Danish professional football
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
and former amateur player, who is head coach of club Brentford.
After 18 years in youth coaching, which included spells as manager of multiple Danish national youth teams, Frank became a senior manager with Brøndby IF in 2013. After his departure in 2016, he moved to English club Brentford as assistant head coach and was promoted into the role of head coach in October 2018. At the end of the 2020–21 season, Frank became only the second Brentford head coach or manager to achieve promotion to the top-flight of English football.
Managerial career
Denmark
After a short playing career in amateur football as a
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
, Frank began his coaching career with the U8 and U12 teams at Frederiksværk BK. He moved on to
Hvidovre IF
Hvidovre Idrætsforening, more commonly known as Hvidovre IF () is a Denmark, Danish professional association football, football club based in Hvidovre. The club competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of Danish football league syste ...
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 ...
in 2006. In July 2008, Frank was appointed manager of the Denmark national U16 and U17 teams. In 2011, he led the U17 team to the European U17 Championship finals for the first time in eight years (advancing to the
semi-finals
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
before losing 2–0 to
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) and to its first U17 World Cup, in which the team was eliminated in the
group stage
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...
. Frank was promoted to the Denmark U19 manager's job in July 2012, but he failed to qualify for the 2013 European U19 Championship. During his time working for the
DBU
The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose ...
, Frank also acted as manager during an unofficial U18 match in 2010 and presided over one U20 match in 2012, covering for
Morten Wieghorst
Morten Wieghorst (born 25 February 1971) is a Danish association football manager and former player. He is currently the assistant coach for the Denmark national football team. He is the former head coach of the Denmark national under-21 footba ...
. He also served as assistant for the U18, U17, U16 and women's U17 teams on an ad-hoc basis.
Brøndby IF
Frank was named as manager of
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 ye ...
club Brøndby IF on 10 June 2013, his first position in senior football. He achieved 4th- and 3rd-place finishes respectively in the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons, high enough to qualify for the
Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
qualification stages, but failed to lead the club into the group stage in either season. Frank resigned on 9 March 2016 after receiving criticism from chairman Jan Bech Andersen, under a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Assistant role and appointment as head coach (2016–2019)
On 9 December 2016, Frank moved to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to join
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
club Brentford as assistant head coach alongside Richard O'Kelly. He signed a -year contract. In addition to being a "bridge between the players and the coaching staff", co-
director of football
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 ...
Rasmus Ankersen revealed that Frank would also "look after the players between the
B team
B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...
and the first team and make sure there is a pathway for them and take care of their development". In February 2018, he signed a new contract, which would run until the end of the 2019–20 season.
On 16 October 2018, after the departure of head coach
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 H ...
, it was announced that Frank had been promoted into the role. He took over a club rocked by the recent death of technical director Robert Rowan and endured a tough start to his tenure, winning just one of his first 10 games, before stabilising the team's form after a change to a 3–4–3 formation. Seven points from a possible nine in January 2019 saw him nominated for the Championship Manager of the Month award. He guided Brentford to the fifth round of the
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 ...
and an 11th-place finish in the Championship at the end of the 2018–19 season.
Promotion to the Premier League (2019–2021)
After an uneven start to the 2019–20 season and switching back to a
4–3–3
In association football, the formation of a team refers to the position players take in relation to each other on a pitch. As association football is a fluid and fast-moving game, a player's position (with the exception of the goalkeeper) in a ...
formation, 10 points from five matches in October 2019 saw Frank nominated for the Championship Manager of the Month award. With Brentford in the play-off places, Frank and his assistant, Brian Riemer signed new -year contracts in January 2020. After the season restart, an unbeaten June won Frank the Championship Manager of the Month award and he oversaw Brentford's run to the 2020 Championship play-off Final, which Brentford lost 2–1 to West London rivalsFulham.
Frank reached 100 matches as Brentford manager in late October 2020; at the time he had the highest
winning percentage
In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...
of any Brentford manager with a tenure of 100 matches or more. In the midst of a 21-match unbeaten run in league matches, five wins in December 2020 won Frank the Championship Manager of the Month award. Following a run to the club's first ever appearance in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, Frank managed Brentford to a second-successive third-place Championship finish during the 2020–21 regular season. The team went one better than the previous season during the
play-offs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
, winning promotion to the
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 ...
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
championship in 1934–35. During the 2020–21 season, Frank was named the 2020 DBU Coach of the Year and was nominated for the 2021 London Football Awards Manager of the Year award.
Premier League (2021–present)
Halfway through the 2021–22 season – with Brentford placed 14th in the Premier League table, 9 points clear of the relegation zone – Frank and his assistant Brian Riemer signed -year contract extensions on 21 January 2022. In March 2022, Frank was nominated for a second successive DBU Coach of the Year award. An unbeaten April 2022 saw Frank nominated for the
Premier League Manager of the Month
The Premier League Manager of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best adjudged Premier League manager each month of the season. The winner is chosen by a combination of an online public vote, which contributes to ...
award and the following month, he was nominated for the
Premier League Manager of the Season
The Premier League Manager of the Season is an annual association football award presented to managers in England. It recognises the most outstanding manager in the Premier League each season. The recipient is chosen by a panel assembled by the l ...
award. He oversaw a final Premier League placing of 13th. In October 2022, Frank achieved the feat of having won more of his first 200 matches than any Brentford head coach or manager to also reach 200. On Christmas Eve 2022, Frank signed a new -year contract. Three wins and two draws in an unbeaten November and December saw Frank nominated for the Premier League Manager of the Month award.
Physical Education
Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...
by the
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 ...
Institute of Sports Medicine in 1999 and studied sport psychology and coaching-based leadership at the same institution between 2002 and 2005. He also worked at a
kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...
and later taught at
Ishøj
Ishøj is a Danish town with a population of 20,017 (1 January 2015). Prior to moving to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in December 2016, Frank lived in
Hvidovre
Hvidovre is the main town in Hvidovre Municipality, Denmark. The town, a suburb of Copenhagen, is about 10 km southwest of the capital's center. It is the 2nd biggest suburb of Copenhagen, only beaten by Frederiksberg.
History
Hvidovre has ...
. He is married with three children and has a
dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
Individual
* London Football Awards Manager of the Year: 2020
*
DBU
The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose ...