Mats Åke Gren (born 20 December 1963) is a Swedish football coach and former player who played as a defender. He played for

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...

and Grasshopper during a professional career that spanned between 1978 and 2000. A full international between 1984 and 1992, he won 22

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Sweden national team and represented his country at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Gren was first playing as a forward, but as he was a utility player, the last ten years in Grasshopper he played as a defender and also became

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

Club career

Gren played for

Falu BS Falu Bandysällskap, ''Falu BS'', is a bandy club from Falun in Sweden. Falu BS was founded as ''Falu Bollsällskap'' on 10 December 1935, by merging Falu BK, Holmens IF, Falu SK and IFK Falun. All these clubs were playing bandy. In 1936 ...

1982–1984. He then played for

in 1984–1985 and became Swedish champion in 1984. Gren then moved to Grasshopper, where he played from 1985–2000. He won the

Swiss National League Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss International ...

five times (1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1998) and won four Swiss Cup titles (1988, 1989, 1990, 1994).Mats Gren wird Trainer in Dänemark
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International career

Gren played 22 games for the Swedish national team and was a member of the squad in the 1990 FIFA World Cup and participated in one game coming in as a substitute.

Coaching career

He was assistant manager of Grasshopper from 2009. On 31 May 2009 he was named as the new head coach of

Vejle Boldklub Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six t ...

and signed over three years here between 30 June 2012. Due to a poor start to the spring season of 2011, where Vejle dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the Danish 1st Division, Gren was sacked by the club board on 12 April 2011. In 2014, Gren left his job as manager Jönköpings Södra to take the role as sporting director at

. On 10 October 2018, with the club showing poor results and having financial difficulties, IFK Göteborg sacked Gren.Förändringar i ledarstaben
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Career statistics

International

Honours

Player

IFK Göteborg * Swedish Champion:

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

Grasshopper *

: 1989–90,

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98 * Swiss Cup: 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1993–94

Manager

BK Häcken *

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

References

1963 births Living people Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players Sweden under-21 international footballers Allsvenskan players Swiss Super League players IFK Göteborg players Grasshopper Club Zürich players Association football defenders Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Swedish football managers IFK Göteborg directors and chairmen FC Vaduz managers Vejle Boldklub managers Jönköpings Södra IF managers Swedish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Denmark Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate football managers in Liechtenstein People from Falun Sportspeople from Dalarna County {{sweden-footy-defender-stub