Jesper Sørensen (born 10 June 1973) is a Danish professional

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 ...

coach and former player. He is the manager of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The MLS ite ...

Career

Sørensen previously played football as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen (, ), commonly known as F.C. København, F.C. Copenhagen, Copenhagen, or simply FCK, is a Danish professional football club based in Copenhagen. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on top of Kjøbenhavns Boldklu ...

Ikast FS Ikast FC is an association football club based in the town of Ikast, Denmark, that competes in the Jutland Series, the sixth tier of the Danish football league system and the first tier of the regional DBU Jutland. Founded in 2018 as a superst ...

, AB and AGF. In the summer of 2009, he became assistant coach at AGF – a position he held until 2013, when he became head coach of

Silkeborg IF Silkeborg Idrætsforening, (; commonly known as Silkeborg IF or SIF in short) is a professional football club based in Silkeborg, Denmark. The club was founded in 1917, reached the highest level of Danish football in 1987, and afterwards became ...

. However, after registering a record low number of points in the

Superliga Superliga (''super league'') may refer to: Sports Superliga can refer to different sports leagues: Association football *Albanian Superliga, the Albanian top-flight men's division * Argentine Superliga, the Argentine top-flight men's division *D ...

, Sørensen was sacked on 8 December 2014. On 18 August 2021, he was announced as the new manager of the Danish under-21 national team, although he kept serving as the assistant coach at

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a Danish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Brøndbyvester. Brøndby IF denotes the professional football section of Brøndbyernes ...

until the end of the same year. Under Sørensen's tenure, Denmark reached the qualification play-offs for the

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2023) was the 24th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (27th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth Association f ...

, even though they eventually lost to

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

over two legs. Despite that, in December 2022 the coach (as well as his assistant,

Steffen Højer Steffen Højer (born 22 May 1973) is a Danish professional Association football, football coach and former player, who is the head coach of the Denmark U21 national team. He is regarded as one of the top coaches in Europe with his style being b ...

), renewed his contract with the

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

until 2024. Just a month after renewing his contract, Sørensen left the Danish U-21 team to become manager of his former club

in January 2023. In his first half-season, he guided the club to a 5th place in the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

. In his first full season, Brøndby was on route to take the Danish championship, but lost in the last round, when the club lost 2-3 to

AGF Aarhus Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ) is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country where gymnastics and fencing were featured as its main sports. How ...

. On 11 December 2024, Sørensen was sacked by Brøndby with the club in 5th place in the

. Sørensen was appointed head coach for Canadian

club

on 14 January 2025.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

*
Jesper Sørensen
official

statistics at danskfodbold.com 1973 births Living people Danish men's footballers Footballers from Aarhus Men's association football midfielders Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Denmark men's youth international footballers Danish Superliga players F.C. Copenhagen players Ikast FC players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players Akademisk Boldklub players Silkeborg IF managers FC Fredericia managers Danish football managers Brøndby IF non-playing staff Brøndby IF managers Danish expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer coaches in Canada Danish expatriate sportspeople in Canada Vancouver Whitecaps FC head coaches Aarhus Gymnastikforening non-playing staff {{Denmark-footy-midfielder-stub