John Klebér Saarenpää (born 14 December 1975) is a Swedish

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 ...

manager and former player who is head coach of

Superettan Superettan (; ) is an association football league and the second highest league in the Swedish football league system, league system of Swedish football, Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and rel ...

club

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs Idrottsförening, commonly referred to as Helsingborgs IF, Helsingborg or (especially locally) HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish second tier, Superettan, following releg ...

. A defender, he played for

IK Sirius Idrottsklubben Sirius, commonly known as IK Sirius or Sirius, is a Swedish Sport, sports club located in Uppsala. Today IK Sirius is active in bandy, floorball, and association football, football as an . History The sports club that became IK Sir ...

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollför ...

, AaB,

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differ ...

, and

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality (''Municipalities of De ...

during a career that spanned between 1992 and 2008. A full international between 2000 and 2001, he won 11

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 Java ...

for the Sweden national team.

Club career

Saarenpää was born in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

to a

Guinean Demographics of Guinea describes the condition and overview of Guinea's peoples. Demographic topics include basic education, health, and population statistics as well as identified racial and religious affiliations. Population According to t ...

mother and a Finnish father, and he started his career in local team Stäppens IF. Saarenpää represented

and AaB (in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

). He made a contract with the Danish club

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 ...

from 1 January 2007. On 10 March 2007, he debuted as captain for Vejle Boldklub and scored two goals. His contract with Vejle Boldklub only ran until 30 June 2007 and Saarenpää has therefore played his last match for the club. After that he returned to his old club Hammarby IF and signed a two-year contract with the

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

based club. He ended his career after the 2008 season.

International career

Internationally, Saarenpää represented the Sweden U17, U19, and U21 teams a total of 30 times before making his full international debut for the Sweden national team on 31 January 2000 in a

friendly game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

. He made his competitive debut for Sweden in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier against

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, in which he played in all 90 minutes as Sweden won 2–0. He appeared in four more qualifying games for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, but missed the final tournament because of an injury. He won a total of 11

between 2000 and 2001.

Coaching career

In January 2014 Saarenpää signed a 2.5-year contract with Vejle Boldklub as an Assistant Manager. In October of the same year he was promoted to Manager of Vejle Boldklub after the former Manager Tonny Hermansen withdrew from the position. He was sacked on 23 April 2016.

Personal life

Saarenpää also has Finnish citizenship.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

Vejle Boldklub profile

AaB profile
1975 births Footballers from Uppsala Living people Swedish people of Finnish descent Swedish people of Guinean descent Finnish people of Guinean descent Men's association football defenders Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's international footballers IK Sirius Fotboll players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players IFK Norrköping players AaB Fodbold players Hammarby Fotboll players Vejle Boldklub players Allsvenskan players Danish Superliga players Swedish football managers Syrianska FC managers Vejle Boldklub managers Hammarby Fotboll non-playing staff IK Brage managers Helsingborgs IF managers Ettan Fotboll managers Allsvenskan managers Danish 1st Division managers Superettan managers Swedish expatriate men's footballers Swedish expatriate football managers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate football managers in Denmark {{sweden-footy-defender-stub