Lars Friis (born 7 May 1976) is a Danish professional football manager. He is the current manager of Cercle Brugge.
Playing career
Lars Friis was born on 7 May 1976 in Feldborg, Denmark. He started playing youth football for local club, Feldborg-Haderup IF. Known for his technical ability and dedication, he often played as a centre-back or midfielder, despite not being particularly fast or physically imposing.[1]
After a year at a nearby efterskole, where he played for Aulum IF, Friis joined Ikast FS, competing at the top youth levels before the formation of Midtjylland.[1]
He later returned to FHIF to start his senior career but was forced to retire at age 23 due to a cruciate ligament injury.[1]
Coaching career
Friis began his coaching career in 1999 at Midtjylland, where he was until 2015, when he also left the club shortly after Glen Riddersholm‘s departure.[2] Soon after, he accompanied Riddersholm to AGF as an assistant. In the spring of 2018, he was offered to join Brentford as a development coach, [3] but after a year he returned to AGF as an assistant, now for David Nielsen.[4]
Managerial career
In January 2021, he took up his first head coaching position when he joined Viborg, replacing Jacob Neestrup.[5] At the time Viborg were leading the 2020-21 Danish 1st Division, and he would go on to win the division and thus secure promotion to the Danish Superliga.[6]
In January 2022 he was signed by AaB, but was unable to get out of his contract until compensation was paid to Viborg by AaB. He officially became AaB manager on 9 March 2022.[7] Following a poor start to the 2022–23 Danish Superliga season Friis was sacked by AaB on 15 September 2022.[8] On 16 December 2022, Friis was hired as an assistant coach to Sparta Prague manager Brian Priske.[9] On 12 June 2024, Friis was appointed as the manager of Sparta Prague, replacing Priske, who became the manager of Feyenoord.[10] On 15 May 2025, one day after a 1–3 loss in the Czech Cup final against Sigma Olomouc, Friis was sacked as head coach with team on the 4th place in the league table and four losses in a row.[11]
In March 2026, Friis became new manager of Belgian Pro League club Cercle Brugge.[12]
Managerial statistics
- As of match played 14 May 2025
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | ||||
| Viborg | 
|
16 January 2021 | 8 March 2022 | 34 | 17 | 10 | 7 | 65 | 37 | +28 | 50.00 |
| AaB |
|
9 March 2022 | 15 September 2022 | 22 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 27 | 36 | −9 | 27.27 |
| Sparta Prague | 
|
1 July 2024 | 15 May 2025 | 51 | 28 | 7 | 16 | 89 | 70 | +19 | 54.90 |
| Cercle Brugge | 
|
23 March 2026 | Present | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | — |
| Total | 107 | 51 | 21 | 35 | 181 | 143 | +38 | 47.66 | |||
References
- ^ a b c Hansen, Jørgen (20 December 2022). “Superligatræneren fra Feldborg”. Dansk Træner Union (in Danish). Archived from the original on 3 March 2024. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
- ^ “FCM assistant stops at the turn of the year”. bold.dk (in Danish). 26 July 2015.
- ^ Tøfting, Nicolai (3 January 2018). “Lars Friis is the new development coach at Brentford”. bold.dk (in Danish).
- ^ Schmidt, Martin (24 July 2019). “AGF brings Lars Friis home as an assistant”. bold.dk (in Danish).
- ^ “Lars Friis is the new head coach of VFF”. Viborg FF (in Danish). 16 January 2021.
- ^ 2020-21 1st Division table – Danish FA
- ^ Nelausen, Raymund (8 March 2022). “AaB bekræfter: Lars Friis starter onsdag”. bold.dk (in Danish).
- ^ Margren, Sara (15 September 2022). “Bombe: AaB fyrer Lars Friis”. bold.dk (in Danish).
- ^ “Sparta má nového asistenta. Přináší lidský aspekt, vítá ho Priske”. Blesk (in Czech). Czech News Center. Czech News Agency. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Lizec, Jiří (12 June 2024). “Potvrzeno. Priske míří do Feyenoordu. Spartu přebírá osvědčené jméno”. Sport.cz (in Czech). Borgis. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
- ^ Čihák, Jiří (15 May 2025). “Friis ve Spartě skončil, tým přebírá Loučka. Nemohli jsme už dál čekat, zní z klubu”. Mladá fronta Dnes (in Czech). Mafra. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ “Cercle Brugge legt zijn lot in play-downs in handen van Deense coach Lars Friis”. Sporza (in Dutch). sporza.be. 23 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.