Ebbe Skovdahl

Ebbe Skovdahl Hansen (5 July 1945 – 23 October 2020) was a Danish football manager. He most prominently was a successful manager at Brøndby IF, for whom he had also played in his active years. He helped turn the side into the most dominant Danish team in the 1990s, and he also managed the club in several European campaigns with regular successful UEFA Cup runs, and a UEFA Champions League qualification. He won numerous Danish Superliga and Danish Cup titles. Career Skovdahl started playing as a child for Vanløse IF. He played 130 amateur games for the club before he moved to Brøndby IF in the Danish 3rd Division in 1971. Following 89 amateur matches, many of them as team captain, he went on to become Brøndby's third team coach in 1977. He coached a few minor Danish teams Hvalsø IF and Glostrup IC before he secured two consecutive promotions for Brønshøj BK to the Danish 1st Division in 1982, the then best league of football in Denmark. In 1986, he moved back to coach Brøndby, who had just won the Danish football championship in 1985. Championship coach Skovdahl went on to coach Brøndby towards its second Danish championship in 1987 and he also guided the club to the quarterfinals of the 1986–87 European Cup international tournament. Following two years at Brøndby, Skovdahl moved to Portugal before the conclusion of the Danish season to coach the defending Portuguese Liga champions Benfica. Birger Peitersen went on to finish his job at Brøndby and secured the 1987 Danish championship. The job at Benfica was too much for the internationally inexperienced Skovdahl, and he lasted half a year in the club. He returned to coach Brøndby in 1988 where he won his first Danish championship as well as the Danish Cup trophy, before Skovdahl had a short interlude at Vejle BK in the 1990 and 1991 seasons. Following the near-bankruptcy of Brøndby IF in 1992, Skovdahl returned to the club once more. In his first year at Brøndby, he coached a 5–3–2 system, and re-schooled former attacking players Jes Høgh and Ole Bjur to more defensive position, where they blossomed. Though Brøndby did not win the Danish championship in his first year, Skovdahl was named 1992–93 Danish Manager of the Year, for rebuilding the Brøndby team by re-schooling players to their best abilities.