Kasper Hjulmand, who speaks German and excellent English, was Denmark's national coach for four years until last summer. With a win rate of 60 per cent, he is the country's most successful ever national coach.
At the 2021 Euros finals, held in ten cities across Europe as well as in Baku, the Aalborg-born coach led the ‘Danish dynamite’ to the semi-finals in impressive fashion, where they only lost to England in extra time.
After an extremely emotional and successful European Championship, not least due to the health drama surrounding Denmark star Christian Eriksen, Denmark also qualified for the 2022 World Cup in style under Hjulmand's leadership. With nine wins from ten games, the Northern European side topped their group, beating Scotland and Austria, among others. In the group stage of the World Cup finals, however, the Danes were beaten by eventual finalists France.
Hjulmand, known for his transparent, communicative and empathetic manner, also coached Denmark at Euro 2024 in Germany last summer. After successfully making it through the group stage without defeat, Denmark were knocked out by Germany in the Round of 16.
During Hjulmand's time with the Danish national team, his then assistant coach Ismael Camenforte was also working in the youth set-up at Bayer 04. The Spaniard then worked as fitness coach for the senior team at Leverkusen before moving on to Real Madrid with Xabi Alonso in the summer.
Hjulmand began his coaching career as a 26-year-old in the youth set-up at Lyngby BK, and just seven years later he led the first team of the club from the greater Copenhagen area to the Superligaen as second division champions.
Hjulmand became assistant coach at FC Nordsjaelland in the summer of 2008, and the club won the Danish Cup in 2010 and 2011. Hjulmand was promoted to head coach for the 2011/12 season. In his first season in his new role, Nordsjaelland went above record champions FC Copenhagen to become champions of Denmark for the first time ever. This is still the greatest success in the club's history, which led in turn to their first ever UEFA Champions League campaign.
In the 2014/15 season, two years after winning the league title, Hjulmand finally answered the call of the Bundesliga with his first spell abroad at Mainz 05. In the ‘05’ squad back then: current Bayer 04 player Jonas Hofmann, who scored nearly every second goal under Hjulmand. The Dane's time at Mainz came to an end in February 2015.
Just over a year later, the now 53-year-old took over FC Nordsjaelland again, where he remained in charge for another three years. It was his last stint at club level to date before taking up his position with the Denmark team in the summer of 2020.
At Leverkusen, Hjulmand will meet another familiar face alongside Hofmann: Keld Bordinggaard, head of the coaching academy at Bayer 04 and former assistant coach from his time at Mainz...
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