Karl Magnus Pehrsson (born 25 May 1976) is a Swedish football manager and former professional player who is the Director of Football at Spanish club Vélez CF.
Pehrsson started his career in IFK Lidingö. He played for DjurgÃÂ¥rdens IF and IFK Göteborg in Sweden, as well as Bradford City in England.
For the 1999 season, he rejoined DjurgÃÂ¥rden. He retired from football as a player due to an injury in 2003.
Pehrsson represented Sweden at the youth and B levels.
Pehrsson started his coaching career as assistant manager in ÃÂ tvidabergs FF. He then managed IK Sirius in 2006 and GAIS in 2008.
In January 2009 he moved from the Swedish leagues to Denmark to coach the Danish Superliga team Aalborg BK.
In his first season AaB managed to finish the Superliga season in 7th with 3 wins and 7 draws from 16 matches under his management. AaB reached the 2008âÂÂ09 Danish Cup final. In the UEFA Cup AaB were drawn against Deportivo La Coruña. AaB won the first leg at home 3âÂÂ0 and the away leg 3âÂÂ1 beating Deportivo 6âÂÂ1 aggregate. AaB thereby earned a place among the last 16 where they faced Manchester City. After a 2âÂÂ0 loss in Manchester in the first leg AaB fought back to tie the score with a 2âÂÂ0 win at home, but were defeated by 4âÂÂ3 on penalties.
In his first full season AaB finished 5th in the league with 13 wins, 9 draws and 11 losses. In the 2009âÂÂ10 Danish Cup AaB were surprisingly knocked out in the round of 16 by 2nd Division (third tier) club Hobro IK and in Europa League AaB lost out to Bosnia and Herzegovina club FK Slavija in the second qualifying round.
With 9 points from the first 11 matches in 2010âÂÂ11 Superliga season he was sacked on 11 October 2010 due to a poor start of the season.
In May 2011 Pehrson was hired by DjurgÃÂ¥rden to replace Lennart Wass who had been sacked due to a poor start of the 2011 Allsvenskan.
In his first season he managed to bring the team up from 15th to finish 11th and safe from the relegation with a record of 10 wins and 5 draws from 24 matches under his management. In 2011 Svenska Cupen DjurgÃÂ¥rden were eliminated in the round of 16 by IFK Göteborg.
In 2012 season DjurgÃÂ¥rden finished 9th in the league with 8 wins, 13 draws and 9 losses. In 2012âÂÂ13 Svenska Cupen DjurgÃÂ¥rden finished runners-up, but Pehrsson had already left the club after the quarter-finals.
On 26 April 2013 Pehrsson resigned as manager due to alleged threats against him, though police later dropped the investigation as no legal proof of the threats were found.
On 5 December 2013, Pehrsson was appointed team manager of the Estonian national team. His first match in charge was a win against Gibraltar on 5 March 2014. After a slow start team's form began to pick up and Estonia held high hopes on Euro 2016 qualifying, but a 0âÂÂ1 loss in a decisive match against Slovenia saw them finishing 4th in group. By mid 2016 the results start to deteriorate: 0âÂÂ7 loss to Portugal and 0âÂÂ5 to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2016 was a blow to a team proud of their defensive record. Pehrsson left the post by mutual consent in September 2016.
On 23 November 2016, Pehrsson was appointed manager of Malmö FF. He led the team to their second consecutive domestic title, winning the 2017 Allsvenskan, but was knocked out of the 2017âÂÂ18 UEFA Champions League in the second qualifying round.
On 14 May 2018, Pehrsson was sacked as manager of Malmö FF, as the club was placed 10th in Allsvenskan after nine rounds. Niclas Carlnén, managing director at the club, cited that the "results so far are a big disappointment" and stated that the decision was "sad but necessary".
On 27 November 2018, after the end of the 2018 Allsvenskan season, Pehrsson was presented as the new manager of Kalmar FF, a team who ended up at the 10th place in the league. He resigned in October 2019.
In April 2022 he became Director of Football at Spanish club Vélez CF.
DjurgÃÂ¥rdens
Malmö FF