Thomas Frank (football manager)

After a short playing career in amateur football as a midfielder,[2] Frank began his coaching career with the U8 and U12 teams at Frederiksværk BK and he moved on to Hvidovre IF in 1998, B93 in 2005 and Lyngby in 2006.[3][4] In July 2008, he was appointed manager of the Denmark national U16 and U17 teams.[3][5] In 2011, Frank led the U17 team to the European U17 Championship finals for the first time in eight years (advancing to the semi-finals before losing 2–0 to Germany)[6][7] and to the U17 World Cup for the first time ever,[8] in which the Danes were eliminated in the group stage.[9] Frank was promoted to the Denmark U19 manager's job in 2012,[10] but he failed to achieve qualification to the 2013 European U19 Championship.[11]

Frank was named as manager of Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF on 10 June 2013, his first position in senior football.[12] He achieved 4th- and 3rd-place finishes respectively in the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons, high enough to qualify for the Europa League qualification stages,[13] but he failed to lead the club into the group stage in either season.[14][15] Frank resigned on 9 March 2016 after receiving criticism from chairman Jan Bech Andersen, under a pseudonym, on an online supporters' forum.[16][17]

On 9 December 2016, Frank moved to England to join Championship club Brentford as assistant head coach alongside Richard O'Kelly.[18] He signed a 2½-year contract.[19] In addition to being a "bridge between the players and the coaching staff",[20] co-director of football Rasmus Ankersen revealed that Frank would also "look after the players between the B team and the first team and make sure there is a pathway for them and take care of their development".[21] In February 2018, he signed a new contract, running until the end of the 2019–20 season.[22] On 16 October 2018, after the departure of head coach Dean Smith, it was announced that Frank had been promoted into the role.[23] He took over a club rocked by the recent death of technical director Robert Rowan and endured a tough start to his tenure, winning just one of his first 10 games,[24] before stabilising the team's form after a change to a 3–4–3 formation.[20] Seven points from a possible 9 in January 2019 saw him nominated for the Championship Manager of the Month award.[25] He guided Brentford to the fifth round of the FA Cup and an 11th-place finish in the Championship at the end of the 2018–19 season.[24]

After an uneven start to the 2019–20 season and switching back to a 4–3–3 formation,[26][27] 10 points from five matches in October 2019 saw Frank nominated for the Championship Manager of the Month award.[28] With Brentford in the play-off places,[29] Frank and his assistant, Brian Riemer signed new three and a half-year contracts in January 2020.[24][30] After the season restart,[31] an unbeaten June won Frank the Championship Manager of the Month award and he oversaw Brentford's run to the 2020 Championship play-off Final,[32] which was lost 2–1 to West London rivals Fulham.[33] Frank reached 100 matches as Brentford manager in late October 2020 and at the time had the highest winning percentage of any Brentford manager to manage 100 matches or more.[34] Five wins during an unbeaten December 2020 won Frank the Championship Manager of the Month award.[35]