Giving up on the thing you love isn’t easy. Even so, at the age of 78, you would have thought that full-time employment was a long way from your mind. But not for Roy Hodgson, who has made a sensational return to football management at the age of 78.
The former England head coach will take charge of Bristol City for the final seven games of the season, confirming his position as one of the oldest managers in world football. Hodgson has been installed on a caretaker basis, but who knows: if the Robins end the Championship campaign on a high, he could yet be handed the job permanently – he would be 79 by the start of the 2026/27 season. Would that make Hodgson the oldest manager in football?
Roy Returns
🚨 Bristol City confirm Roy Hodgson takes over as new head coach until the end of the season.
78 year old manager, ready to help Bristol City from now to June. pic.twitter.com/0YjkC1W3cc
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 27, 2026
It’s somewhat fitting that Hodgson’s managerial career will, in all likelihood, finish at the club with whom he started out as a raw recruit. He was appointed Bristol City boss back in 1982… before any of today’s Championship players were even born. Mind you, Robins fans can be forgiven for forgetting such a fact, as Hodgson lasted just four months in the job – a time he has described as ‘nothing short of a disaster’.
Thankfully, he already had a league win on his CV by then courtesy of a stint in Swedish football with Halmstad, so after his disastrous stint in Bristol, Hodgson returned to his spiritual home with both Orebro and Malmo – winning five league titles with the latter.
So influential was Hodgson in Swedish football that he still (unofficially) has a stand named after him at Malmo, while he is known in reverential terms to this day as ‘English Roy’. The globetrotting Hodgson managed clubs in Switzerland, Italy, Denmark and Norway, as well as stints at the Swiss, UAE and Finland national teams. But he’s perhaps best known for his latter-day tenures in the Premier League with Liverpool, Fulham, West Brom and Crystal Palace.
Oh, and how can we forget his time as head coach of England? A win rate of nearly 59% from 56 games is impressive, even if that never quite manifested itself on the major stage – England’s group stage exit from World Cup 2014 was the first time they had failed to qualify for the knockout phase in almost 60 years.
And then there was that embarrassing defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016… perhaps best forgotten. Hodgson has been widely respected in football for decades; that, and his love of the beautiful game, the reasons why he remains relevant even as he approaches his eightieth birthday.
The Miraculous Mircea Lucescu
Hodgson may not yet be 80… but one current international head coach is. Step forward, carefully, Mircea Lucescu, who continues to lead Romania as a sprightly octogenarian. Had his team not lost to Turkey in the UEFA qualification path play-off, Lucescu could have gone on to manage Romania at the 2026 World Cup – making him by far and away the oldest head coach in the tournament’s history.
He’d been seriously ill leading into the play-offs. “I’m not in my best shape so I would have stepped away if there was another option available. But I insist: I can’t leave like a coward,” Lucescu said, defiantly. This is a guy that has battled heart disease and survived a devastating car crash in his native Bucharest, so a coward Lucescu ain’t.
His managerial career, which started in 1979, has taken him from Dinamo Bucharest to Brescia, from Galatasaray to Inter Milan, from the Ukrainian side Shakhtar to the Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg. He’s twice coached Romania, 40 years apart, and was just the fifth person to manage teams in 100 or more Champions League games – behind messrs Ferguson, Wenger, Ancelotti and Mourinho. It’s a remarkable managerial legacy… and one that may never be matched in terms of its pure longevity.
The Oldest Manager in Premier League History
It perhaps won’t shock you to learn that Hodgson is the oldest manager to have taken charge of a Premier League game. He was 76 and 187 days old on the occasion of what was, at the time of writing at least, his final EPL outing: Crystal Palace’s 1-3 defeat to Chelsea in February 2024.
Remarkably, that made Hodgson five whole years older than the previous incumbent of the record: Sir Bobby Robson, who was 71 years and 192 days old at the time of his final game in charge of Newcastle United.
The Oldest Manager in World Cup History
Sadly, it wasn’t to be for Lucescu and Romania at World Cup 2026. And that was also the case for another iconic head coach, Dick Advocaat, at the tournament.
The Dutchman, at the age of 78, guided tiny Curacao to their first ever World Cup appearance – an astonishing achievement, even taking into consideration the expanded format. Unfortunately, health issues in his family caused Advocaat to quit the Curacao post in February 2026.
All of which means that the oldest manager in World Cup history remains as Otto Rehhagel, who was a good chunk towards his 73rd birthday when leading Greece into World Cup 2010. That was only their second ever tournament appearance, and came just six years after Rehhagel guided the Grecians to their rather unlikely triumph at Euro 2004.
Who Is the Oldest Manager in Football History?
This is a question that takes some answering, as there are multiple examples of head coaches well into their eighties prowling the touchline. But if we’re talking about professional football at the elite level, Lucescu and Hodgson cannot be beaten.
Neil Warnock runs them close, albeit he came out of retirement in the National League South at the age of 77 – guiding Torquay United as caretaker in March 2026. Meanwhile, Edoardo Reja – the former Napoli, Lazio and Albania head coach – took the helm of Slovenian side ND Gorica in 2023 aged 77. His spell in charge would last just seven games.
