Lars Friis (born 7 May 1976) is a Danish professional football manager. He is the current head coach of Belgian Pro League club Cercle Brugge.
Playing career Lars Friis was born on 7 May 1976 in Feldborg, Denmark. He started playing youth football for local club, Feldborg-Haderup IF. Known for his technical ability and dedication, he often played as a centre-back or midfielder, despite not being particularly fast or physically imposing.
After a year at a nearby efterskole, where he played for Aulum IF, Friis joined Ikast FS, competing at the top youth levels before the formation of Midtjylland.
He later returned to FHIF to start his senior career but was forced to retire at age 23 due to a cruciate ligament injury.
Coaching career Friis began his coaching career in 1999 at Midtjylland, where he was until 2015, when he also left the club shortly after Glen Riddersholm's departure. Soon after, he accompanied Riddersholm to AGF as an assistant. In the spring of 2018, he was offered to join Brentford as a development coach, but after a year he returned to AGF as an assistant, now for David Nielsen.
Managerial career In January 2021, he took up his first head coaching position when he joined Viborg, replacing Jacob Neestrup. At the time Viborg were leading the 2020-21 Danish 1st Division, and he would go on to win the division and thus secure promotion to the Danish Superliga.2020-21 1st Division table - Danish FA
In January 2022 he was signed by AaB, but was unable to get out of his contract until compensation was paid to Viborg by AaB. He officially became AaB manager on 9 March 2022. Following a poor start to the 2022–23 Danish Superliga season Friis was sacked by AaB on 15 September 2022. On 16 December 2022, Friis was hired as an assistant coach to Sparta Prague manager Brian Priske. On 12 June 2024, Friis was appointed as the manager of Sparta Prague, replacing Priske, who became the manager of Feyenoord. On 15 May 2025, one day after a 1–3 loss in the Czech Cup final against Sigma Olomouc, Friis was sacked as head coach with team on the 4th place in the league table and four losses in a row.
In March 2026, Friis became new manager of Belgian Pro League club Cercle Brugge.
Managerial statistics
+ Managerial record by team and tenure TeamNatFromToRecord Viborg16 January 20218 March 2022AaB9 March 202215 September 2022Sparta Prague1 July 202415 May 2025Cercle Brugge23 March 2026Present Total
References