A common adage suggests one should never revisit the past. However, in the instance of veteran football manager Roy Hodgson, a return is precisely what occurred… though not for nearly five decades, as reports emerged on Friday confirming his reappointment to lead a squad, Bristol City, following a 44-year hiatus since his previous engagement with them.
Hodgson has amassed a considerable number of coaching appointments throughout his leadership profession — specifically, he has held 21 distinct head coach capacities over a half-century career, encompassing periods at Inter Milan, Liverpool, and the England national squad. His most recent role, with Premier League club Crystal Palace, concluded in February 2024. It seemed to signify his ultimate departure. In a Sky Sports discussion last year, he stated, “I have no desire to become Frank Sinatra and perpetually announce my retirement.”
Subsequently came Friday’s declaration: Hodgson, at 78 years of age, will make his comeback to the sideline to oversee Bristol City’s concluding seven matches of the 2025-26 English Football Championship season. Should the venue appear somewhat familiar to him, it’s because it is: Bristol City represented Hodgson’s second professional club.
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His initial period didn’t unfold favorably. After a four-year engagement with Swedish team Halmstad, during which he secured two unexpected league championships, Hodgson joined Bristol City in 1980 as assistant manager to Bob Houghton before assuming the interim manager position in January 1982. It spanned merely 21 games. Bristol City was experiencing financial distress at the time, with Hodgson primarily assisting the club in fulfilling its remaining schedule.
“Bristol City was nothing short of a catastrophe,” he confided to the BBC in 2012. “We had been there for only a few weeks before financial institutions began to withdraw their support from the club.
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“My responsibility when I ultimately took charge, as caretaker manager, was simply to persist in the aftermath of all the players’ departures and merely honor the scheduled fixtures.”
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Quantitatively speaking, Hodgson’s reappearance in 2026 is astonishing. Bristol City has undergone 24 managerial transitions since his departure in April 1982. The most extraordinary statistic is the interval between tenures: At 44 years separating coaching assignments, Hodgson is in a class of his own. Irrespective of the sport, there is simply no parallel.
Other substantial intervals in soccer
Vanderlei Luxemburgo (Vasco de Gama), 37 years: The nearest anyone comes to Hodgson’s new benchmark is Brazilian globetrotter Vanderlei Luxemburgo. He directed over 30 teams across his 40-year managerial career, including Real Madrid (2004-05) and the Brazil national team (1998-00). His 2019 arrival at Brazilian club Vasco de Gama marked a long-awaited return after he coached there 37 years earlier in 1982. However, it doesn’t fully qualify, given he served as an assistant manager during his initial spell.
As if a solitary return wasn’t sufficient, he went back again as manager in 2020.
Ronnie McFall (Glentoran), 34 years: The actual closest parallel that football offers is the narrative of Ronnie McFall. Glentoran has claimed 23 Northern Irish league titles throughout its existence. One of these, in 1981, was achieved under McFall. He enjoyed a five-year period at the Belfast-based club between 1979 and 1984, only to make a comeback in 2018.
Hodgson will be hoping this isn’t an ominous sign. McFall resigned just under 12 months later, with the club enduring its most significant decline in form during its more than century-long history.
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Does any individual in a major U.S. men’s sport come close?
MLB: Tony La Russa (Chicago White Sox), 35 years — Tony LaRussa’s inaugural managerial appointment in Major League Baseball occurred with the Chicago White Sox between 1979 and 1986. At 34 years old, he was the youngest big league manager, yet this didn’t prevent him from securing Manager of the Year in 1983 after the White Sox triumphed in the American League West. He returned 35 years and three World Series championships later to manage the team between 2021 and 2022, becoming the oldest manager in the league at that time.
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NBA: Rick Carlisle (Indiana Pacers), 14 years — Rick Carlisle’s two tenures as Indiana Pacers head coach represent the NBA’s most extended gap, though it isn’t particularly extraordinary. He had previously served as an assistant coach in Indiana before his initial head coaching role there, from 2003 to 2007, prior to his return in 2021. He has yet to guide the Pacers to the NBA Finals, but he will have additional time to accomplish this after signing a multi-year extension for the upcoming season.
NFL: Jon Gruden (Oakland Raiders), 17 years — Jon Gruden steered the Raiders to consecutive playoff berths during his first stint between 1998 and 2001 before he was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for multiple first-round draft selections, which led to Tampa winning the Super Bowl the subsequent year against his former team. He made a comeback in 2018 for an additional four years with the Raiders, during which period they relocated from Oakland to Las Vegas, but they did not reach the playoffs.