Stuart Baxter

Stuart Baxter

Personal information
Full name	Stuart William Baxter
Team information
Current team	Finland (manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1971–1975	Preston North End	41	(1)
1975	Morecambe	1	(0)
1975–1976	Dundee United	0	(0)
1976–1977	Stockport County	4	(0)
1981	Helsingborgs IF	?	(?)
1982	South Melbourne FC	?	(?)
1983	San Diego Sockers	?	(?)
1983–1984	Örebro SK	41	(5)
Managerial career
1985	Örebro SK
1986	IF Skarp
1987	Vitória Setubal
1988–1991	Halmstads BK
1992–1994	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
1995–1997	Vissel Kobe
1998–2000	AIK
2001	F.C. Lyn Oslo
2002–2004	England Under-19
2004–2005	South Africa
2006	Vissel Kobe
2006–2007	Helsingborgs IF
2008–	Finland
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Stuart Baxter (born 16 August 1953) is a football manager and former player. He is currently managing the Finland national football team.

Career

Playing career

Baxter, who has a Scottish father and an English mother, was born in Wolverhampton and began his playing career with Preston North End in 1971. He later moved north to Scotland to join Dundee United before returning to England with Stockport County. Baxter then moved to Sweden, Australia and the United States respectively with Helsingborgs IF, South Melbourne FC and San Diego Sockers. His playing career ended in 1983. Although born in England, Baxter was brought up in Scotland and considers himself Scottish.

Coaching

Baxter returned to Scandinavia to begin his coaching career; he worked with Örebro SK's youth team. In 1986, he was appointed manager of minor Norwegian side Idrettsforeningen Skarp. The following year he landed a larger managerial role with Portuguese team Vitória de Setúbal before returning to Sweden for a three stint at Halmstads BK between 1988 and 1991. In his first year with Halmstads he guided them to promotion to the Allsvenskan but the club was relegated at the end of his tenure. Baxter moved to Japan to first coach Sanfrecce Hiroshima, between 1992 and 1994, and then Vissel Kobe, in 1997. He took over as manager of Kobe only days after an earthquake caused devastation in the city and spent 2 weeks living in a makeshift caravan in the Club carpark.

In 1998, Baxter was bought back to Sweden by AIK Solna, where he guided them to the Swedish championship. Having qualified for the UEFA Champions League, Baxter took AIK into the group stages where the Swedish champions played against some of Europe's largest teams, such as FC Barcelona, Arsenal and Fiorentina. Unsurprisingly, AIK finished bottom of the group. After two years, he moved to Norwegian side Lyn Oslo.

Baxter was hired by the Football Association to coach the England Under-19 national team in 2002. After two years, he was hired as South Africa's manager. By autumn 2005, he quit this role having failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. He later had another short spell at Vissel Kobe before moving back to Helsingborgs, this time as manager in 2006. He took the Swedish side past the group stages of the UEFA Cup in 2007 but he resigned at the end of the year.

At the beginning of 2008, he was appointed manager of Finland on a two-year contract. In January 2009 it was announced that he has signed an extended contract that will keep him in charge of the Finland team through the 2012 European Championships campaign.

Family

He has a son, Lee, who is also a former professional football player and now a goalkeeping-coach.