Who is Kim Hellberg? The coach set for talks over Sunderland AFC vacancy | OneFootball

Highlights

Sunderland's search for Tony Mowbray's successor in the dugout at the Stadium of Light is well and truly on, and the likelihood is that the 60-year-old's replacement is going to come from overseas.

Mowbray was surprisingly given the boot by owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus on Monday evening, and there is more reason to believe that it was due to the veteran manager's thoughts on the club's recruitment model and demands to the board rather than any results that have happened in recent times.

It is expected though that a younger coach will be appointed in the dugout on Wearside, with Mark Douglas of iNews being the first to report that Dreyfus will look overseas for the next person to take on the job.

Julien Sable - assistant head coach at OGC Nice - and Stade de Reims boss Will Still have both been linked, but a new name has emerged in the frame in the form of Kim Hellberg.

According to Swedish outlet Sport Bladet, 35-year-old Hellberg, who has been the manager of top flight side IFK Värnamo in his native country, is due to for talks on Thursday with the Black Cats hierarchy.

Hellberg was being courted by Hammarby for their own managerial job, which was vacated by Marti Cifuentes in late October to take up the Queens Park Rangers head coach role, but with Sunderland now in the frame, he could now be set to make the move to England.

Who is Kim Hellberg?

A relatively young coach, Hellberg first got into management with Kimstad in the seventh tier of Swedish football in 2011 - that was at the age of 23 and in his first season at the club he won the divisional title.

In 2013, Hellberg made the move to another Division Five (seventh tier) side in the form of Kuddby, where he spent four seasons and won two promotins with them in his first three years at the club.

Hellberg would move on to IF Sylvia for the start of the 2017 season, a club that were in the fourth tier of the Swedish footballing pyramid, and in his second season there he would earn promotion to the third tier, further enhancing his reputation as a promising young coach.

He would then become an assistant at Norrkoping - a top flight Swedish club - at the start of 2020, but after two years there he would branch out once more to become a head coach, this time for Varnamo, who had just been promoted to the Allsvenskan before he arrived.

Previous boss Robin Asterhed had departed to become Malmo's chief scout, but Hellberg carried on his predecessor's good work by finishing 10th out of 16 teams in their first ever season in Sweden's top flight, and then that was built on in 2023 with a fifth-placed finish - 12 points behind the European qualification places but still remarkable progress.

With confirmation last month that he would be departing Varnamo when his contract expired at the end of 2023, Hellberg is ready for a fresh challenge - and that could come in England despite strong links to Hammarby.

What is Kim Hellberg's style of play?

Hellberg has alternated between different formations during his time at Varnamo - his last 10 matches saw a back three used twice, a 4-4-2 five times and variations of a 4-3-3 three times.

More often than not before that though, Hellberg would play a 4-3-3 system, and analysis of his style shows that he wants his team to play very similar to that of Leicester City.

When starting with a back four, Varnamo often shifted into a back three in possession with one of the full-backs coming more inside the pitch, with the central striker dropping deeper to play more with the two advanced midfielders in the system.

That allows Hellberg's wingers to provide a lot of width on the attack, with his preference to build up through the middle of the park giving the wide players space to make things happen in the final third.

Hellberg wants his sides to dominate possession and the middle of the pitch, so the likes of Pierre Ekwah, Dan Neil, Jobe Bellingham and then the Sunderland wingers who could provide plenty of width in Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts, could thrive in his system where controlled possession and high intensity will be pivotal.