| Intro | Welsh footballer |
| Is |
Athlete Football player Association football player |
| From | United Kingdom |
| Type | Sports |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 5 September 1980, Wrexham |
| Age: | 39 years |
Adam Owen Ph.D (born 5 September 1980) is a Welsh UEFA licensed professional football coach and former player. He attained a Ph.D in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Lyon, France.
Early life
Owen was born in Wrexham, North Wales.
Playing career
Owen signed as a trainee for Wrexham upon leaving school at the age of 16. After a loan spells at Newtown in the Welsh Premier League, he played for various clubs in the Welsh Premier League such as Connah’s Quay and Cefn Druids. He also played for Scottish club East Stirlingshire during the 2005–06 season making 13 league appearances, scoring 1 goal in the Scottish FA Cup before moving back to England. Owen has represented Wales at University level playing against England and Scotland in the British University Games.
Coaching career
Owen started his coaching career at Wrexham whilst still playing. Upon leaving Wrexham, he joined Scottish club Celtic. Following a two-year period working at Celtic Park as Fitness Coach and Youth Academy Coach, Owen joined the management team at Sheffield Wednesday where he remained for 12 months in the English Championship. During his time at Hillsborough, Owen was approached and accepted the Head of Performance position at Rangers as part of Walter Smith’s management staff at the age of 26. During this period at Rangers the club experienced success domestically winning the SPL, SFA and SFL Cups on several occasions. This was combined with relative success in Europe (UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup campaigns) culminating in the 2008 UEFA Cup Final in Manchester.
Following nearly seven years at Rangers, he then moved to English club Sheffield United in May 2013 to take up the duel role of Assistant Manager and Performance Director. After 12 months in Sheffield, in the summer of 2014 Owen left to join European club and Swiss giants Servette on a three-year contract where he was part of the 2015 League winning campaign.
After seeing out his contract with Servette Owen joined renowned Polish Ekstraklasa club Lechia Gdańsk at the end of June 2017. Following a mediocre period as Head Coach during which Lechia battled relegation, Owen left his position in March 2018 citing a change of club philosophy as the reason.
International work
Owen has been a part of the Wales management staff since August 2009 initially working under both Brian Flynn and Gary Speed. He was part of Chris Coleman’s successful 2016 European Championships management staff reaching the Semi-Final stage versus Portugal. He remained in the Wales backroom team under new manager Ryan Giggs but left his position following the 2018 China Cup Final appearance.
Academic and research
Apart from his main coaching and performance positions, Owen holds a scientific consultancy role with Portuguese club Benfica as a ‘Football Scientist’ within the famed BenficaLAB. He has amassed over 50 scientific publications and book chapters in the area of ‘Sport and Football Science’. Owen is author of the ‘Football Conditioning: A Modern Scientific Approach’ coaching science book.
Honours
Coaching
Club
- Rangers
- Scottish League Winner (3): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11
- Scottish Cup Winner (2): 2007–08, 2008–09
- Scottish League Cup Winner (3): 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11
- UEFA Cup Finalist: 2007–08
- Servette
- Swiss Promotion League Winner (1): 2014–15
International
- Wales
- UEFA Euro 2016: Semi-Finalist
- China Cup 2018: Finalist