Aurelijus Skarbalius

Aurelijus "Auri" Skarbalius (born 12 May 1973) is a Lithuanian football manager and former professional footballer, who started his career as a winger, but played mostly as either left- or right-sided fullback. He is currently the manager of Brøndby IF U19.

Career

Auri started his career in Lithuanian clubs FK Zalgiris Vilnius and FK Inkaras Kaunas, before he was bought by Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF for 150,000$^[2] in 1995, after he and FK Inkaras Kaunas met Brøndby in the 1995 UEFA Cup. At Brøndby he immediately won silverware, as the club won three Danish championships in a row in the 1995–96, 1996–97, and 1997–98 seasons. Despite only playing 17 games over the three championship winning seasons, Auri earned himself a cult following in the stands during his early years at Brøndby, as he didn't succeed in scoring any goals for the club. Apart from this, he was well liked for his high work ethics and team spirit.

He was a part of Brøndby's first stint in the UEFA Champions League 1998-99 main tournament, with the job to mark David Beckham of Manchester United and Luís Figo of FC Barcelona. Skarbalius got his big breakthrough in the 2000–01 season, playing 28 of 33 games in the Superliga, and in the championship winning season of 2001–02 he scored his only two goals for Brøndby, one in the Superliga, and one in the UEFA Champions League qualification against Dinamo Tirana. Incidentally Skarbalius was voted Brøndby's Player of the year 2002 that season.

Following the summer 2002 arrival of new manager Michael Laudrup, new player Asbjørn Sennels was bought for the left side of the defence in the following December. Sennels was a part of the Danish national team at the time, and even though Sennels initially didn't find his feet at the club, Auri played the rest of the season as a substitute for the left and right side of the defence. Auri spent the next few years mainly on the bench in Brøndby, and for the last half of the 2004–05 season he was put on loan at Superliga relegation battlers Herfølge BK. Herfølge ended the season with relegation, and Auri returned to Brøndby to collect his 5th Danish championship title for Brøndby, for the games he played in the first half of the season.

For the first half of the 2005–06 season Skarbalius only took part in 3 matches for a combined 72 minutes on the pitch, and his contract was mutually terminated of 31 December 2005 to allow Auri to become a playing assistant coach at Herfølge in the Danish 1st Division. Before leaving Brøndby he managed to become the most capped foreign player in the club's history with almost 200 appearances.

International career

Skarbalius is a former captain of the Lithuania national football team, and he previously held the record number of appearances for Lithuania with 65 international caps, during which he has scored 5 goals. He retired from international football in October 2005 after spending all 14 years with the national team since Lithuania gained independence.

Coaching career

In November 2006, he was promoted to head coach of the Herfølge BK. When Herfølge in 2009 merged with Køge Boldklub, Skarbalius continued as manager of the new club called HB Køge. On 8 June 2011 it was announced, that Auri would be taking the job as assistant manager for Henrik Jensen at his former club Brøndby IF starting in January 2012, but when Jensen was sacked on 24 October, Auri was appointed as interim manager for the remainder of 2011.

In October 2012, with Brøndby last in the 2012-13 Superliga table, Skarbalius was expected to be sacked soon, according to Danish bookmakers.^[3] However he remained as head coach for the remainder of the season and on 20 May 2013 a new Superliga contract was secured in the last game away to Horsens.^[4] A new club board sacked him and sports director Ole Bjur on 10 June 2013 and "Auri" was replaced by Thomas Frank.^[5]

In September 2013 he was announced as manager of minor Danish club Haslev FC.^[6] He managed Haslev until Christmas 2013, and in February 2014 he was announced as the replacement for the knee injured Ove Christensen at Viborg FF.^[7] Skarbalius could not save the club from relegation, but in the following season he got the team promoted to the Danish Superliga once again. However, following the promotion he left the club by mutual consent.^[8]

In the autumn of 2015 Skarbalius became youth coach at Brøndby IF. When Brøndby-manager Thomas Frank resigned in March 2016 following criticism from the chairman, Skarbalius was once again made manager of the club.^[9]

Personal

He is 176 cm tall and weighs 77 kg and speaks fluent Danish.

Managerial statistics

As of 29 May 2016

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Herfølge Boldklub		1 January 2006	30 June 2009	7001900000000000000♠90	7001490000000000000♠49	7001180000000000000♠18	7001230000000000000♠23	7001544400000000000♠54.44
HB Køge		1 July 2009	24 November 2011	7001820000000000000♠82	7001280000000000000♠28	7001130000000000000♠13	7001410000000000000♠41	7001341500000000000♠34.15
Brøndby IF		25 November 2011	10 June 2013	7001590000000000000♠59	7001180000000000000♠18	7001190000000000000♠19	7001220000000000000♠22	7001305100000000000♠30.51
Haslev FC		20 September 2013	3 November 2013	7000800000000000000♠8	7000500000000000000♠5	7000300000000000000♠3	5000000000000000000♠0	7001625000000000000♠62.50
Viborg FF		10 February 2014	6 June 2015	7001490000000000000♠49	7001180000000000000♠18	7001180000000000000♠18	7001130000000000000♠13	7001367309999999999♠36.73
Brøndby IF		9 March 2016	30 May 2016	7001150000000000000♠15	7000700000000000000♠7	7000200000000000000♠2	7000600000000000000♠6	7001466700000000000♠46.67
Total				7002243000000000000♠243	7001970000000000000♠97	7001600000000000000♠60	7001860000000000000♠86	7001399200000000000♠39.92

Honours

• Baltic Cup
  • 1991
• Lithuanian Cup
  • 1993, 1994
• Danish Superliga (5 titles)
  • 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2004–05
• Danish Cup (3 titles)
  • 1997–98, 2002–03, 2004–05
• 2002 Brøndby IF Player of the year

External links

• Brøndby IF profile
• Career stats (not including European matches)
• Interview with Auri (In Danish)

References