Adam Owen (born 5 September 1980) is a Welsh professional football coach, former player & technical director. He is currently working at EFLChampionship club Blackburn Rovers.[1] He attained a Ph.D. in Sport and Exercise Science & Coaching from the Université de Lyon, France.
Playing career
Owen was born and raised in Wrexham, North Wales. He signed as a professional player 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 in the Scottish Football League.[2] Owen 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 under Martin O'Neill & Gordon Strachan as both Fitness and Academy Technical Coach, at the age of 25 years old Owen joined Paul Sturrock's management team at Sheffield Wednesday where he remained for 12 months in the English Championship, also working under Brian Laws. During his time at Hillsborough, Owen was approached and accepted the 'Head of Performance' position at Rangers.[3] During his time at Rangers the club experienced success domestically winning the SPL League Championship, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup on several occasions, also being involved in several UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup campaigns culminating in the 2008 UEFA Cup Final in Manchester.
Following seven years at Rangers, he moved to English club Sheffield United in May 2013 to take up the role of Assistant Manager.[4] After 12 months in Sheffield, in the summer of 2014 Owen left to join Swiss giants Servette on a three-year contract adding a promotion and league championship at his time with the club.
After seeing out his contract with Servette, Owen joined Polish Ekstraklasa club Lechia Gdańsk at the end of June 2017 becoming the Head Coach.[5] He left his position in March 2018 citing a change of club philosophy as the reason, but stated the chance to manage such a big club at a young age was an incredible experience and one he was immensely proud of. [6]
Following Lechia Gdańsk Owen again joined up with Chris Coleman signing a two-year contract as his assistant coach in Hebei China Fortune FC in the Chinese Super League, with Hebei CCFC narrowly missing out on the Asian Champions League places having risen through the league. During this period Owen worked with players such as Gervinho, Ezequiel Lavezzi, and Javier Mascherano. In the January 2020, it was announced that having been approached, Owen accepted the dual-role as High-Performance & Technical Advisor with the Major League Soccer 2019 Champions Seattle Sounders FC. During this period Seattle Sounders were Western Conference Champions & finalists in the 2020 MLS Cup & competed in the CONCACAF Champions League.[7] Upon resigning his position to return to Europe due to the pandemic situation he moved directly into a Technical Advisor role with European club Lech Poznań, and in his first season the club were successful in winning the Ekstraklasa 2021-22 league championship and qualifying for the UEFA Champions league.
In June 2022 he joined Scottish club Hibernian as assistant manager, whilst maintaining his role as Technical Advisor with Lech Poznań.[8] Owen left Hibernian in August 2023 after helping the club to a 5th place SPL league position, and qualifying for the UEFA Europa Conference League in order to resume his Technical role with Polish giants Lech Poznań. After a successful period in Poland, in the summer of 2024 Owen completed a move to the ex-Premier League Champions Blackburn Rovers.
Owen was a part of the Wales management staff from August 2009 until March 2018 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 their 2018 China Cup Final appearance versus Uruguay to relocate to the Chinese Superleague.
Additional
Apart from his main coaching and performance positions, Owen held a prestigious role with Portuguese club Benfica as a 'Director of Research' within the famed SL Benfica where the work is still evident throughout the clubs methodology to date.[9] Adam has amassed over 100+ worldwide research publications & book chapters in the area of 'Football Coaching Science'. Owen is author of various books in the area of 'Football Science & Performance Coaching'.[10]
Owen also holds positions as an Associate Researcher role with Université de Lyon in France, whilst working as a high-performance & elite coach educator for numerous UEFA member associations including the England Football Association.
