Unbelievable: Alfred Schreuder, the former head coach of the Ajax, has announced his return to the team.
AMSTERDAM — To help Dutch power Ajax get back on track after their worst start to a season in decades, veteran coach Louis van Gaal is returning from retirement from soccer.
Four-time European champion Amsterdam made the announcement late on Tuesday that Van Gaal, 72, will provide the Ajax Supervisory Board with advice “on football technical matters.”
After five games, Ajax is ranked 15th out of 18 teams in the Eredivisie, under the direction of new coach Maurice Steijn and with a roster full of young, inexperienced players who were signed over the summer. The season before, Ajax also had trouble following Erik ten Haag’s transfer to Manchester United.
“I wish to support Ajax.” Van Gaal said in a statement on the Ajax website, “I currently spend a big part of my life in Portugal, and this can be well combined with my role as an external advisor.”
The team needs to “get back up to the top, and we all have to contribute to that,” according to Van Gaal.
After leading Ajax to its most recent Champions League victory, Van Gaal—who revealed last year that he was receiving treatment for prostate cancer—became a hero at the team. In 1995, he led a team full of homegrown talent to victory in Europe’s premier club competition, defeating AC Milan 1-0 in the championship game.
Along with coaching elite teams like Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and Manchester United, he has also served as the Netherlands national team’s coach twice, most recently during the World Cup in Qatar.
In this archive photo from May 1995, Ajax soccer was…
This May 1995 file photo shows Louis van Gaal, the soccer coach at Ajax at the time, waving the Champions League Cup and embracing supporters in Amsterdam following Ajax’s victory over AC Milan. After one of Ajax’s worst seasons in decades, veteran coach Louis van Gaal is coming out of retirement to help the Dutch powerhouse get back on track. Four-time European champion Amsterdam made the announcement late on Tuesday that Van Gaal, 72, will provide the Ajax Supervisory Board with advice “on football technical matters.” Acknowledgment: Peter Dejong/AP
Last year, Van Gaal guided the Netherlands to the Qatar quarterfinals, where they were defeated by Lionel Messi’s Argentina, who went on to win the championship. Van Gaal declared that the penalty shootout would decide the tense match to be his “very last match.”
At the end of last month, fireworks that home fans had thrown onto the field at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam caused the match between Ajax and their fierce rival Feyenoord to be called off, with Feyenoord leading 3-0. Sven Mislintat, Ajax’s director of soccer, was let go a few hours later, despite having only joined the team in May.
The remaining minutes were later played behind closed doors, and Feyenoord emerged victorious, 4-0.
