From the age of 13 I played football at the Sparta Rotterdam children’s school, then played for the youth teams of Ajax. He played as a central striker, scored a lot of goals, and they said that I was a great talent. However, I myself understood that I was far from a top-level football player, who was then Johan Cruyff, and I would never play in the national team. Therefore, at the age of 19, he entered the Academy of Physical Culture to receive a coaching license. Nevertheless, I spent 13 seasons in professional football, playing for the teams of the top division “Sparta”, “Maastricht”, “Haarlem”, “Excelsior”, and simultaneously completed my education.
For the next few years, I played for amateur clubs and taught classes for students at the same Academy that I graduated from. Since I was a professional football player in the past and had the teaching experience, I managed to get A and B licenses for one year, and I could start coaching. By that time, I already had work experience at the headquarters of my own Excelsior and Feyenord, in the last I worked for more than three years. In 1988, after obtaining a license, I headed the club of the second division, but already in the next season I was invited to RBC Roosendaal, who played the league above. We performed quite successfully and I got the right to the highest coaching category “ PRO ”. By the way, we passed the exams in the same group as the coach, who will soon lead Zenit (smiles). Then we met ...
Soon I was invited to Breda for the position of technical director, and two years later I was invited to head the Rotterdam Excelsior, the team in which I played for more than six years, of course, I agreed and worked here for three years. In 1994, I had the opportunity to go to a very exotic place: in the Egyptian city of Port Said, which is located next to the Sinai desert. We walked in first place, but the president of the local club began some fraud with my contract, I immediately packed up my things and went home. I can’t work when I don’t trust the club management ...
After two years spent in the first division as the head coach of the Telstar team, I decided to try my hand at the position of a football agent, but I really did not like it: my head is structured somewhat differently. Therefore, I accepted the invitation of the Dresden Dynamo. (Laughs) My way to Petersburg seemed to be predetermined: I spent most of my life in Rotterdam, and then fate threw me into another one of our twin cities. By the way, the mayor of Rotterdam, with whom we are great friends, very often visited St. Petersburg and talked a lot about the fact that this city is amazingly beautiful and absolutely European. The real cultural capital!
I worked at Dynamo as a technical director and soon offered to invite a Dutch coach to the club, but was refused. Then I headed the team myself, we were at that very moment at the bottom of the third league standings, but with my arrival I won eight consecutive victories and in order to get into the first seven, which after the reorganization of the division, remained in this league, we did not have enough one point. It was very disappointing! But this happened because I started too late ... However, after that I became vice-president of the club and combined three positions at once. But the sponsors did not have enough funds to support the team and had to return home again.
Since 2001, I worked in the Dutch Football Federation. First instructor: flew to various countries and lectured. And once at the airport in Suriname I met an old friend who then headed our team. He asked: “What are you doing here?” I honestly answered that I was looking for a good job. Two months later I was offered a place as a scout in the national team.
In 2004, after the European Championships, I was invited to a very famous and wealthy Chinese club, but I always believed that money was not the most important thing in this life, and this time I refused. I headed the youth team of Holland, things did not go well there: for many years the team could not reach the final part of continental tournaments. However, combining the work of the chief breeder of the national team and the head coach of the youth was extremely difficult. I spent a lot of time on flights, now I have gold cards of all the largest airlines (laughs)! Honestly speaking, I am very tired of such an abundance of travel. And last fall, after we won the group stage, I decided to focus on the national team, and for the youth team we found another coach - an older one. A week ago, the team that I collected and prepared became the European champion!
We had a very good relationship with Marco van Basten: he is from Amsterdam and is well acquainted with the husband of my wife’s sister, they often played golf together (laughs). Marco can grow into a cool coach, he has a very football mind, he understands this game very well. It was very pleasant to work with him, but at the end of May I broke off the contract with the Dutch Federation, because I was very interested in working in St. Petersburg.