The tail of the two tactical brains

Posted by Contributor on April 30, 2010 at 2:16 pm in Football, Sports

JOSE MOURINHO (Inter Milan)
Full name: José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho.
Date of birth: January 26, 1963.

He was born to a large middle-class family in Setúbal, Portugal, the son of Félix Mourinho and Maria Júlia Mourinho. His father played football professionally for Belenenses and Vitória de Setúbal, earning one cap for Portugal in the course of his career.
His mother was a primary school teacher from an affluent background; her uncle funded the construction of the Vitória de Setúbal football stadium. However, the fall of António de Oliveira Salazar’s Estado Novo regime in April 1974 led to the family losing all but a property in nearby Palmela.

Mourinho was a popular and competitive child and his mother encouraged him to be successful in his endeavors. Football was a major part of his life and his father recalled being very impressed with his knowledge of the game. Footballing commitments in Porto and Lisbon meant that Félix was often separated from his son. Still, the young Mourinho managed to spend time with him and as a teenager; he would travel by any means necessary to attend weekend matches. By this time, his father had changed from player to coach and in turn the José Mourinho became a student of the game, observing training sessions and scouting opposing teams.

Mourinho wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father by becoming a footballer and he joined the Belenenses youth team. Graduating to the senior level, he played at Rio Ave (where his father was coach), Belenenses and Sesimbra, but it became evident that he would not excel as a professional due to a lack of the requisite pace and power.

Acceding to his shortcomings, he chose to pursue the dream of becoming a professional football coach instead. His mother had different ideas altogether and enrolled him in a business school. Mourinho attended the school but dropped out on his first day, deciding he would rather focus on sport, and chose to attend the Instituto Superior de Educação Física (ISEF), Technical University of Lisbon, to study sports science.

He taught physical education at various schools and after five years, he had earned his diploma, receiving consistently good marks throughout the course. After attending coaching courses held by the English and Scottish Football Associations, former Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh took note of the young Portuguese’s drive and attention to detail.
Mourinho sought to redefine the role of coach in football by mixing coaching theory with motivational and psychological techniques.

ENTERING MANAGEMENT

After leaving his job as a school coach, Mourinho looked for paths into professional management in his hometown and became youth team coach at Vitória de Setúbal in the early 1990s. Working his way up the ladder, he accepted the position of assistant manager at Estrela da Amadora. Mourinho yearned for greater challenges and in 1992 an opportunity arose to work as a translator for a top foreign coach. Bobby Robson had been appointed as the new manager of Lisbon side Sporting Clube de Portugal and the Englishman required a local coach with a good command of English to work as his interpreter.
Initially, the move was a step away from management but as an interpreter Mourinho earned Robson’s respect and friendship. He welcomed Mourinho’s translations and the two became close through discussing tactics and coaching.

Robson was sacked by Sporting but Portuguese rivals FC Porto appointed him as their head coach and Mourinho continued to coach and interpret for players at the new post. After two years at Porto the duo moved again, switching to FC Barcelona in 1996, and Mourinho continued to show his linguistic dexterity and drive, learning Catalan for the new challenge.

Mourinho and his family moved to Barcelona and he gradually became a prominent figure of Barcelona’s staff by translating at press conferences, planning practice sessions and helping players through tactical advice and analyses of the opposition. Robson and Mourinho’s styles complemented each other: the Englishman favoured an attacking style, while Mourinho covered defensive options, and the Portuguese’s love of planning and training combined with Robson’s direct man-management.
The partnership was fruitful and Barcelona finished the season with the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Robson moved club the following season but this time Mourinho did not follow as Barcelona were keen to retain him as assistant manager. Despite the move, the two remained good friends and Mourinho later reflected on the effect Robson had had upon him:
“One of the most important things I learnt from Bobby Robson is that when you win, you shouldn’t assume you are the team, and when you lose, you shouldn’t think you are rubbish.”

He began working with Robson’s successor, Louis van Gaal, and he learnt much from the Dutchman’s conscientious style. Both assistant and head coach combined their studious approach to the game and Barcelona won La Liga twice in van Gaal’s first two years as coach. Van Gaal saw that his number two had the promise to be more than a skilled assistant. He let Mourinho develop his own independent coaching style and entrusted him with the coaching duties of FC Barcelona B.

COACHING CAREER

Benfica and Leiria

The chance to become a top-tier manager arrived in September 2000 when Mourinho moved up from his role as assistant coach at Lisbon side Benfica to replace head coach Jupp Heynckes after the fourth week of the Portuguese Liga. The Benfica hierarchy wanted to appoint Jesualdo Ferreira as the new assistant coach but Mourinho refused and picked Carlos Mozer, a retired Benfica defender, as his right-hand man instead.

Mourinho was highly critical of Ferreira, whom he had first encountered as his teacher at ISEF, and later lambasted the veteran coach by stating: “This could be the story of a donkey who worked for 30 years but never became a horse.” Only weeks after being given the job at Benfica, Mourinho’s mentor, Bobby Robson, offered him the assistant manager’s role at Newcastle United. Such was Robson’s desperation for Mourinho to join him he offered to step down after two years in charge and hand over the reins to Mourinho. Mourinho turned the offer down and said he knew Robson would never step down at the club he loved.

Mourinho and Mozer proved a popular combination, enjoying a 3–0 win against fierce rivals Sporting in December. However, their reign appeared to be at risk after Benfica’s election turned against club president João Vale e Azevedo, and the newly-elected Manuel Vilarinho said that he would instate ex-Benfica player Toni as his new coach. Although Vilarinho had no intention of firing him immediately, Mourinho used the victory over Sporting to test the president’s loyalty and he asked for a contract extension.

Vilarinho refused the demand and Mourinho resigned from his position immediately. He left the club on 5 December 2000 after just nine league games in charge. Upon later reflection, Vilarinho rued his poor judgement and expressed his frustration at losing Mourinho:

“[Put me] back then [and] I would do exactly the opposite: I would extend his contract. Only later I realised that one’s personality and pride cannot be put before the interest of the institution we serve.”

Mourinho quickly found a new managerial post in January 2001 with União de Leiria, whom he took to their highest-ever league finish of fifth place. Mourinho’s successes at Leiria did not go unrecognised and he caught the attention of larger Portuguese clubs.

Porto

He was then hand-picked in January 2002 by FC Porto to replace Octávio Machado. Mourinho guided the team to third place that year after a strong 15-game run (W–D–L: 11–2–2) and gave the promise of “making Porto champions next year.”
He quickly identified several key players whom he saw as the backbone of what he believed would be a perfect Porto team — Vítor Baía, Ricardo Carvalho, Costinha, Deco, Dmitri Alenichev, and Hélder Postiga. He recalled captain Jorge Costa after a six-month loan to Charlton Athletic. The signings from other clubs included Nuno Valente and Derlei from União de Leiria, Paulo Ferreira from Vitória de Setúbal, Pedro Emanuel from Boavista, and Edgaras Jankauskas, and Maniche, who both had been out of contract at Benfica.
During the pre-season, Mourinho put on the club website detailed reports on the team training. The reports were filled with formal vocabulary, as, for instance, he referred to a 20 km jog as an extended aerobic exercise. While they attracted some scorn for the pretentiousness, others praised the innovation and the application of a more scientific approach to the training methods practised in Portugal. One of the key aspects in Mourinho-era Porto was his quick wit and the pressuring play, which started at the offensive line, dubbed pressão alta (“high pressure”). The physical and combative abilities of the teams’ defenders and midfielders allowed Porto to apply pressure from the offensive lines and forced opponents either to concede the ball or try longer, uncertain passes.

In 2003, Mourinho won his first Portuguese Liga with a 27–5–2 record, 11 points clear of Benfica, the team he quit two years earlier. The total of 86 points out of the possible maximum of 102 was a Portuguese record since the rule of three points per win was introduced. Mourinho also won the Portuguese Cup (against former club Leiria) and the UEFA Cup final against Celtic, both in May 2003.

The following season witnessed further successes: he led Porto to victory in the one-match Portuguese SuperCup, beating Leiria 1–0. However they lost the UEFA Super Cup 1–0 to Milan,Andrei Shevchenko scoring the solitary goal. The team were dominant in the Portuguese Liga and they finished the season with a perfect home record, an eight-point advantage, and an unbeaten run that only ended against Gil Vicente; they secured the title five weeks before the end of the season. Porto lost the Portuguese Cup final to Benfica in May 2004, but two weeks later Mourinho won a greater prize: the UEFA Champions League, with a 3–0 win over AS Monaco in Germany. The club had eliminated Manchester United, Olympique Lyonnais and Deportivo La Coruña and their sole defeat of the competition came against Real Madrid in the group round.

Mourinho’s win over Manchester United foreshadowed a move to the English league, where he and manager Alex Ferguson would compete in the Premier League. Porto were on the verge of an away goals defeat when Costinha scored an injury time goal to win the tie and Mourinho celebrated to goal flamboyantly. As a response to his European and domestic success, Mourinho was linked with several top European clubs, including Liverpool, Real Madrid and Chelsea. Mourinho publicly stated his preference for the Liverpool job over the Chelsea one:

“Liverpool are a team that interests everyone and Chelsea does not interest me so much because it is a new project with lots of money invested in it. I think it is a project which, if the club fail to win everything, then [Roman] Abramovich could retire and take the money out of the club. It’s an uncertain project. It is interesting for a coach to have the money to hire quality players but you never know if a project like this will bring success.[18]”

Liverpool offered their managerial position to Spanish coach Rafael Benítez and Mourinho instead accepted a large offer from Roman Abramovich and pledged his immediate future to Chelsea.[18]

CHELSEA

Mourinho moved to Chelsea in June 2004, becoming one of the highest paid managers in football with a salary of £4.2 million a year, subsequently raised in 2005 to £5.2 million. In a press conference upon joining the English side, Mourinho said, “Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one,” which resulted in the media dubbing him “The Special One”.

Mourinho recruited his backroom staff from Porto, consisting of assistant manager Baltemar Brito, fitness coach Rui Faria, chief scout André Villas Boas and goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro. He retained the services of Steve Clarke, a long-serving former player at Chelsea, who had also performed an assistant managerial-type role under previous managers at the club. In terms of spending, Mourinho carried on where his predecessor Claudio Ranieri left off, as, bankrolled by Roman Abramovich, he spent in excess of £70 m in transfer fees on players such as Tiago(£10 million) from Benfica, Michael Essien (£24.4 million) from Olympique Lyon, Didier Drogba (£24 million) from Olympique de Marseille, Mateja Kezman (£5.4 million) from PSV and Porto pair Ricardo Carvalho (£19.8 million) and Paulo Ferreira (£13.3 million).

Under Mourinho, Chelsea built on the potential developed in the previous season. By early December, they were at the top of the Premier Leaguetable and had reached the knock-out stages of the Champions League. He scooped his first trophy by winning the League Cup against Liverpool3–2 (AET) in Cardiff. Towards the end of the match, Mourinho was escorted from the touchline after putting his finger to his mouth in the direction of Liverpool fans, as a response to taunts directed towards him whilst Liverpool were leading, before the equalising goal.

The club added more trophies as they secured their first top-flight domestic title in 50 years, setting a string of English football records in the process. However, he failed to achieve back-to-back Champions League successes when Chelsea were knocked out of the competition by a controversial goal in the semi-finals by eventual winners Liverpool.
Chelsea started the next season well. They defeated Arsenal 2–1 to win the FA Community Shield, and topped the Premier League from the first weekend of the 2005–06 season. Chelsea beat rivals Manchester United 3–0 to win their second consecutive Premiership title and Mourinho’s fourth domestic title in a row. After the presentation of his championship medal, Mourinho threw his medal and blazer into the crowd. He was awarded a second medal within minutes which he also threw into the crowd.

The signing of Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko in the summer of 2006 for a club record fee would also prove to be a point of contention between Mourinho and Abramovich. Shevchenko, at the time of his signing, was one of the most highly regarded strikers in Europe during his time with Milan, where he won the Champions League, Scudetto and Ballon d’Or awards in his seven years at Milan. Chelsea had attempted to sign Shevchenko in the preceding two years but Milan rebuffed Abramovich’s interest in him. Shevchenko’s first season at Chelsea was viewed as a major disappointment by the Chelsea fans as he only scored four league goals and fourteen in all competitions. Shevchenko’s strike partner, Didier Drogba had the highest scoring season of his career that year and this led Shevchenko to be dropped from the starting line-up towards the end of the season by Mourinho. Notably, in the Champions League match at Anfield, Shevchenko was not even included on the bench. Abramovich’s insistence on Mourinho playing the Ukrainian was widely viewed as a further source of friction between the two men. Shevchenko’s signing was not the only one for Chelsea however, as German captain Michael Ballack was also signed to strengthen the midfield. The Icelandic midfielder Eiður Guðjohnsen, an important player for Chelsea under Ranieri and Mourinho, departed the club for FC Barcelona.

The 2006–07 season saw growing media speculation that Mourinho would leave the club at the season’s conclusion, due to alleged poor relations with owner Roman Abramovich and a power struggle with sporting director Frank Arnesen and Abramovich advisor Piet de Visser. Mourinho later cleared doubts regarding his future at Stamford Bridge, stating that there would only be two ways for him to leave Chelsea: if Chelsea were not to offer him a new contract in June 2010, and if Chelsea were to sack him. He then launched an ambitious campaign for all four trophies available with the aim of becoming the first club in English football to complete “the quadruple”.

Despite the unrest, Chelsea, under Mourinho won the League Cup again by defeating Arsenal in the final at the Millennium Stadium. However the possibility of the quadruple was brought to an end on 1 May 2007 when Liverpool eliminated Chelsea from the UEFA Champions League on penalties at Anfield, following a 1–1 aggregate draw. Days later Chelsea failed to win the Premier League title by drawing 1–1 with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on 6 May 2007.

This was Mourinho’s first season without a league title win in five years. Mourinho led Chelsea to a 1–0 victory against Manchester United in the 2007 FA Cup Final, winning in the first final to be played at the new Wembley Stadium. This was his first FA Cup win which meant that he had won every domestic trophy available to a Premier League manager. However, there was to be further friction between himself and Abramovich when Avram Grant was appointed as Director of Football, despite objections from Mourinho. Grant’s position was further enhanced by being given a seat on the board. In spite of these tensions,the 2007–08 transfer season would see the departure of Dutch winger Arjen Robben to Real Madrid and French midfielder Florent Malouda moved to Chelsea. Shevchenko was linked with a return to AC Milan but he remained at Chelsea for another year.

In the first match of the 2007–08 season, Chelsea beat Birmingham City 3–2 to set a new record of 64 consecutive home league matches without defeat, surpassing the record set by Liverpool between 1978 and 1981. Despite this feat, Chelsea’s start to the 2007–08 season was not as successful as previous starts. The team lost at Aston Villa and followed this with a goalless draw at home to Blackburn Rovers. Their opening game in the UEFA Champions League saw them only manage a 1–1 home draw against the Norwegian team Rosenborg in front of an almost half-empty stadium. Andriy Shevchenko scored Chelsea’s only goal in that match.

Mourinho unexpectedly left Chelsea on 20 September 2007 “by mutual consent,” although there had been a series of disagreements with chairman Roman Abramovich. The Chelsea board held an emergency meeting and decided it was time to part with their manager. Mourinho left as the most successful manager in Chelsea’s history, having won six trophies for the club in three years. He was also undefeated in all home league games. Avram Grant succeeded José Mourinho as Chelsea manager but failed to win any trophies in his year in charge, although he reached the final of the Champions League and League Cup. Grant’s Chelsea also finished second in the Premier League.

Despite a bad ending of his Chelsea era, José Mourinho will always be remembered as the man who made a squad of inexperienced boys become champions. “I had three fantastic seasons here. The fans gave me love and support – I gave them trophies. I will never forget Chelsea nor their supporters. I love the English football culture and I will return to this country one day, for sure.”

INTER MILAN

On 2 June 2008, Mourinho was appointed the successor of Roberto Mancini at Internazionale on a three-year contract, and brought along with him much of his backroom staff who had served him at both Chelsea and Porto. He chose Giuseppe Baresi, a former Inter player and ex-head coach of their youth academy, as his assistant. He spoke solely in Italian in his first press conference as Inter boss, claiming to have learnt it “in three weeks”. Mourinho stated that he only intended to make a few major signings in the summer. By the end of the transfer window, he had brought three new players to the side: Brazilian winger Mancini (€13 million), Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari for reported €14 million, and Portuguese winger Ricardo Quaresma for a cash/player exchange fee of €18.6 million plus young Portuguese midfielder Pelé.

In his first season as Inter head coach, Mourinho won the Italian Super cup, beating Roma on penalties, and finished top of Serie A. However, Inter were eliminated 2–0 on aggregate by Manchester United in the first knock-out round of the UEFA Champions League, and he also failed to win the Coppa Italia, being defeated 3–1 on aggregate by Sampdoria in the semi-finals. As UEFA was beginning to push the larger clubs in top leagues to play more homegrown players, Mourinho regularly played 18-year-old Italian forward Mario Balotelli and promoted academy defender Davide Santon to the first team permanently — installing an Italian contingent into a team previously composed of mostly foreign players. Both teenagers played a part in the Scudetto-winning season and played enough games to earn their first senior trophy.
Despite his domestic successes in winning the Scudetto by a ten point margin, Jose Mourinho’s first season in Italy was viewed as disappointing by some Inter fans as they failed to improve on the performances of his predecessor Roberto Mancini in the Champions League. Inter put in a series of lacklustre group stage performances that included a shock 1–0 home loss to Panathinaikos and an away draw with Cypriot minnows Anorthosis Famagusta. Mourinho was unable to improve the performances of their star player Zlatan Ibrahimovi?, who scored just one group stage goal for Inter, compared to the five he scored in Mancini’s unsuccessful 2007–08 campaign. Inter Milan were eliminated from the Champions League after being defeated by Manchester United in the knockout stages.

Mourinho also caused immediate ripples in Italian football through his controversial relationships with the Italian press and media, and feuds with major Serie A coaches such as Carlo Ancelotti then of Milan, Luciano Spalletti of Roma and Claudio Ranieri of Juventus. At a press conference in March 2009, he insulted the first two rivals by claiming they would end the season with no honours—and accused the Italian sport journalists of “intellectual prostitution” on their behalf.[36] This rant promptly became very popular in Italy, especially regarding the “zero titles” quote used by Mourinho, and incorrectly pronounced by him as zeru tituli (in correct Italian it would have been “zero titoli”), which was later extensively referred to by football journalists in Italy. It also became the title’s catchphrase used by fans to celebrate Inter’s 17th scudetto later that season. The catchphrase was even used by Nike to present the celebration shirts for Inter’s Serie A title. After the Coppa Italia final in May, fans of Roma’s cross-town rivals Lazio, the new Coppa Italia winners, wore shirts with Io campione, tu zero titoli (“I’m a champion, you have no honours”) on it, quoting Mourinho’s “zeru tituli” statement.
On 16 May 2009, Inter mathematically won the Serie A title, after runners-up Milan lost to Udinese. This loss left the Nerazzurri seven points above their crosstown rivals with only two games remaining. They would eventually finish ten points clear of Milan.

On 28 July 2009, Mourinho was reported to have shown interest in taking over at Manchester United when Alex Ferguson retired. He was quoted as saying, “I would consider going to Manchester United but United have to consider if they want me to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson. If they do, then of course.”

Under Mourinho, Inter have remained active in the transfer market. Adriano left Inter in April 2009, and the exit of the Brazilian striker was followed by the Argentine duo Julio Cruz andHernán Crespo. Legendary Portuguese attacking midfielder and veteran Luís Figo retired. Figo was on the verge of leaving Inter under Mancini due to a lack of playing time but in his final season, Mourinho used him frequently. Mourinho signed Argentine striker Diego Milito, who fell just one goal short of winning the top scorer award with Genoa, and Thiago Motta to bolster the midfield. Perhaps his most notable signing of the summer of his second season was a swap deal of Zlatan Ibrahimovi? for FC Barcelona’s Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o. This transfer was the second most expensive in the history of the transfer market, after Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid earlier in the summer. Eto’o got off to a promising start with Inter by scoring two goals in the first two matches of the season.

Ricardo Quaresma’s signing from Mourinho’s old club Porto was viewed as a missing link in the Inter squad, but his play disappointed the club and led him to be loaned off to Chelsea midway through the season, ironically Mourinho’s other former club. Mancini also failed to dominate in the midfield and addressing these shortcomings in the transfer market became a priority for Inter. Inter’s lack of a creative playmaker, or trequartista, has been blamed for the Champions League failure. In their attempt to deal with this issue, Inter signed Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder from Real Madrid.

Mourinho once again sparked controversy in the summer with his argument with Italy national team coach Marcello Lippi. Lippi predicted that Juventus would win the Scudetto in the 2009–10 season, which Mourinho viewed Lippi’s comments as disrespectful to Inter. The previous year, Lippi predicted Inter would win the title and Mourinho did not respond to his prediction. Lippi responded by saying that Mourinho was equal to Ciro Ferrara and Leonardo at Juventus and Milan, respectively, only that he was more experienced. After the row with Lippi, he clashed with Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro over Davide Santon’s place in the Inter squad. Cannavaro had said that Santon might have to leave Inter to get regular playing time so he wants to play for Italy in the World Cup. Mourinho responded by saying that Cannavaro was acting like a coach.

Inter struggled in their first two matches of the new season. The team lost the Italian SuperCup to Lazio 2–1 and drew 1–1 with newly promoted Bari at the San Siro. Mourinho’s team improved dramatically since then, however, as he built a formidable midfield with Sneijder at the heart of it and the likes of new signing Thiago Motta and veterans Javier Zanetti and Dejan Stankovi?. Inter went on score more than 30 goals (as of the end of November), thrashing derby rivals Milan 4–0, with new signings Diego Milito and Motta both scoring, and hammering Genoa 5–0, the largest margin of victory in the Serie A so far. He was sent off in the December Derby d’Italia away fixture after he sarcastically applauded the referee for what he felt was a dubious free-kick given to Juventus and Inter went on to lose 2–1, courtesy of a Claudio Marchisio winner in the second-half.

Later during the season, Mourinho maintained a strongly critical position against refereeing in Italy, which reached its peak during the February 22, 2010 league game against Sampdoria, ended in a 0–0 tie, with two Inter players being sent off in the first half. At the end of the first half, José Mourinho made a handcuffs gesture towards a camera which was considered by the Football Association as violent and critical of the refereeing performance, and caused a three-game ban against the Portuguese coach.[44] Also, his difficult relationship with young striker Mario Balotelli and the team’s loss of form that led Inter to achieve only seven points in six games (and three of such games, including a shock 1–3 defeat at the hands of Sicilian minnows Catania, happening during Mourinho’s ban) were heavily criticized by the media and pundits. Despite this, Mourinho achieved what was hailed as one of his career highlights after Inter managed to progress to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals by defeating Mourinho’s former team Chelsea in both legs (2–1 win at San Siro, then followed by a 1–0 win at Stamford Bridge).

On the 6th of April 2010, the Portuguese José Mourinho became the first manager in history to take three different teams to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League after his Internazionale managed to overcome CSKA Moscow 0–1 in Russia in the second leg of their quarter-final tie, which ended 2–0 on aggregate. Wesley Sneijder’s goal in the sixth minute proved the difference in a match played in laid-back style. This marked the first time in seven years that Internazionale managed to make it to the semi-finals of the competition. On April 13th, Internazionale continued its good season, having managed to qualify for the Coppa Italia final, for the first time under Mourinho, by beating Fiorentina 1–0 away (2–0 on aggregate). On April 28th 2010, the Portuguese José Mourinho reached the UEFA Champions League Final for the second time in his career after Internazionale beat current holders Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate, after losing 1-0 on the night, and bring Internazionale back into a UEFA Champions League Final 38 years after their last, where they were defeated by AFC Ajax. The final will be at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid against Bayern Munich.
Pix of Jose Mourinho

Page 11

LOUIS VAN GAAL
Full Name: Aloysius Paulus Maria “Louis” van Gaal
Date of Birth: August 8, 1951 at Amsterdam)
He is a Dutch football manager currently in charge of the German club Bayern Munich. Before his career as coach van Gaal played as a midfielder for Royal Antwerp and several clubs in the Dutch Eredivisie. The most part of his playing career he stayed at Sparta Rotterdam, though.
After brief spell as coach at AZ van Gaal served as assistant coach under Leo Beenhakker at Ajax and eventually took over as head coach in 1991. Under his lead the club won three league titles, the UEFA Cup, and the Champions League. Van Gaal moved to Barcelona in 1997 and won two championships. After some disagreements at Barcelona he was appointed coach of the Dutch national team, but then failed to qualify for the world cup. Another brief spell at Barcelona followed before he became manager of AZ. Having won the Dutch championship in 2009 he was hired by Bayern Munich in 2010.

After a career as a football player for Royal Antwerp, Telstar and Sparta Rotterdam he joined AZ where he also became an assistant-coach in 1986.
After a short career at AZ, he went to Ajax to become Leo Beenhakker’s assistant. When Beenhakker left in 1991, van Gaal took over as manager.

CAREER MANAGEMENT

AJAX
He was Ajax manager from 1991 until 1997 and had a very successful tenure. Under van Gaal, Ajax became the Eredivisie champion three times, in 1994, 1995 (notably going the entire 94–95 league season unbeaten) and 1996. He also led Ajax to the KNVB Cup in 1993 and the Johan Cruijff Shield from 1993 to 1995. On the European scene, Ajax captured the UEFA Cup in 1992 and the UEFA Champions League in 1995 after beating AC Milan in the final. Late in 1995, Ajax beat Brazilian side Grêmio on penalties to win the Toyota Cup (formerly Intercontinental Cup). Ajax were also Champions League runners-up in 1996 after losing to Juventus on penalties.
Ajax was so successful under Van Gaal’s leadership that during the 1990s, the Dutch national team was dominated by Ajax players such as Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Frank andRonald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Winston Bogarde, Michael Reiziger, and Edwin van der Sar.

Barcelona
In 1997, he moved to Barcelona and helped the team win two league championships. Despite this success, he came under criticism and quit the job three seasons later. He returned to the Netherlands to manage the Dutch national team in preparation for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They failed to reach the final tournament, after losing to Ireland in Dublin.
Netherlands and return to Barcelona
The Dutch national team failed to qualify for the World Cup Finals, and subsequently van Gaal was replaced by Dick Advocaat. He returned to Barcelona for a short spell, but left the job after half a year to be replaced by Radomir Anti?.

Return to Ajax
In 2004, he returned to Ajax as a technical director, but resigned later that year due to an internal conflict.
In 2005, he replaced Co Adriaanse as AZ manager. AZ finished the 2006–2007 season in third place in the Eredivisie, three points behind champions PSV and runners-up Ajax. Van Gaal also led AZ to a runners-up finish in the 2007 KNVB Cup. AZ failed to reach the UEFA Champions League after losing to Ajax 4–2 on aggregate.
Louis van Gaal initially announced he would leave AZ at the end of the 2007/2008 season due to disappointing results.[1] However, when several players of the AZ squad pointed out that they would like Van Gaal to stay with AZ for the 2008–09 season, van Gaal said he would give the players a chance to prove themselves.
[2008–09 season: Eredivisie champions

AZ
AZ started the 2008–09 season with two losses: 2–1 to NAC Breda and 0–3 to ADO Den Haag, but after that the Alkmaar-based club remained unbeaten until 18 April, topping the League ahead of FC Twente and Ajax for the entire season. AZ had the best defensive record in the Eredivisie and the second-best goal scoring record, thanks to its offensive duo of league topscorer Mounir El Hamdaoui and Brazilian Ari. They were crowned league champions on 19 April, one day after AZ suffered an unexpected loss at home to Vitesse, which ended a string of 28 unbeaten games. That same day Ajax, the only opponent still technically able to reach them, lost 6–2 to PSV.

Bayern Munich
On 1 July 2009, van Gaal took over as coach of Bayern Munich. Van Gaal referred to his new employer as a “dream club”. Van Gaal got off to a poor start as Bayern Munich coach, winning only one of his first four matches in charge and by November the club was on the brink of a first round Champions League exit following two losses to Bordeaux. With Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the Bundesliga, speculation was rampant that van Gaal was on the brink of a departure from Bayern even earlier than his predecessor Jürgen Klinsmann. A feud with Italian striker Luca Toni who had played an important role in Bayern’s 2007–08 League and Cup Double led to Toni’s move to Roma.
However, Bayern Munich’s form improved with two Champions League victories including an impressive 4–1 victory over Juventus in Turin, the first such win for the German club allowed them to progress in second behind Bordeaux. Also Bayern Munich moved on the semifinals of the German Cup and were top of the Bundesliga ahead of Leverkusen by March.
Prior to van Gaal’s arrival, Bayern had not led the league since Hitzfeld left in 2008. Also, several of van Gaal’s transfers proved to be successful. Franck Ribéry was kept at the club despite the fact that Real Madrid had expressed interest in signing him.
Arjen Robben was signed from Real Madrid and he has proved to be a vital source of goals for the club in his wing position after an injury layoff. Ribéry and Robben have formed a formidable midfield duo despite their injuries that has been called “Robbery”.
Mario Gómez and Ivica Oli? arrived at the club from Stuttgart and Hamburg, respectively to replace the departing Podolski and Toni. Lucio, the anchor of the Bayern defense was sold to Inter Milan but van Gaal has improved the status of Ukrainian Anatoliy Tymoschuk and Badstuber. Thomas Müller who scored a brace in Bayern’s Champions League opener has also been a regular on the squad as van Gaal has continued his trend of youth development that began during his time at Ajax.